Falling Baptism Rates Hurt Southern Baptists

[Theophylact]

Yeah, well, sure:

Quote:

America’s largest evangelical denomination, the 16-million strong Southern Baptist Convention, is holding its annual meeting in Indianapolis on Tuesday and Wednesday against the backdrop of a decline in the number of yearly baptisms.

This is serious stuff indeed for a group that places much emphasis on the conversion experience, the acceptance of Jesus as a person’s savior and the rite of passage that goes with this acceptance: a public immersion in water or baptism.

In April the SBC released its latest baptism numbers — figures it tracks closely, underscoring the importance attatched to them.

In 2007, baptisms decreased by 5 percent to 345,941 from 364,826 in 2006. It was the third straight year that the number of baptisms fell and the lowest total since 1987.

[pickel]

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Originally Posted by Theophylact

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Maybe here's part of the answer....

THE LATEST IN HYPOCRISY: PRAYING FOR THE DEATHS OF YOUR RELIGIOUS AND POLITICAL OPPONENTS :: The Sirens Chronicles

When the staff members of Americans United For Separation of Church and State asked the IRS to investigate the Reverend Wiley Drake, Vice President of the Southern Baptist Convention for what they believed were Drake’s violation(s) of federal tax law, Americans United had no idea that they would soon find themselves on the receiving end of Imprectatory Prayers in which Drake and his ilk were openly praying for the physical harm and even deaths of American United Staff members. For those of you who missed this twisted imbecility-and we’re bound and determined that you won’t–Mister Drake and his demented followers went right to the Book of Psalms to find violent imagery which they promptly transformed into the Christian versions of death curses. Among the verses that they bantered about were: