I couldn't possibly phrase this any better than my colleague, John Gram, who covered this over at Bad Theology 101:
I want you to think about what an absolutely awful image of the gospel this sent to everyone involved.Most importantly, I want you to think about those living in the neighborhood around the seminary! And don't tell me that this was a private ceremony and that I'm taking this out of context. They published it themselves, for goodness sake! WHAT IN THE WORLD must it convey to non-Christians living around campus who hear about some lunatic firing off a .50 caliber -- .50 CALIBER! -- weapon and talking about how an army of seminary students will soon descend upon their neighborhood to convert them to Christianity?...
...what if you heard about the mosque in your neighborhood firing off weapons and talking about taking your neighborhood for Allah? How would you react?
We wouldn't tolerate that type of behavior from other religious groups, so we shouldn't do this sort of thing ourselves. It's hard to be taken seriously as a Southern Baptist, let's not give our opponents more ammunition. (You can read the rest of Bad Theology 101 here.)
3 comments:
Pun intended, I assume.
I'm sure that the federal firearms charges that will almost certainly be filed will change this particular pastor's approach to ministering.
I'm sorry I'm late, and by more than a year! I either noticed this post for the first time today, or only today found a Muse (hopefully a good one) for a response.
I find this criticism of Southwestern BTS unhelpful, and I find it unhelpful because I don't know what the criticism is. I remember the use of a military metaphor for Christian faith from a Sunday school song I sang as a kid, "I'm in the Lord's army." C. S. Lewis used the metaphor of an "invasion" to describe Christ's actions. And isn't Luther's "A Mighty Fortress Is Our God" based on the same theme?
Going still further back, the Apostle Paul uses a military metaphor in Ephesians 6 and 2 Corinthians 10.
So the mere use of a military metaphor is not, in itself, objectionable. So what precisely is it about Southwestern's use of military metaphor that you find objectionable?
My confusion is especially strong when you quote from John Gram. If we heard a group of Muslims firing guns and talking about converting, I think we would feel uncomfortable if and only if we suspected they were jihadists--in other words, if we thought they weren't using a metaphor. But Southwestern is obviously using a metaphor.
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