Why do they stay at these churches and schools? Why don’t they just leave?

Why don’t they just leave their family ties and life-long friendships?

Why don’t they just leave the college degrees that are only valued in one of these “ministries”?

Why don’t they just leave their community?

Why don’t they just leave their livelihood?

Why don’t they just leave the cultural comfort of having the world make sense?

Why don’t they just leave their certainty for doubt?

Why don’t they just leave the time and money they have invested?

Why don’t they just leave their children to fearful futures outside the center of “God’s perfect will.”

Why don’t they just leave to go and live as strangers in a strange land?

I think the real surprise is that so many have managed to leave at all.

If you’re not following SFL on Facebook or Twitter then you’re missing out on all kinds of extra content that I post through the week. Even if I don’t have a new post here there’s almost always something to look at on the social media feeds.

(and if you’re REALLY bored you can also follow my personal Twitter account to hear me chatter on inanely)

Today’s challenge is to tell a story from Sunday School: whether it was a class you attended as a child, a class you taught, or a class your child attended. I could go on and on about the teacher who taught a room full of 11-year-old children about the lustful dangers of skirts with slits in them but I’d rather hear what you all experienced instead.

…but first lets sing an action song!

(This is a slightly more jazzy version of the song than you’re likely to hear in a fundy church but the versions actually sung but IFB groups had such terrible audio that I decided to go with this one)

The church constitution of Emmanuel Independent Baptist Church of Clay Center Kansas contains the following clause:

“This Church shall be an independent, autonomous church, subject only to Jesus Christ, the Head of the Church. There shall be no co-operation with any group that permits the presence of apostates or apostasy. Should this Church ever become organically joined or in any way identified as part of a denomination or association of churches, that part of the pastor’s salary, of four thousand dollars ($4,000.00), received from Bob Jones University, for the first year must be returned to Bob Jones University plus six Percent (6%) interest compounded yearly on the amount received.”

Since this constitution was adopted in 1975 that means that an attempt to join the SBC would currently cost the church almost $55,000. The real irony is that founding pastor “Pastor Schoneweis” (the bio never gives his first name) served as the South Central Regional Director for the Fundamental Baptist Fellowship International — Which is TOTALLY not a denomination or association of churches. Nope. Totally different than that.

Nothing to see here folks, just move along.