Beating the Bushes
by Pastor Alan Davis
Hey everyone, I am Alan Davis, born and raised in the Mountains of WNC, I married and still have the wife of my youth and three grown children. God saved me and then later on called me to preach the gospel and pastor a local church. I have been a Christian for almost 30 years now and I have been a Southern Baptist pastor for 20 years, the last 17 years at the same church, Woodland Baptist Church in Waynesville NC. We have sent out over 14 Southern Baptist pastors into various churches and positions and we have mothered 2 successful Southern Baptist church plants from Woodland. I have a been a member in 3 Southern Baptist churches and all three have supported the Cooperative Program each year and other Southern Baptist causes with my encouragement as a leader. I have served in a variety of offices as a Southern Baptist. I was raised in a Southern Baptist family who attended the same Southern Baptist church all my life. So I do not write nor speak as one who has no idea what goes on in Southern Baptist life. This is the introduction to a 5-6 part series on some issues of the lack of communication from leaders, the involvement of us as Southern Baptist with radical, secular and worldly groups in unholy partnerships, the linking of us as Southern Baptist with those who teach false doctrines and the selling of doctrinally unsound books and studies by unsound authors.
I, like many, have had the “new” wear off and can see clearly without rose colored glasses. I am not climbing some Southern Baptist church or entity ladder. I have put down roots for what looks like my life here at Woodland. I am not an unofficial member of some personality cult of a big name preacher. I don’t have to rub shoulders at all with the powers that be. I am saying all of that to point out I am speaking as one in the trenches of the gospel battles, not as one in some ivory tower. I have no axe to grind, no personal conflict in the least with any of the men I will mention through this series. So as many of us who have tried communicating our issues have found, we hear nothing from the entity heads or workers but their defenders attack us personally with slander and attempt to marginalize us as crazy’s, like Jonathan Merrit from New York in his latest hit piece defending Moore. This has been the mode of operation for those who are rabid defenders of these men to immediately attack the motives and persons of those raising any issues. No doubt this will continue from those who have joined the cult of personality. Those who refuse to consider that their idol may make some serious mistakes that could harm the direction of our convention. Those folks may never see the truth as they are blinded by personality worship. We pray God will deal with them on that issue.
Now lest you think me ungracious or accuse me of not attempting a private conversation with these men you should know a few things. I want to disclose that I have contacted each of these men in numerous ways; e-mails, messenger, phone calls, Twitter and Facebook. They have been told I was going to do these series and I have been contacting them to respond in some way, in any way, over and over and I have had zero response except to be blocked by three of them. After more than a dozen contacts each in multiple ways asking for clarification they finally chose to respond by blocking me and with total silence. Now, just so you know, I never used vulgar comments nor made any family, personal or intellectual attacks. I did use sarcasm at times and was pointed but always open to any response but never received anything but silence and blocking.
Have you wondered why Russell Moore and Karen Swallow Prior want those who work on the front lines battling abortion, which I do, to use softer terminology, to cease calling abortion murder? Really they said this…and more. Have you ever wondered why Russell Moore uses snarky tweets to condemn anyone who would DARE support anyone but his man Marco Rubio for president even to the point of questioning YOUR salvation if you are supporting anyone else? Have you ever wondered why Russell Moore and Karen Swallow Prior has us as Southern Baptist tied to radical animal rights organizations in partnership with them like HSUS? Ever wondered how animals going to heaven ever got to be a subtopic of a work of the ERLC? Ever wondered how that got to be a direct gospel issue that you and I should fund? Do you remember that being part of the Southern Baptist Convention platform? Me neither.
I too have wondered over and over how Russell Moore has linked us with radical immigration issues and radical immigration groups wanting complete open borders with almost no controls. Moore and the ERLC has us linked with radical refugee systems with unsafe vetting processes, linking us as Southern Baptist in support of a presidential candidate that supports open borders and lax refugee issues. Moore’s presidential candidate also supports the morning after pill causing abortion and is soft on abortion, the murder of babies. Russell Moore’s candidate, Rubio also supports the erroneous theory that homosexuals are born that way and can’t help themselves. As a Southern Baptist who believes that the truth of the Word of God should be our only guide, that it is without error and is infallible. As a Southern Baptist who believes that the Gospel is the power of God unto Salvation even to the homosexual and that God can overcome any and all sexual sins. As A born- again Christian and Southern Baptist that believes the Word of God with the Spirit of God IS the reparitive therapy that can over come illicit sexual desires even homosexuality. As a Southern Baptist who stands for truth and that the sin of abortion is murder and it should be called such instead of pampering the sinner that the sinner should be graciously confronted with their sin before they will even know they are in need of forgiveness for their sin. As a Southern Baptist who believes that the act of sexual perversion, including homosexuality, is a blatant sin before God and that those who continue in such prove they are without God. Do you, like me, as Southern Baptist, oppose Russell Moore’s and Karen Swallow Prior’s friendly support and obvious tacit approval of those in the “Level Ground” gay film festival each year? I find it totally anti-scriptural and certainly Moore’s and Prior’s homosexual friends leave thinking that these Southern Baptist, your representatives and my representatives, approve of their lifestyle in general though with a few nuances of disagreement. Those living a homosexual lifestyle attending Level Ground leave believing that those living in such lifestyles are formally in the family of God but just have a slight disagreement with their brother and sister. This is the tacit approval the ERLC gives to this group who need the life giving gospel and a clear call to come out of their sin unto salvation.
If you find that and more totally appalling coming from your paid representative who heads a Southern Baptist entity that YOU pay for then please hang on for the next few weeks as we expose the obvious unbiblical and leftist slant of not only Russell Moore at the ERLC but also of the ecumenical movement by our convention president Ronnie Floyd as our Southern Baptist president links us with hyper charismatics and false prophets who claim to raise the dead and to perform all sorts of wild miracles, who have made totally unbelievable claims and who hold to wicked and perverse doctrines. Yes, our president Ronnie Floyd linking himself and us as Southern Baptist directly with purveyors of false doctrines and actually outright liars. Hang in there and we will expose the ungodliness of much of the material of LifeWay and how Thom Rainer and Ed Stetzer full well knew they were and are peddling false doctrine material for profits and gain, and how they fleece churches and put on an air of godliness while doing all this. How both Ed Stetzer and Thom Rainer both knew about false books of heaven almost a year in advance and refused to deal with the issue till the story broke in national media (Alex Malarkey case) and then they lied and said they only just found out and took the books off the shelf. We will reveal many, many more issues all with documentation and links.
I also want to be clear that I am NOT calling these men’s salvation into question. It is my opinion that these men aren’t intentional wolves but err for pragmatic and political means, both Southern Baptist politics and US politics. And they have leaned heavily in these erroneous directions. I was in support of each of the four men I have mentioned when they were placed in their positions and I was vocal in that support. I am not condemning these men as unbelieving wolves in our midst. If they are they are well concealed and it is above my discernment at this time to see that. However it is easy Christian discernment to see the errors of some of what they are doing and leading us into. I can not, nor will I, give them my support in the worldly pragmatic actions. And I believe if you will honestly consider this series you will tend to agree with me that the issues and areas we will look at the next few weeks will be troubling to you as a Christian and a Southern Baptist. That some actions need to be taken by the respective trustees on our behalf, the ones who pay for all this. It is time for the trustees to represent you and I and not act as a protecting buffer for our employees. And we will deal with the Trustees in this series also.
So stay tuned at our blog, on periscope or our podcast for the first in a multi-part weekly series which will show the unbiblical and leftist leaning of some of the leaders of our great convention. Hopefully as with the Alex Malarkey case it will get attention and some correction will take place.
You can read the written blog by going to our website http://www.woodlandbaptist.org. There’s a link on our home page in the lower right hand side that says Read More which will take you to our wordpress blog.
You can see the video blog by tuning in to Periscope and following Woodland Baptist or like us on FaceBook (Woodland Baptist) or follow us on twitter (WoodlandbChurch) and a link will come up as we do the video blog.
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