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{"id":11296,"date":"2012-12-11T12:20:36","date_gmt":"2012-12-11T17:20:36","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=11296"},"modified":"2012-12-11T12:20:36","modified_gmt":"2012-12-11T17:20:36","slug":"i-dont-care-what-jim-west-calls-himself-he-isnt-a-baptist-in-any-meaningful-sense-of-the-word","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/12\/i-dont-care-what-jim-west-calls-himself-he-isnt-a-baptist-in-any-meaningful-sense-of-the-word.html","title":{"rendered":"I Don’t Care What Jim West Calls Himself, He Isn’t A Baptist in Any Meaningful Sense of the Word"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

Jim West has taken it upon himself<\/a> to try to define away the status of the First Baptist Church of Seattle<\/a> as a Baptist church.<\/p>\n

Jim considers their stance on same-sex marriage and their holding of ceremonies marrying people of the same gender<\/a> to be incompatible with Baptist identity.<\/p>\n

But ironically, apart from believer\u2019s baptism, one of the most fundamental and characteristic tenets of the Baptists is\u00a0soul freedom<\/em> \u2013 the right and duty of individual believers, and communities of believers, to follow the dictates of their consciences, without compulsion from authoritarian structures.<\/p>\n

So congratulations to Jim West for having \u2013 rather ironically \u2013 defined himself<\/em>\u00a0 out of Baptist identity by thinking that he can dictate to other Baptists how to follow their consciences or their understanding of Scripture.<\/p>\n

But more serious congratulations to those happy couples who were now able to marry thanks to changes in the law \u2013 and congratulations to First Baptist Church of Seattle for being at the forefront \u00a0on the issue of marriage equality<\/a>, and not bringing shame upon our faith tradition by standing on the wrong side of history and Scripture when it comes to this matter.<\/p>\n

$\"\"$ <\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"