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Do you tell the homeless you minister to how wrong everything they're doing is and how easy it is to make the right choice? For a man constantly talking about Christians treating homosexuality differently, you seem to not afford the dead the same general courtesy with slavery, as if that's some special type of sin.
If someone has committed themselves to Christ, and they do wrong, then yes, I will address it with them. They aren't homeless, though, necessarily because they've done something wrong. I work with them to help address their immediate and long-term needs.
Oh, and as for the homosexuality deflection, those comments are made in the context of conversations where the assumption is that the person is outside the church. I have no interest in judging those outside the church. W/ the SBC, this was a church body embracing evil, and even splitting from brothers and sisters in Christ over it. Huge difference. As I said, 1 Cor 5.
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No. When you have a time machine feel free to go back and expel them. Until then you can stop judging them.
Expel them? From what? Do you honestly have an issue with calling evil what it is simply because it's in the past? I'm calling their actions evil, as they were. Just like I call the actions of Hitler, Mugabe, Mao, Dahmer, etc evil. Do you show Hitler the same leniency as you do the Founders?
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As someone that fought in a war with friends that have ptsd I'd figure you'd be more sympathetic.
Sympathetic to what? I'm not saying Jefferson and others were evil men. I'm saying they supported an evil institution. They rationalized keeping it around, but that doesn't make it any less evil.
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Likewise, people are not always cognizant of all choices or able to pursue them in a way that doesn't result in further wrong or evil (again, ala Nat Turner's rebellion). It's nice to have hindsight to tell people what they should have done.
There were people alive 250 years ago that rightly called slavery "evil". Hindsight isn't necessary to call evil by it's name. There were many that saw it for what it was and sought to undermine this evil in their time. Abolitionists of their day didn't need hindsight. The people you are defending just lacked the courage to choose the hard right, or they simply didn't have an issue with it.
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But you need to grow up and realize that outside of the west the idea of second guessing slavery never occurred (we eradicated it worldwide, no one else).
I need to grow up because I believe owning and mistreating another human being is inherently wrong, whether today or 250 years ago? Okay.
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And these men wrestled with it. I'm not sure why you're struggling with forgiveness but it's a recurring theme with you and the Baptist church.
The SBC didn't wrestle with it in the mid-1800's. They chose to break from their brothers and sisters because they wanted to own humans and still serve as missionaries. I applaud them for taking steps since then to rebuke their past actions (which coincidentally, you would criticize as it's a rebuking of the sins of the past). I have no need to forgive the SBC. They didn't wrong me. Their actions are in the past, but you want to simply pretend they didn't happen. That's how you end up not learning from the past. Their history, though, is relevant to the issue at hand in this thread, as it goes to why they are more sensitive to rebuking perverse views that we find in the alt-right movement.
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Do you wish to be judged by who you were a few years ago, or who you are now and are trying to be?
I don't mind at all if people say my past actions were sinful or even evil. They were. Hiding from that keeps me from learning from it. In fact, it's the recognition of the wrong I did that has led me to continually work with young people to steer them away from the military. My past is my past, and some may judge me by it. But I don't dare forget it or rationalize it. If I do, then I lose the ability to learn from it and grow.
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You're still referring to something from what year again? Might as well call all Germans Nazis.
I was referring to the history of the SBC because it's relevant to the issue at hand in this thread in explaining why this particular denomination is sensitive to perceptions of race-related issues within their body. Germans today are VERY sensitive about their nation's history during the Nazi era. It doesn't make them Nazis, but I've yet to meet one that hides behind the weak "well, who are we to judge the actions of the past" rationalization. It doesn't make today's SBC a bunch of racists that want to own slaves, but it does address why they are sensitive to it.
