In 1973, Davis Huckabee warned, “So long as the churches fail to preserve a pure membership, so long as they refuse to purge out the obvious leaven, so long as they fail to seek to reconcile those who may have been excluded, there is little hope for any improvement in the condition of the churches, and good reason to expect the churches to move in the opposite direction” (The Constitution of the Church, 1973). In 1998, Dean Register, president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, testified: “It’s very unusual for Southern Baptist churches to take disciplinary action against an individual” (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Mississippi, Sept. 13, 1998). That is also true for fundamental Baptist churches. Warm bodies in the pews and tithes in the offering plate and maintaining the lukewarm status quo are more important than faithfulness to God’s Word.
(Friday Church News Notes, April 9, 2021, www.wayoflife.org, fbns@wayoflife.org, 866-295-4143)