Monday, June 19, 2006

Time magazine features Baptist bloggers


Time magazine reports that the surprise election of Dr. Frank Page as president of the Southern Baptist Convention last week is the result of Baptist bloggers. While I think they give the bloggers too much credit, because there were other factors involved in Page's election, it is true that bloggers had a big influence.
I have been reading Baptist bloggers who discuss Southern Baptist issues, and have found several of them quite interesting. They are conservative, are receptive to the "emerging church" movement to reach out to the postmodern culture, and they tend to be Calvinistic. Although I am not a hyper-Calvinist, and I don't always agree with them on other issues, I learn a lot about what young Baptist leaders are thinking by reading these blogs.
Here are some Baptist bloggers I read:
SBC Outpost by Marty Duren: www.sbcoutpost.com
Arkansas Razorbaptists: www.arkansasrazorbaptist.blogspot.com
Missional Baptist by Steve McCoy: http://www.stevekmccoy.com/sbc/
Founders Ministry by Tom Ascol: http://www.founders.org/blog/
Baptist Blogger by Ben Cole: http://www.baptistblogger.blogspot.com/
Wade Burleson, controversial IMB trustee: http://kerussocharis.blogspot.com/
And for some deep thinking on important issues, I read Dr. Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary: www.albertmohler.com

6 comments:

Unknown said...

Bob - Thanks for stopping by. I enjoyed the poem about Dad. The funny thing about bloggers is that we rarely agree on everything (Calvinism, emerging church, non-essentials, etc.), but issues are highlighted in the marketplace of ideas and conversation is enabled.

Dr. Bob Rogers said...

You said it well, C.W.
By the way, readers, C.W. is another Baptist blogger I've been reading from time to time. His blog is www.philippians-310.blogspot.com. He has an interesting post on Baptists and booze.

Jesse said...

I agree with you, Bob. Blogs have been influential, but not monolithic. I think that blogs are the first medium of mass communication that some of the entrenched elite just couldn't control (although attempts were and are being made to marginalize bloggers). What's the big deal about blogs? ANYONE can post a comment for the public to view - not true with other mediums of communication. Blogs provide opportunities for those of us who feel marginalized in other arenas to have a voice.

Best Book Buys said...

Bro. Bob,

Blogging is becoming an interesting media. I think Jesse hit it on the head, anyone can blog or comment, which to my mind brings pro's and con's. I visit a couple of the blogs you mentioned daily and have hit all but one at some point in time.

Not wanting to hijack your post, but after you said most of the bloggers were calvinistic, you then said you were not a hyper-calvinist. I'm not quite sure why you would say that. To my knowledge calvinism is prevalent among the blogs you mention, but I have yet to encounter, online or in real life, any SBC hyper-calvinists. After all, there is a world of difference between orthodox 5-point calvinists and hyper-calvinists. Again, I don't mean to hijack your post, so if you don't want to comment on this I understand, or you can send me an email if you prefer.

Thanks.

Dr. Bob Rogers said...

Hi Russ. I would be glad to explain my comment about Calvinism.
I was pointing out that while many Baptist bloggers are Calvinists, I do not necessarily agree with them about Calvinism. Rather than say "I am not a Calvinist," I chose to say, "I am not a hyper-Calvinist." Of course, "hyper-Calvinist" can mean different things to different people, and maybe that was a poor choice of words on my part.
What I wanted to communicate was that I agree with some points of Calvinism, but I don't agree with some forms of it that I consider more extreme.
Sounds like a post on my views on Calvinism would be a good topic for a future post on the blog.

Best Book Buys said...

Bro. Bob,

Thanks a bunch for answering my question. As one who would consider my view of sotieriolgy as "calvinistic" I concurrently abhor the views of hyper-calvinists. I guess I am sensitive since it seems some lately have been using the terms as interchangeable, when hyper-calvinism does have a historical meaning.

Anyway, thanks again. A post on Calvinism would be interesting, I am sure!