I was searching the blogosphere and found an interesting post by Barry Maxwell, pastor of Southern Hills Baptist Church in Copperas Cove, Texas. According to Rev. Maxwell, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (SBTC) have sent a letter from the Director of Evangelism encouraging Texas pastors to consider the enclosed materials, which “[address] two critical issues of our day that directly effect evangelism in the local church.”
One is a sermon in print entitled “The C-Word (Calvinism)” preached by Roy Fish in 1997. It is basically an address warning about how Calvinism endangers evangelism and missions. Also, there are two CDs. On one Paige Patterson addresses predestination from Romans 8.18-39 (May 2003). On the other Roy Fish addresses universalism (October 1987). As you can imagine, neither address is all that flattering to Calvinism. In fact, at one point, Patterson appears to lampoon Calvinists with the “whosoever will” texts to the crowd’s gleeful pleasure.
Rev. Maxwell goes on to state:
My main concern, however, is that it seems that the Southern Baptist leadership has drawn their line in the sand (at least in Texas). Why didn’t they send out a printed sermon and two CDs from Southern Baptists who defend traditional Calvinism? That would’ve been fair, not disenfranchising and I could eat my lunch in peace. But, they’ve intentionally isolated themselves far from Boyce, Mell, Howell and Dagg (to name only a few). The establishment is saying that being a Calvinist is inconsistent with being a Southern Baptist.
