Norm Miller serves as Director of Communications at Truett-McConnell College (TMC) in Cleveland, GA. Before going to TMC, Miller served for a number of years as a denominational journalist. He was writer and editor in the public relations department of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, staff writer for the IMB, and in 1998 was named news and information director for Southern Baptist Theological Seminary under Al Mohler (//link). Words—written words—have been the giftedness God gave to Norm and, as his journey in Southern Baptist life attests, many have seen this gift and desired his gift to be used for God’s glory in their respective fields of harvest. I'm glad to call Norm Miller my friend.
UPDATE: one of James White's supporters, Micah Burke, put up a post in response to my piece below. Entitled "Peter Lumpkins doesn't know who he's responding to," Burke suggests my critical commentary below is misdirected toward James White. Instead he claims my criticism presumably should have been directed toward Al Mohler since "Nearly 99% of the quote [the quote below I transcribed from White's broadband broadcast] is actually Al Mohler's own words" (italics and link original). What a rip-roaring revelation! I'd never thought of that! Of course, Burke (he apparently is a volunteer employee for White's ministry) completely ignored the two references to Pelagius that White employed in the context of speaking about Harwood which contains much of the substance driving my concern below, two references White could not have quoted from Mohler because Mohler didn't mention either Pelagius or Pelagianism in his piece. Hence, White went well beyond Mohler in theologically implicating Harwood by identifying him not with semi-Pelagianism but identifying Harwood with Pelagius himself. These are the kinds of vacuous defenses offered by James White advocates...
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I've already mentioned the verbal assaults some aggressive Southern Baptist Calvinists levelled toward the presenters and participants of the 2013 John 3:16 Conference (here and here). One may now add to their literary hubris the voice of Reformed Baptist, James White. On his latest "Radio Free Geneva" internet broadcast White especially deals with presenters Adam Harwood, Eric Hankins, Emir Caner, and Steve Gaines.1
Baptist Press posted a good summary article on The 2013 John 3:16 Conference held at North Metro First Baptist Church March 21-22. It rightly cast the differences between the earlier conference as a planned response to each of the five-points Calvinism (T.U.L.I.P.) and this year's conference:
Listed as "Breaking News" on Russell Moore's site, Moore to the Point, we read:
"Russell Moore has been elected as the next president of the Southern Baptist Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
The ERLC’s board of trustees approved Moore, currently dean of the school of theology at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in a special, called meeting Tuesday (March 26) at a Nashville hotel" (//link)
Compare the "breaking news" with these words I penned September 26, 2012:
"And, given Mohler's powerful persona among the Southern Baptist denominational elite, it's hardly avoidable to predict who will be on the short list--and perhaps the actual candidate to take Dr. Richard Land's place--Dr. Mohler's "right-hand man," Russell D. Moore" (a probability I reiterated again in the comment thread)
Some query whether they even needed a committee. Not me. Committees are non-negotiable, aesthetic necessities in Baptist life. We do have to maintain our congregational appearances after all.
The Baptist Message recently posted a series of articles on the purported issue over Calvinism at Louisiana College. I received permission from The Message editor to re-post the four articles in full on my site since many Southern Baptists outside Louisiana are watching with concerned interest the fiasco taking place on the Baptist campus. Yet since so few of us outside Louisiana subscribe to The Message, we were left completely in the dark as to the content of the articles. You may find the first and second articles linked after the editorial below.
In his annual convention sermon of the 1980 Southern Baptist Convention held in Saint Louis, MO, the late and legendary Adrian Rogers thundered:
"Don't talk to me about your orthodoxy or denominational loyalty if your
heart is headquarters for hate. Whatever problems Southern Baptists have
will be settled in a context of love or they will not be settled. The Bible
is a good sword, but a poor club"
According to a 1996 Baptist Press article by James A. Smith, Sr., Mark Dever, pastor of Capitol Hill Baptist Church, Washington, D.C., urged the revision of the Southern Baptist Convention's 1963 statement of faith while speaking at the 14th
annual meeting of the Founders Conference held on the campus of
Samford University, Birmingham, Ala. Smith wrote >>>
Pastors are already utilizing Midwestern's trustee list posted on the site by writing a letter not only to trustees they know, but also every trustee on the board. Additionally included by some pastors are copies sent to all SBC Executive Board members >>>
I've written several pieces now on the unusual nomination of
Dr. Jason K. Allen to be the fifth president of Midwestern Baptist Theological
Seminary. One planned piece remains: "Courting Diaster: The Midwestern
Baptist Theological Seminary Part II" >>>
What did Southern Baptists know about Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary's two former presidential candidates when their names were made public by the presidential search committee? Below are the details we learned from Baptist Press upon their names being released to the media prior to the search team presenting them to the entire trustee board >>>
After Presidential Search Team Chairman, Bill Bowyer, made public Midwestern's search team's policy of silence on its proposed presidential candidate, Jason K. Allen, more are calling on the search team to recognize the feeling multitudes of Southern Baptists have that we're not in Kansas any more, Toto. Far too many agendas and behind-the-curtain deals have gone down for a simplistic "just trust us" appeal to ring any truer than a hollow clang.1 >>>
Maryland Southern Baptist pastor, Ralph Green, indicates in an interview at SBC Today that he and his church judiciously weighed The Gospel Project in the balances and found it wanting. Or, should I say leaning toward a Calvinistic agenda. Says Green to a question asked by Norm Miller as to why he was willing to speak publicly about the issue >>>
I just put up a new resource--a page containing articles from Southern Baptist media sources concerning the subject of Calvinism in the Southern Baptist Convention. Sources will include Baptist Press and all available state papers. No commentary is offered. Nor is the resource intended as a polemical tool. If the article was published by a Southern Baptist news venue, it qualified for the resource.
Check out the page (click here or look on the sidebar for a link there). It obviously is only a beginning. When it is finished, I hope it will be thorough even if not exhaustive. If you know of an article which would qualify, leave it in the comment thread and I'll add it.
The young Mississippi Southern Baptist, Dr. Eric Hankins, pastor of the Oxford First Baptist Church made history only two short weeks ago by releasing what has come to be called in shorthand "TS" (standing for "Traditional Statement" or more fully, "A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation"). Since its release on the SBC Today blogsite, I'm told the site has garnered pageviews well over 100K with no waning predicted anytime soon >>>
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