Well-meaning Theological Pervert

Dr. Bob,

I use to get Currie's newspaper and he is a venomous attacker on those who disagree with him. I am amazed anyone can take him serious.

 

David Currie = Bitterness

 

I know of him and have read a letter by him. Stay away, stay far away.

And yes, this is what conservatives are up against.

Hah! I would like to see him debate Patterson one day to see who the ignorant one is! He obviously does not know much about Patterson.

In Christ,
Neal

 

David Currie is a good man. All I can say is if the shoe fits wear it. Patterson has left a string of bodies in his wake in his accendancy of the presidence of SWBTS. If nothing else is true, arrogant certainly is. His and Dorothy's butchering of the Baptist Faith and Message is also a bit of Theological Perversion.

david's theology is very conservative, but he is definitely a moderate as far as the SBC is concerned. If you had read some of the things written about the Texas Baptist Committed folks by the fundy paper in thier column Speaking the Truth in Love, you would find little love and less truth.

I find it very interesting that with the seminary in a bit of a financial crisis, they have found the money to pay Ken Hemphill a full years salary, build a 1500 ft annex to the presidents house for his library, hire a driver, add another personal assistant and who knows what else. I find those actions extremely arrogant.

 

This seems like a contradiction to me. First you say he is very conservative and then he becomes a moderate? Wierd.

If you had read some of the things written about the Texas Baptist Committed folks by the fundy paper in thier column Speaking the Truth in Love, you would find little love and less truth.[/QUOTE]

I don't doubt this. I have never read them, but have no doubt what you say is true.

I find it very interesting that with the seminary in a bit of a financial crisis, they have found the money to ...hire a driver, ...I find those actions extremely arrogant. [/QUOTE]

As a former SWTBS student, I can tell you that they have always had a driver for the president, even when Hemphill was there. I have some friends who were hired to drive him to and from the airport. As for the library, you mean to tell me that his house, I mean, mansion, wasn't big enough? You guys got to see this place.

Joseph Botwinick

 

I wasn’t aware that Dilday had a driver. Many times I saw him drive off with he and his wife and no one else in the car.

I was in that home working at the time Dilday was dismissed and met Hemphill in that home for thew first time. I did a large portion of the work on the home then. I have been in every room in that house. I would estimate that house to be about 3000+ square feet. Just what kind of a witness does that bring to the man from Africa struggling just to make ends meet and to the future pastor that will leave and pastor a struggling church that can hardly afford to pay him. What would he do if Jesus told him to sell everything he has including those animal heads form all those safaris. Right here in America on the west coast so many SBC churches are struggling. A number of the pastors are bivocational and the president of a seminary lives like that! I was always taught in secular business that the leader is the one who is served last, not first. He is the one who takes a pay cut first and receives a pay raise last. You would be shocked at what a starting professor makes with a Ph.D.at the SBC seminaries. A friend of mine just left the seminary and is now working a secular job doing almost the same thing and has received a big pay raise. Big enough where his wife won't have to work. But she did when he taught at the seminary. Isn't it Patterson's wife who said women shouldn't work outside of the home. Well I guess they had better shut down a large number of the SBC churches out west because where I live the average home costs about 340 thousand. Maybe he could donate some of his extravagance toward a few struggling pastors who will probably never see much of anything. He talks big about evangelism. But I have never seen him come to the west coast and display his great evangelistic efforts. It is a lot harder here than in Texas. There are a lot of Catholics here and not many Baptists. The few SBC baptists that are here are nearly extinct. So it would be nice to see Patterson knock on some doors for a few months and then tell some stories. In many cases it takes years to win someone to Jesus here. Not too many people go to church here. I would like to hear him preach the same message he preached in Texas at SWBTS. Talk is cheap. But action is better.

With all the proposed changes I wonder what will happen with the future SBC papacy. Will they survive. O r will they be like the prediction some have made. Some had made the prediction that much of the SBC will be sold to the highest bidder. Some of it was done once for a diferent reason but it can happen again for a completely different reason. Some of those people had beter start giving instead of talking. The SBC has laid off some employees recently. Their financial mask is finally getting uncovered. For so long they talked a good game. I even heard some say that if you make it positive people will give. It’s the idea of just lie a little. Well I guess the truth is coming out.

A few years ago I wrote a personal letter to Jerry Rankin.. His secretary responded. My how his theology has changed in just the past six years or so. When I read the letter it seemed like a good response but a little waffling around some. But today when I read what he writes I can’t believe it is the same man. Ever see a chameleon?

 

A number of professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary tried to have Patterson ousted while they were at Criswell College. They were unsuccesssful at the time and those profesors eventually moved to the seminary in Ft. Worth. Eventually Patterson was ousted from Criswell College. Some would call him arrogant, etc. Others would call him their savior from liberalism. But SWBTS has never been known for any liberalism in the SBC.

 

The following is an excerpt from the latest Texas Baptists Committed newsletter. This might give a glimpse of what is happening.

Street held up a cassette tape of a message by Frank Pollard, retired pastor of First Baptist Church in Jackson, Miss., and current president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention. Pollard preached during chapel at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary last year.

“It looks as though,” said Pollard in that message, “that we are trying in our de-nomination to meet year by year and issue that every Mormon must read to understand the Bible. “I fear,” said Pollard, “that we are getting to the place where we might have a Book of Baptist and we must read the Book of Baptist before we read the Holy Scripture.”

“We need courageous Baptist statesmen who tell it like it is,” Street said. He added he read a letter from a pastor to his congregation in which he called fundamentalism “a dangerous, anti-Gospel ideology.” Although the words are strong, they are true, said Street. “Somebody had found his voice and spoken the truth.”

The cause, he declared, is not fighting fundamentalism, but flying the flag of freedom and ministry to others with the love of Christ. “I don’t expect every freedom-loving Southern Baptist to fly the CBF flag, but at least fly the flag of freedom—Bible freedom, soul freedom, church freedom, and religious freedom.”

Street told of a personal experience in which he told a counselor he felt like a man who had grown up on a tree, but had been pushed out on a limb being sawed off by fundamentalist Baptists. “I had no desire to climb back on the branch, but I was fearful of the fall.” After a long silence, the counselor told Street, “When you fall, you may find you have fallen into your true community of faith.”
Steve Street

 

All I have to do--is click on the CBF web page--or read some articles derived from that camp--and its enough to remind me why I choose the SBC!

Brother David

 

David Currie has been sounding like a broken record the past 10 years. All he says is that "Fundamentalists" have ruined the SBC and that the State Conventions need to do like the BGCT did and prevent a "Fundamentalist Takeover".

 

Let's be clear here. At SEBTS there was/is a driver. This person also works as an assistant around the President's house etc. Generally, the driver did not drive Dr. Patterson around. He drove to the airport and picked up the visiting Chapel speakers and other seminary official guests. However, sometimes he may have driven Mrs. Patterson somewhere. After all she does have arthritis pretty bad.

Likewise, there was a huge library added to Magnolia Hill (the SEBTS President's home) during Dr. Patterson's term here. However, it was funded by an outside source who donated the money for the expansion to SEBTS. I would be surprised if the SWBTS expansion is coming out of the schools general funds and not being provided by a donor for that specific purpose.

BTW, Dr. Patterson is a voracious reader. He jokingly required that all SEBTS students had to obtain 1,500 books for their personal libraries before being allowed to graduate. I agree with Neal... I would love to see a debate between Dr. Patterson and David Currie.

Furthermore, I have read a letter from David Currie addressed to the theological Moderates and Liberals in NC. It was in a Mainstream Baptists newsletter last fall prior to the NC State Convention. It was horrible. The man simply spews venom. If he is conservative in his theology I must be some kind of theological radical!

[ September 26, 2003, 04:34 AM: Message edited by: BibleboyII ]

 

Dr. Bob,

Is your definition of a liberal anyone who is not a fundamentalist?

 

Personally--I've heard him speak on numerous occations--at the Mississippi Baptist convention several years ago---and at the Pastor's Conference yearly at FBC, Jacksonville, FL!

Preacher boys, listen to me--the man is a theological Einstein!!! Walking brilliance!

Who would you rather see as President---Patterson or Mister Ed the talkin' horse?? 'Cause any one else from the CBF---is just that--a talkin' horse!!

Your Southern Baptist preaching friend,
Blackbird

 

Blackbird, was that the SOUTH side of the horse?

 

Michael,

It has been so long since I have heard from you. What's up? How are you doing? BTW< in case you were not aware, my wife had our first baby a little over a month ago. See pictures here:

http://robinsonbands.tripod.com/baby_b2.jpg

http://robinsonbands.tripod.com/baby_b1.jpg

See ya,

Joseph Botwinick

 

The two people I would love to see debate are Dr. Lorin Cranford and Dr. Paige Patterson.

 

You can say that again!

 

You mean like David versus Goliath?

Has your Dr. Cranford ever said anything publicly that we could link to on the internet and hear for ourselves?