Baptists Beware!

Recently, I read an article in a Baptist newspaper (the Baptist Standard) where the author seemed to be condoning and even promoting the efforts of an atheist to infiltrate the church with evolutionary ideas! We decided to do some research on this particular publication and its history. I thought the issue was important enough to have this documented for you and to warn the church as a whole about this very liberal arm of Baptists. But first, let’s look at some history.

In 2008, the Baptist Standard posted an article that linked our Creation Museum to Muslim extremists! We reported on that incredible connection on our website.

One of our researchers has shared with me the following about the Baptist Standard:

The Baptist Standard (based in Texas) is partnered with the Associated Baptist Press, the Religious Herald (Virginia), and Word and Way (Missouri). The Associated Baptist Press was formed in 1990 after Al Shackleford and Dan Martin were dismissed from the Baptist Press by a 45-15 vote of the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention. This was during the height of the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist denomination. Shackleford and Martin allegedly were writing with a moderate/liberal slant as fundamentalists were taking over the SBC. (See Hastey, Stan [1993]. “The History of the Associated Baptist Press,” Shurden, Walter B. The Struggle for the Soul of the SBC: Moderate Responses to the Fundamentalist Movement. Mercer University Press. pp. 169–185.)

Prior to the founding of the Associated Baptist Press, a number of issues, including the publication of Professor Ralph Elliot’s The Message of Genesis (which argued that Genesis 1–11 was mythological literature) caused controversy in the Southern Baptist denomination.

According to New Voice Media, founded by these news organizations in 2007, “Historic and progressive Baptists have lost their voice—drowned out by the noise of reactionary conservatism and the theology of exclusion. Younger Baptists, discouraged by negative rhetoric and apathy, have stayed on the sidelines. It’s time for the nation’s 17-to-20 million non-fundamentalist Baptists to be heard” (http://www.abpnews.com/content/view/49/96/). Judging by this statement, these news organizations were formed for the purpose of sharing the views of moderate and liberal Southern Baptists.

Marv Knox, the editor of the Baptist Standard, shared his own views on creation and evolution in a blog post from February 2009. He says the following of creationists:

Almost always, however, hardline creationists embarrass me. I guess it’s because we’re fellow believers, part of the same family. Your kinfolk can humiliate you far more intently than neighbors and people you don’t even know. Their arrogance is bad enough, but their lack of faith is worse.They think they’ve figured out how God did creation, and they deny the possibility of any other process. Don’t you see the irony? They become the ones who would limit God.” (http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_myblog&show=Faith-vs.-science-.html&Itemid=114)

Knox also references a “package of articles on Darwin” prepared for readers by the Baptist Standard and New Voice Media. Those articles can be found online at http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=9136&Itemid=53.

Bob Allen of the Associated Baptist Press recently wrote an article titled “Can evolutionary theory and Christian faith co-exist?” It was published in the Baptist Standard. In the article, Allen seems to honor the efforts of an atheist, Michael Zimmerman, in his pursuit to reconcile evolutionary belief with Scripture. Zimmerman … is behind the Clergy Letter Project and the annual Evolution Weekend (http://www.baptiststandard.com/index.php?option=com_content&task=view&id=13490&Itemid=53).

What Bob Allen doesn’t tell people in the article is that Michael Zimmerman is an atheist and that a small number of liberal churches and secular humanist organizations are involved with “Evolution Weekend.”

I wrote an article about Evolution Weekend a few weeks ago. I encourage you to read this and then read the article published in the Baptist Standard.

• My article on the Evolution Weekend and Michael Zimmerman.
• The Baptist Standard article on Evolution Weekend and Michael Zimmerman.

Wow—what a contrast! The difference is really between those who stand on God’s Word and those who reinterpret God’s Word to fit with man’s pagan religion of evolution to explain life without God!

Thanks for stopping by and thanks for praying,

Ken