Sorry, this has nothing to do with Sony's gory series of video games.
In the 1980s, ultra-conservatives seized control of the Southern Baptist Convention and forced both individuals and congregations to either knuckle under to their radical revisions to the whole idea of what it meant to be Baptist, or leave. Hundreds of churches, and hundreds of thousands of members, broke from the convention. Among the prominent members lost were Jimmy Carter, Bill Clinton and Al Gore.
That suited the new, hard-right leaders of the convention right down to the ground. They aligned themselves firmly with the GOP, and became the centerpiece of the evangelical right. In 2003, as mainstream churches (including George W. Bush's own Methodist denomination) condemned the invasion of Iraq, the Southern Baptist Convention proved its allegiance to politics above all. It became the only major church to endorse the invasion of Iraq, calling it "a just war."
"Military action against the Iraqi government would be a defensive action. ... The human cost of not taking [Saddam Hussein] out and removing his government as a producer, proliferator and proponent of the use of weapons of mass destruction means we can either pay now or we can pay a lot more later," said Richard Land, head of the Southern Baptist Convention's ethics agency, in a Sept. 2002 article published by the denomination's news service.
...
[Everybody's favorite, yes that Chuck] Colson, in a Dec. 2002 article for Christianity Today magazine, argued that the classical definition of Christian just war theory should be "stretched" to accommodate a new age in which terrorism and warfare are intertwined. He concluded that "out of love of neighbor, then, Christians can and should support a preemptive strike" on Iraq to prevent Iraqi-based or funded attacks on the United States or its allies.
And as they advocated loving their neighbors with bombs, the SBC adopted the model of televangelists as their standard plan for building a church. Across the nation, they constructed mega-churches, often in direct competition with congregations that had left when the church was abducted by the hard right. These huge churches contained their own exercise facilities, so members wouldn't have to socialize in environments as ungodly as the YMCA. They had their own youth sports leagues, so parents wouldn't have to take their children to the secular humanist Little League. They had coffee shops and arcades, classrooms and conferences, all designed to make sure that the church was a complete community in itself, where members never heard a word contrary to that of the SBC leadership. They had sanctuaries echo chambers that would seat thousands, as they explained that being pro-choice was equivalent to being a slave owner and that John Kerry is a "functional atheist."
From all appearances, the takeover artists appeared completely victorious. But appearances can be deceiving.
For most of four decades, Southern Baptists could boast of rising membership even as more moderate and liberal Protestant denominations lost members in droves.
But with membership slightly down last year, and flat for the past five, Southern Baptists face a growing anxiety about their future as they gather for their annual meeting Tuesday in Indianapolis.
What's more concerning to the SBC is that not only are the names on the roll books slowly declining, the number of people being baptized has been on a steady downward slope. This would seem to indicate that the Convention has retained much of its aging base, but it is increasingly having trouble attracting young members, who may be less inclined to sign on to a church which has so deeply dedicated itself to entangling church and state.
Of course, that hasn't stopped the ever-diplomatic Richard Land from making a nuanced contribution to this year's race.
"What I hear from people," said Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberties Commission, "is, 'John McCain was not my first choice, John McCain was not my second choice, John McCain was not my third choice. However, I would rather have a third-rate fireman than a first-class arsonist.' And they view Obama as a first-class arsonist."
See that, it's arsonist. Arsonist. It's not at all like he called Obama a terrorist.
Gee, with a spokesman like Land, it's hard to see what the SBC is doing wrong.
