Baptists are not hierarchal in structure.

As lklouise notes, each convention (be it state or national or county) is not a franchise of a structured entity. Congregations are autonomous and membership and participation in a convention are voluntary.

lklouise, thank you for the correction.

As for being self-righteous, the Anglican establishment cut off people’s ears for dissenting.

They arrive in the colonies and immediately start working for intolerance

When the Southern Baptist Split (the Fundamentalist Takeover) happened, Texas Baptists hauled their asses out of there.. and became just conservative of moderate. This is why, for instance, Baylor teaches Evolution along with it’s poor stance on sexuality. Getting there, but not quite. There are a lot of mainstream and liberal baptists pushing towards a full inclusion of LGBT individuals. A lot of them are only CBF or Rainbow Baptist affiliated congregations, but they exist in Texas.

Anyway, calling the BGCT a “statewide affiliation of the Southern Baptist Convention” is factually incorrect and misleading.

There is a SBCT – THAT is the Southern Baptist Convention of Texas.

(and there’s your news of the day from a member of the North American Baptist Peace Fellowship & BGCT.)

Suppose that the San Diego chapter of PFLAG had become gradually taken over by NARTH and Exodus groupies who heavily promoted ex-gay therapy even while they paid lip service to gay rights from the other sides of their mouths — and all the while operating publicly under the PFLAG banner.

Wouldn’t you expect that PFLAG, at the national level, might push for the de-recognition and ouster of PFLAG-(San Diego) as a “member in good standing,” unless and until PFLAG-SD had repudiated the ex-gay jive?

And would you be totally surprised if National PFLAG cautioned local chapters in San Francisco and Los Angeles and Reno, etc., that they should distance themselves from PFLAG-SD?

Again, “maintaining consistent brand identity” is a valid concern, even if I personally dislike the brand and wouldn’t touch it with a 10-foot pole.

Their members who were in opposition were a minority that got shut out just like this.
Apparently so many of these groups easily forget such recent history as that.
A history with far more accuracy that isn’t up to as much interpretation as the Bible or Constitution.
It’s written in our plain language and which side of history eventually favored what.

It’s arrogant of some Christian groups to expect acceptance without challenge and judgment.
When it’s their ACTIONS that ultimately speak the volumes that deserve to be heard and then decent human beings will judge accordingly, as they should.

the Tarrant Baptist Association, the Tarrant County group of Southern Baptists, dared to be friendly with Broadway Baptist. In fact, they allowed them to be part of the 395 churches that worked together in the county to provide support, outreach, and growth.

The story doesn’t make it clear, but were these “395 churches” ALL Southern Baptist, or was it officially a multi-denominational group (though under the auspices of the Tarrant Baptist Association) that cooperated to provide services to the county?

If participation in the group is supposed to be limited to Southern Baptist congregations “in good standing,” then however much we may dislike the results, it’s rationally defensible for the SBC to be pedantic sticklers about the rules — because there’s a “Control Of Brand” issue at work. It’s like McDonalds being strict about how much individual franchisees are permitted to vary the prescribed corporate formula.

(Of course, the SBC would probably say that their concern is with blocking the gradual encroachment of moral heresy within SB churches, rather than “maintaining brand consistency” — but the principles aren’t that different!)

ON THE OTHER HAND, if the group of 395 churches is open to participation by Pentecostal churches and Methodist churches and Catholic churches and other Christian congregations who make absolutely no pretense of subscribing to every point of Southern Baptist theology, then to single out the gay-friendly congregation that happens to have “Baptist” in its name is a totally a**hole-ish move.