Conservative resurgent supporters in Tennessee Baptist Convention shift to panic mode

In the print edition of this week's Baptist & Reflector is a paid advertisement that proposes a motion for the Tennessee Baptist Convention to affirm the Baptist Faith and Message statements of 1925, 1963, or 2000. My spin on the background for this is here.

Quoting from yesterday's More Urgent Than Ever - Concerned TN Baptists email from Larry Reagan:

"Those who support the moderate agenda for the TBC realize what is on the line for this year's convention. They have advertised their key motion. They have announced their candidate for Presdient (sic), which is Randall Adkisson. Their goal is to defeat Tom McCoy and the conservative resurgence. They plan to defeat Amendment #6 that is being offered for our current President, Ron Stewart. They plan to defeat the 7 amendments to the Committee on Boards Report. We've placed it on the line, and now they have also. This the definining moment for the TBC."

Wow. Now the moderate agenda is somehow a threat to the conservative resurgence (not to be confused with the conservative agenda)? Dear Concerned Tennessee Baptists, have you ever heard the expression, "That's the pot calling the kettle black?" At least those who want to propose an alternate solution chose to make a public announcement of their intentions rather than sneaking around behind conservatively closed doors like some conspiracy group. Those who paid for that announcement did so because Lonnie Wilkey, B&R Editor, would have been run out of Brentwood on a rail had he published it as a news story!

Is there even the slightest chance that Baptists watching this spitting contest from the pews are sick of the conservative resurgence? The folks in Missouri seem to think that power-hungry groups shouldn't be in control. And get this, someone had the nerve to print, " Fighting – especially when it seems to be as much about power as principle – is lousy advertising." I wish I had said that.

How's this for a "defining moment for the TBC": let's get back to ministry and learn to fellowship with diversely-opinion-ed brothers (and sisters) and put all this non-productive, disgracefully political in-fighting behind us. How's that for a motion?