I was watching TV tonight and an ad for “Right from the Heart Ministries” came on… I first met Bryant Wright back in 1991 when Johnson Ferry Baptist Church (JFBC) was just a little tyke, at least compared to the huge monster it is now. He was always an affable fellow, and I attended his church for several years as a member. While I attended with my family, the church started to really grow (and grow) and the monster had an ever increasing appetite for money. Religion quickly fails without a steady stream of funds… faith may last, but organized religion is dead without cold, hard cash.
Over time, that aspect of church life among others really wore on me, intellectually and financially. We were driving more than 20 miles one way to attend his little slice of heaven, and I was amazed at how little our attendance, time, and money was appreciated. It was more of an expectation of a good Baptist. Bryant frequently reminded the congregation about his business background before he was “called” to Johnson Ferry. He was not so subtly making the point that for the church to prosper, it had to be run like a business. Um, duh. That’s how this stuff works. It was an important lesson for me and one of the many curiosities that interfered with the worship time that might have kept me in the flock. N-E-Way… I thought I would do a quick search for Pastor Wright and the second hit on Google was this nut case from Flickr.
I couldn’t help but think, “Hey, that looks just like Bryant Wright!” What do you think? Twins? Separated at birth? Long lost, pissed off brother?
Bryant Wright?
I thought it would be a fun thing to write about. In the course of my “research”, I ran across this:
Baptists believe that Jesus is the only way to salvation and eternal life. We believe a personal decision must be made by each individual to repent from sin and trust Him as their Lord and Savior. We do not inherit our Christianity from our parents.
|
I disagree. The vast majority of people inherit their beliefs from their parents. Maybe he’s just pandering to the latest Pew survey that indicates many people switch faiths implying that if you find “Christianity” or “Baptistness” that you must truly have found salvation. Sigh. Honestly, I am shocked and saddened that it took me so long to wake up and walk away. Seriously, read this with fresh eyes and an open mind:
Baptists believe all Christians should read and study the Bible. We are not a creedal people. Our only creed is the Bible. In 2000, the Southern Baptist Convention adopted a revised confession of faith entitled “The Baptist Faith and Message” which says this about the Bible: “The Holy Bible was written by men divinely inspired and is God’s revelation of Himself to man. It is a perfect treasure of divine instruction. It has God for its author, salvation for its end, and truth, without any mixture of error, for its matter. Therefore, all Scripture is totally true and trustworthy. It reveals the principles by which God judges us and therefore is, and will remain to the end of the world, the true center of Christian union, and the supreme standard by which human conduct, creeds and religious opinions should be tried.
Come on! No error? Totally true and trustworthy? The Bible is masochistic and misogynistic garbage with a little of grandma’s tall tales and common sense mixed in written by primitive men with approximately zero scientific knowledge of the world.
Holy crap is what it is.
Additional search terms for those seeking common sense and a new church or intellectual home:
Marietta, Atlanta, Kennesaw, OTP, burbs, suburbs, transfer of letter, pain and suffering, adultery, farce, directions to Johnson Ferry, phone, contact, prayer request, fools and zealots, random thoughts, Brian Wright, Brain Wright, good people, kids, wonder, merriment, seeking truth, puppets, monkeys, firefighters, pencils, humanism, alliance, atheists, off the map, secular, mehta, hemant, friendly atheist, tragic, sold my soul, flurg, olly olly oxen free.
Good luck in your search for truth.
Agnostic, Atheism, Religion
Atheism, Baptist, Christian, church, faith
And the people replied…