Last Blog Post

This will be my last blog post as Mainstream Baptist.

For an explanation why I am no longer willing to identify myself as a Baptist, see the post below and/or the "No Room" statement given to our Bible Study class at NorthHaven Church.

See the Oklahoma Faith Network weblog for future blog posts.

Why the strikethrough?

Dan Nerren has left some comments:

Why the strikethrough over "Baptist?"

I looked at your blog today and noticed the word "Baptist" has a strikethrough over it? Is this something you did, or did a hacker do this?

Bruce Prescott responded:

I made this change. I have come to the end of my walk with Baptists.

Here's a brief explanation:

Thanksgiving 2013

Here's a fuller explanation:

October 2013 Issue of the Mainstream Messenger (pdf) the newsletter of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists

I handed this newsletter out to those who attended the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma's semi-annual meeting on October 24, 2013.

I use this tactic whenever the gatekeepers in Baptist life put a muzzle on dissent. It demonstrates my willingness to engage in open, honest, face-to-face dialogue about issues of mutual concern.

The first time I distributed the Mainstream Messenger by hand was at the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma in November of 1998. Here's a link to the November 1998 issue of the Mainstream Messenger (pdf).

Cooperative Baptists in Oklahoma were generally very supportive of my work when I was criticizing Southern Baptists. Now that I am criticizing Cooperative Baptists, some of them are singing a different tune.

Here's a response to my newsletter from one of the principal founders of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the current interim moderator of CBF of Oklahoma (He's an interim because the elected moderator and moderator-elect have both resigned):

Lavonn Brown & Bruce Prescott from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

More will be posted about this later.