This Man Was No Moderate: The Legacy of Cecil Sherman

[Revmitchell]

..............Cecil Sherman was as candid about his beliefs in that debate as he was with his own congregation. “I will not declare that I hold to an inerrant Bible,” he stated clearly. He claimed a “dynamical” view of the Bible’s inspiration and then pointed to what he saw as contradictions in the biblical text. Then he dropped a bombshell:

“I actually do think parts of the Bible are more valuable than others, more inspired than others. In fact, I think that some parts of the Bible have been put aside by the Christian revelation.”

He then pointed to specific texts from the Old Testament and the New Testament and suggested that the passages made reference to different Gods. “One is a tribal god, vindictive and cruel. The punishment that is to be inflicted upon even the innocent is low and mean by any standard. On the other hand, the picture of God in the sayings of Jesus is lofty, beautiful, exalted.” He proceeded to argue that the Old Testament’s view of God is often distorted and grotesque................


............Similarly, his generation of seminarians was caught up in the Southern Baptist drive to attain the intellectual and cultural respect of the larger Protestant world. But the entry price to that esteem was the forfeiting of much Baptist conviction. When Cecil Sherman spoke of what it means to be a Baptist, he leaned immediately into libertarian themes of radical individualism, couched as Baptist freedoms. His generation knew of no credible evangelical theological and biblical scholarship. So far as he and so many other moderates were concerned, anything to the right of liberal Protestantism was obscurantist Fundamentalism........

.......We are not likely ever to see the like of Cecil Sherman again. No one will be able to understand the history of the Southern Baptist Convention in the twentieth century without reference to him. No one who had a meaningful encounter with him will ever forget him. Cecil Sherman may have led the moderate movement in the SBC, but this much is clear — Cecil Sherman was no moderate.


More Here

 

[Bob Alkire]

On the social ills of segregation, to correct that he was a great fighter. On his theology he was way to the left in my book an out and out liberal.

 

[Joseph M. Smith]

I cannot let Mohler's gruding eulogy and the subsequent comments pass. I am one of those Southern Baptist Seminary graduates of the days when some of us longed for intellectual respectability in our denomination, and found it in teachers like Oates, Moody, Rust (full disclosure ... I am Eric Rust's son-in-law), Mueller (David died only a few weeks ago), Callaway, Hinson, and others. Liberals they and I certainly are not. We just wanted to engage the world honestly and fairly, and wanted to see our beloved heritage blend its passion for evangelism and missions with intellectual rigor. We succeeded, for a while, until the backlash began.

I did not know Cecil Sherman personally, and therefore did not experience him thumbing me, as Mohler did! But I heard him speak several times, my brother was a member of one of his churches, and never did I sense from him a weak Christology or an understanding of human nature that was anything other than candid and clear ... not the naive optimism of liberalism.

 

[Revmitchell]

I cannot let Mohler's gruding eulogy and the subsequent comments pass. I am one of those Southern Baptist Seminary graduates of the days when some of us longed for intellectual respectability in our denomination, and found it in teachers like Oates, Moody, Rust (full disclosure ... I am Eric Rust's son-in-law), Mueller (David died only a few weeks ago), Callaway, Hinson, and others. Liberals they and I certainly are not. We just wanted to engage the world honestly and fairly, and wanted to see our beloved heritage blend its passion for evangelism and missions with intellectual rigor. We succeeded, for a while, until the backlash began.

I did not know Cecil Sherman personally, and therefore did not experience him thumbing me, as Mohler did! But I heard him speak several times, my brother was a member of one of his churches, and never did I sense from him a weak Christology or an understanding of human nature that was anything other than candid and clear ... not the naive optimism of liberalism.

Really? So what do you think about his position:

“I actually do think parts of the Bible are more valuable than others, more inspired than others. In fact, I think that some parts of the Bible have been put aside by the Christian revelation.”

 

[TomVols]

I am one of those Southern Baptist Seminary graduates of the days when some of us longed for intellectual respectability in our denomination, and found it in teachers like Oates, Moody, Rust (full disclosure ... I am Eric Rust's son-in-law), Mueller (David died only a few weeks ago), Callaway, Hinson, and others. Liberals they and I certainly are not.

At the Beeches, I have heard Rust, Oates (a sweet man), Moody (one of my predecessors at a church I served in Louisville) and Hinson all glowingly claim the label of "liberal." On reflection, Oates not as much, nowhere near combative as Glenn or others.

While you and I may disagree at the timing of Mohler's critique (Interpersonal skills may not be Mohler's stong suit though he is very affable in the right circumstance), his assessment's veracity is hardly questionable among those of us who see all sides.

 

[Mississippi John]

I cannot let Mohler's gruding eulogy and the subsequent comments pass. I am one of those Southern Baptist Seminary graduates of the days when some of us longed for intellectual respectability in our denomination, and found it in teachers like Oates, Moody, Rust (full disclosure ... I am Eric Rust's son-in-law), Mueller (David died only a few weeks ago), Callaway, Hinson, and others. Liberals they and I certainly are not. We just wanted to engage the world honestly and fairly, and wanted to see our beloved heritage blend its passion for evangelism and missions with intellectual rigor. We succeeded, for a while, until the backlash began.

I did not know Cecil Sherman personally, and therefore did not experience him thumbing me, as Mohler did! But I heard him speak several times, my brother was a member of one of his churches, and never did I sense from him a weak Christology or an understanding of human nature that was anything other than candid and clear ... not the naive optimism of liberalism.

Amen Brother Joe, give'em an ear full !

 

[Mississippi John]

Molher lacks class. :BangHead:

 

[Mississippi John]

How dare pastors attacked this recently departed Baptist Pastor who's corpse is barely cold ? Have you no shame gentlemen... THIS IS NOT THE BAPTIST WAY. Why.....???? Because others said spiteful things after Falwells death ??? Help me understand.

 

[Bob Alkire]

How dare pastors attacked this recently departed Baptist Pastor who's corpse is barely cold ? Have you no shame gentlemen... THIS IS NOT THE BAPTIST WAY. Why.....???? Because others said spiteful things after Falwells death ??? Help me understand.

I would say many of us who oppose his liberal views are only saying what he said about Adrian Rogers. Cecil Sherman said;
"He was a man of enormous gifts, but I tell you what -- I think they were put to a terrible cause," Sherman, who served as the first coordinator of the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said. "I take no pleasure in his dying, [but] the results of his efforts in other days caused me and many people great pain."

Cecil has caused many much pain with his teaching.

 

[Mississippi John]

Cecil has caused many much pain with his teaching.
__________________
Truth often causes pain. It's very difficult to un-learn things we have been tought in the past.

 

[Bob Alkire]

Truth often causes pain. It's very difficult to un-learn things we have been tought in the past.

I don't believe his theology was correct. His fight against segregation, I'll applaud him.