Conference Journal, Day 4

The BJC Issue - Still With Us
Day 4
Wednesday, August 1

I sure am sleeping better with no roommate this year. I love it! :)

After breakfast was morning worship. After it was finished, while waiting for morning Bible study to begin, I saw an announcement about checking airport transportation at registration. I walked to registration and I was not on the list! I wrote my name and airline down, along with the day and approximate time. I'll go back later and give them my flight number and exact time.

The morning Bible study was on Christ being Divine. Pretty basic stuff that all SDBs would believe. Then came the Tract Counsel presentation. They always present their information in a funny skit. They get great attendance! I skipped the next presentations and took some time to post here, then went to lunch.

At lunch they finally had something I could eat - burgers! I got two without the bun, and used my low-carb bread on one to make a proper burger. But there was no cheese! :( I also had a heaping serving of hot veggies (various squashes), and a large salad from the salad bar. No-sugar-added hot cocoa (brought from home) was "dessert."

After lunch was more business in the auditorium with the reading and adoption of various reports. My committee had a couple of issues referred to us, one of them involving the Baptist Joint Committee and that we should send them a letter asking for dialogue. Someone broke down the numbers to percentages and 54% of the votes were to stay and 46% were to leave. That's a close vote. Of course, the BJC had to spin it in their favor:

Strengthening The Baptist Coalition

Word on the street is that Seventh-Day Baptists have voted to remain affiliated with the Baptist Joint Committee at their General Conference. That's fabulous news! Baptists everywhere are reclaiming our heritage of religious liberty for all, a cause best served through a strong commitment to the separation of church and state: that means a robust Establishment Clause and an equally healthy Free Exercise protection. In my view, simply put, there is no more effective religious voice in Washington, D.C. for that principle than Brent Walker, Holly Hollman and the Baptist Joint Committee, a Baptist institution that has been educating and advocating on Capitol Hill for more than 70 years.

They hail this as a victory when it was in fact a very close vote, and I know for a fact that some people voted to stay in the BJC simply because no dialogue with them had occurred, no attempt to work our the concerns we have. I think once this dialogue takes place (and accomplishes nothing), then another vote some time in the future will have very different results. It won't happen anytime soon, but I believe SDBs will eventually leave the BJC.

At any rate, our committee hammered out a proposal relatively painlessly of who should write a letter to the BJC and the kinds of things it should say (express our concerns and open dialogue). With that, my committee's work was done for the week and I can now more fully enjoy vacation.

When we finished it was still an hour until dinner time, so I went to the fitness center and walked on the treadmill for a while. Then I had dinner and relaxed a bit before evening worship. The theme for evening worship was "God with us." After the service was the usual - fellowship time with some snacks and then bed.

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