Anyone familiar with how Baptist churches work? Internal mechanics, etc.

[JHB]

The news of a Baptist church in North Carolina excommunicating its Democratic members has me wondering about their procedure for it.

My understanding of Baptist congregations is that they are independent bodies that are part of a larger convention, and that each congregation (or at least the members on some sort of committee) select and hire pastors.

Do I have any misconceptions so far?

And so just how does excommunication work? Can the pastor declare it by fiat? Does it take some sort of vote by some group?

And is there any forum the excommunicated can appeal to?

Also, it's probably best to check if the "excommunicated" were actually excommunicated as the Baptists define it, or if that term has been loosely applied but the actual status falls under some other theological point of order.

[proud2BlibKansan]

1. Well I don't know about Baptist rules

but it sure looks like IRS regs are being violated by this church.

[Horse with no Name]

2. Personally I thought Catholics were the only Christian faith that

excomunicated anyone. I've never heard of another sect doing it.
Baptists don't have confessionals, so truly the church doesn't know your business.
But let's just call it what it is, a witch hunt, not an excommunication.

[lectrobyte]

4. That's not exactly true. The Baptist Churches I attended as

a youth (more years ago than I like to think about) required that to be a member of the church, you had to be "saved". In the case where a Deacon was kicked out of the church (embezzling money the official story, but who really knows), his membership was revoked and he was considered to be "unsaved" as far as that church was concerned. I don't know how this fits into churches that belong to the SBC, since "Baptist" covers a lot of different churches, some aligned and some not.

[Inland]

5. Yeah, but for the dramatic flair, you need a dramatic word.

Catholicism provides the drama that a baptist church simply cannot. Ever seen a pastor in an Exorcist movie?

Since baptists don't put a unique aid to salvation in any particular organization, getting kicked out may be unjust and irritating, but it doesn't put the immortal soul in danger. In other words, no clergyman or organization can take a person "out of the community" of the mystical, encompassing Church.

[fishwax]

14. "Catholicism provides the drama that a baptist church simply cannot"

that's so true! and being raised catholic, I find it highly amusing :rofl:

but to be fair to the baptists, they have their own brand of drama ;)

[forgethell]

3. As a Baptist

myself, I can say they don't. They can "disfellowship" somebody, which simply means they don't fellowship with him, and his privileges as a member of that church are withdrawn. But it doesn't affect any other Baptist church. He can go down the block and join the next one.

Certainly disfellowshipping has no meaning as to the disfelloshipped persons status with God. That's between him and God, and is not affected by the disfellowshipping. It's just between the person and that individual congregation.

I've never seen it done, but if this was a move by the pastor alone, I would think it could be brought before the whole church, which would vote on it.

[doodadem]

6. I was raised Southern Baptist

which is probably why I'm agnostic now, bordering on atheist. But from what I saw in a number of Baptist churches, any hint of scandal or wrongdoing was dealt with very quietly, swept under the rug, and the person just kind of went away.
There was NEVER a political emphasis. The pastor in question is undoubtedly pushing his own agenda, and his sheeple are following him.

[patcox2]

9. They're not following him, 40 of them quit in protest.

Gotta read the details, he told a few people to leave, and 40 more people left in protest. He may well have started a fire in his congregation which ruins it or him.

[leftofthedial]

7. a bunch of hypocrites meet regularly--this is the inner cabal--

and set up a sytem--called a church--to bamboozle a larger bunch of gullible chumps--the flock--out of as much money as possible.

They also plot ways to eliminate all rights of as many others in the community as possible. They want to eliminate music, dancing, alcohol, sex (except sex between members of the inner cabal and children in the community or attractive members of the church youth group), literature, art and all other forms of human expression.

The political process within the inner cabal is to accumulate as much damning information about the other members' perversions and criminal activities as possible and use this information to blackmail the others into compliance. If blackmail fails, which it can due to the fact that all members of the inner circle are pedophiles engaged in all sorts of other illegal activities, they'll resort to all manner of Machiavellian machinations.

Their view is that everyone in the world has two options: join the flock and be willingly fleeced for the rest of their lives or be interred in "religious" workcamps and forfeit all your worldly possessions to the local theocratic government council. Of course, for homosexuals, those who have had or performed abortions and anyone practicing a religion other than the Baptist religion would be put to death.

Glad I could help.

[patcox2]

8. They can't excommunicate and no news story says he did.

Churches are like retail stores for the evangelicals, you go shopping from church to church until you find the one you like. This pastor is just saying "I don't want you in my church," that has no relation to the catholic doctrine of excommunication, which means that you are formally cut off from the body of christ (the congregation of the faithful is considered to be the living presence of christ on earth, it is the "body of christ").

[Name removed]

10. Deleted message

Message removed by moderator. Click here to review the message board rules.

[paparush]

11. I live in Western North Carolina

Not too far from Waynesville. My wife is a "recovering Baptist". The Evangelical churches up here can be pretty extreme, and not above "churching" members who stray from the minister's policies. For example, a small local church fired its pastor who was seen "sitting in the front seat of a car with a woman who was known to be seperated from her husband". I kid you not. I'm not at all suprised that some redneck in Waynesville, who was 'called' to the ministry (IE - has very little formal education but is charasmatic enough to spew hate to his congregation) would try to kick out the Dem members.

[SoCalDem]

12. I think that Jimmy Carter QUIT his baptist church.

:(

[Bluerthanblue]

13. many 'flavors' of 'Baptist'

- like Southern Baptist, American Baptist, Conservative Baptist, etc.
The 'hierarchy' varies from group to group-

Some are quite hard lined- some are more what people in my area refer to as 'sunday go to meeting' churches (often despised by their more ..'pious' fellow 'Baptists'-)

There are also ALOT of 'independent' churches that have popped up over the last several years, who are answerable only to themselves- i don't know what 'branch' that church in NC belongs to, but i'm fairly sure it's not the ABC- (American Baptist Church)- the one i'm most familiar with- there is alot of schism and 'in-fighting' in the religious world- just not acknowledged, and often swept under the rug-

Did you know Billy Graham is a democrat?- (few folks do)