Growth of SBC stagnates: it's not universal

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Growth of SBC stagnates: it's not universal

My former Christian sect (and largest protestant group in the U.S.), the Southern Baptist convention, is reporting decreases in the number of baptisms: a stagnation of growth.

http://www.christianpost.com/article/20070608/27873_Southern_Baptists_Meeting_Shows_Tension.htm

Among other things they had a big controversy over speaking in tongues, and there's resistance to the new culture of progressive Baptist churches who are concerned about "liberal" things like the environment.

They lost a lot of their liberal members (including my hero Jimmy Carter) a few years ago when they wrote into their charter the commitment to bible inerrancy. This to me appears to be a sign of a crumbling institution that is unable to adapt to changes in culture.

If the truth and wonderfulness of this message is so immediately obvious, why would such an institution *ever* experience a decline in membership? If the Baptist version of the Good News of Jesus were absolutely true and valid, it should just keep getting bigger. This looks every day more like a human institution that--like the Catholic church--will either have to adapt to changes in its membership, or become another minor/defunct sect.

"After Jesus was born, the Old Testament basically became a way for Bible publishers to keep their word count up." -Stephen Colbert