baliberal

So the Southern Baptist Convention elected a new leader today, and not someone who was the favorite of the powers-that-be. Could this indicate a potential developing conflict within the membership. Seems their may be a division between younger members who want to put more money into evangelical programs and the traditional power structure who are more concerned with other things........

The new leader claims that he believes in a literal interpretation of the bible and is a strong social conservative, but he's just not "mad about it".

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/13/AR2006061300613.html

This new leader apparently promised to devote more $ to recruiting overseas and attempt to reverse the decline in baptisms in the US. Does this mean the evangelicals have peaked? I don't think so, since they have so much money behind them and their willing to use just about any method to recruit new members. However, the off-the-wall, even crazy comments of evangelical leaders such as Pat Robertson my finally be having an impact. I think that the social conservative movement is ultimately doomed to failure. The literal interpretation of the bible that they promote just won't stand the test of time, and science. But they're not going to go down without a fight. And if progressives don't stand together against their methods of fear and intimidation, they could prevail.

One other note on the religious front today. A new group religious leaders, one that even includes an important evangelical leader, have called on the Bush administration to reject torture.

http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2006/06/12/AR2006061201484.html

Of course the spokesbushie immediately stated the pat answer "we don't do torture". When are these guys going to get it? The rest of the world and a significant percentage of the American public is just not buying it anymore.