Sunday, June 8, 2008

Changing Names to Reverse Decline

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Today the Washington Post has an interesting article by Brigid Schulte about Baptist Temple Church of Alexandria, Virginia that recently changing their name to Commonwealth Baptist Church in hopes of reversing a decline in their numbers. The thinking behind this was that 'Temple' had negative connotations arousing images of snake handlers and affiliations with the word 'conservative'. The name 'Baptist' brought a whole host of problems as well since it conjured up the 'Bush' administration and the Religious Right. You see Baptist Temple Church now called Commonwealth Baptist Church is a 'Progressive Community of Faith' as their newly minted moniker states. Ironically the word 'progressive' is a recent creation by liberals to distance themselves from well being called 'liberal'. Commonwealth Baptist Church says they are open to 'gays', blacks, Asians, and converted Jews which seems to them as counter the message of Jesus. They are proud of their history but at the same time don't want to distance themselves from being what they think is their brand of being a 'Baptist', that is progressive or more accurately liberal brand of Baptist. Dear Commonwealth Baptist Church, your problem isn't the name. Because why would you want to distance yourself from a healthy, vibrant, and growing denomination that are the Southern Baptists (despite Brigid Schulte's claim). The problem lies in their theology period. I don't know what they preach but just reading about 'progressive' and 'open' in the Washington Post article I can pretty much discern that they teach a form of Christianity that has adapted to the world around them. A world that glorifies every imaginable sin and denigrates virtues taught by Jesus Himself. They are ultimately diluting the Christian message until it's unrecognizable. We Catholics have the same problem with the leftists, Spirit of Vatican 2 folks, and dissidents within. Repackaging and renaming themselves a 'New Voice' of the Church or 'Call To Action' when essentially all they are are a bunch of cultural Catholics pushing an agenda that is the antithesis of Catholicism altogether. These cultural Catholics will study patristics, theology, holy scripture, encyclicals, and philosophy among others and twist their words to propagate their agenda. They'll cloak themselves with their intellect and education to disguise their true intentions of undermining the authority and teaching of the Magisterium. They'll rename communism to 'democratic socialism' and claim that this can be found in Catholic Social Teaching. They'll belittle good Catholics with sob stories for cheap cover so they themselves will remain immune to criticism if their own profane teachings be challenged. Well here's a rule of thumb, if it walks like a duck, swims like a duck, and quacks like a duck, it's a duck and not a swan. According to the Book of the Prophet Isaiah it states: Woe to those who call evil good and good evil, who put darkness for light and light for darkness, who put bitter for sweet and sweet for bitter (Isaiah 5:20)! The new Commonwealth Baptist Church may fool some people, but they can't fool most people all the time. The same goes to cultural Catholics and their agenda to pervert Catholic teaching and lead others astray. Because whoever causes other Catholics who believe in Jesus to sin, it would be better for him to have a great millstone fastened round his neck and to be drowned in the depth of the sea so says Jesus Himself (cf. Holy Gospel according to St. Matthew 18:6) Go ahead and change your name, in the eyes of the Lord He knows what is in your hearts no matter how you repackage yourselves. To read the original article click here. (Biretta Tip: Lucianne)
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3 comments:

Anonymous said...

Excellent post, but I do have one nitpick.

Ironically the word 'progressive' is a recent creation by liberals to distance themselves from well being called 'liberal'.

It's actually almost the reverse. The leftists of the early 20th century hijacked the term liberal, which had for centuries denoted individual freedom and small government. It is today's conservatives who are more liberal in the classical sense.

They can have Progressive. That's more accurate than calling them liberal.

6/08/2008 9:30 AM
Tito Edwards said...

CrankyCon,

Thank you for that bit of history. It is amazing the great lengths that well meaning people I'm sure go to misidentify themselves in order to push their way of living. Most people are to smart for that, but that won't stop liberals, leftists, and many Democrats from propagating their canard.

I'm a big history fan and haven't studied much of political identification history.

I do know that Teddy Roosevelt, in his last attempt at regaining the US Presidancy, ran on what was then called the 'Progressive Party'.

It's amazing how definitions change from generation to generation.

Thanks for the comments, all good, constructive, and charitabl comments are always appreciated.

Tito

6/08/2008 9:46 AM
Anonymous said...

No problem - I love history.

I think Leftist is as good a term as any.

6/08/2008 1:51 PM
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