I was delighted to read that this ABC blogger from Iowa is reading Durable Data. But, alas, his take on things is as muddled as I've come to expect from an ABC-all-the-way-down-with-the-ship-loyalist. For example, he decries creedalism unaware that his comments are suffused with a different creedalism. Please note the material that is bolded.
Posted on Wednesday, September 21, 2005 at 04:15PM by Timothy Bonney
PSW to leave the ABC, ABE pushes fundamentalist creedalism
Sadly, the ABC of the Pacific Southwest's region board has chosen to seek to take PSW out of the ABC/USA. They have chosen uniformity over the unity of the church of Jesus Christ.
Their claim is that they are doing so over the issue of differences of opinions over homosexuality. But, when you read the actions carefully and current actions of the ABE (American Baptist Evangelicals, a Fundamentalist schismatic group within ABC life) the real truth is that this is about creedalism.
The Executive Minister of PSW is on the Board of the ABE. The ABE is having a meeting in Lombard, IL this weekend. To attend the meeting you must sign a creed!
That's right! a group within the ABC/USA, which has a core belief in non-creedalism, is seeking to have creedal faith imposed on this denomination. The ABE claims it is about "Biblical authority" but, the truth is that it is about Biblical interpretation. They are preaching and teaching that there is only one way to interepret the Bible and that way is their way.
Homosexuality is only the side issue which the ABE and PSW are using to seek to gain control of churches within the denomination.
[Whoops, there it is again. It's all about power. Is power the only thing the left-wing understands? Like I keep saying, next he'll blame the Zionists and the Neo-Cons...]
When I was a Southern Baptist there was a statement of the SBC called the "Baptist Faith and Message." The BFM was a voluntary confession of faith. But, following the takeover of the SBC by fundamentalists, it became a creed. It became a creed because the leadership of the SBC required that Southern Baptists believe and subscibe to the BFM.
[I diagnose a case of "Recovering Fundamentalism." Since I was never a fundamentalist (despite T.B.'s assertion), I can spot it a bit easier that those afflicted.]
In the meantime, the SBC fundamentalist leadership continued to add new doctrines and theological views to the BFM. This update attacked women in ministry and the role of women in the home among other things.
One ABC layman attempted to sign up to go to the ABE meeting without signing the creed and was told he could not attend!
Everyone be warned. The ABE may be Evangelical Christian but, its orientation and theology is not historic American Baptist. While they talk about Biblical authority they push creedal authority. American Baptists believe there is no creed but the scriptures, no final interpreter but the Holy Spirit, and no final authority but Father, Son, and Holy Spirit in the life of the Christian.
Source: http://tbonney.squarespace.com/home/
So let's see. We have no creed but...
1. Unity above all else
2. Anti-creedalism
2. A general feeling of goodwill toward the Bible and the Triune God
If that's what it means to be American Baptist, you can have it. I will stand with Historic Baptist Christianity, with all its robust confessionalism.
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