Calvinism in action — OR —
More excitement at Jacksonville’s First Baptist Church

Some of y’all will recall that Pastor Mac Brunson of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Florida was honored as the Holy Man of the Day recently. Well, it just keeps getting better.

Shortly after booting-out Thomas Rich for impiously questioning Brunson’s leadership via a blog that he maintained anonymously, the deacons adopted a resolution forbidding church members from ever making public criticism of the church. Here is one of a great many whereas’ in the resolution:

WHEREAS, it is the belief and expression of the Deacons herein that division, strife, and discord caused to church members, and unjust criticism and ridicule of the ministry, staff, leadership, Pastor and people expressed to the general public at large in any form and by any means by any member of the church should be viewed as an attack against the Lord’s church contrary to Scriptural truth and confronted aggressively in accordance with Scripture and the disciplinary provisions of the By-laws of the church; and …

I don’t know how to read that to say anything except what it obviously says: Criticize Chairman Mac and you’re aligning yourself with the forces of Satan against Jesus’ church.

Well.

As it happens, I am reading John Calvin’s Institutes of the Christian Religion just now and I can verify that the church is entirely within its rights. Or, more precisely, I can confirm that what Rich did is un-Biblical and, therefore, exceedingly wicked. From Book III, Chapter 7:

The great point, then, is that we are consecrated and dedicated to God, and therefore should not henceforth think, speak, design, or act, without a view to his glory. [...] We are not our own; therefore, neither is our own reason or will to rule our acts and counsels. We are not our own; therefore, let us not make it our end to seek what may be agreeable to our carnal nature. We are not our own; therefore, as far as possible, let us forget ourselves and the things that are ours. [...] We are God’s; to him, then, as the only legitimate end, let every part of our life be directed. O how great the proficiency of him who, taught that he is not his own, has withdrawn the dominion and government of himself from his own reason that he may give them to God! For as the surest source of destruction to men is to obey themselves, so the only haven of safety is to have no other will, no other wisdom, that to follow the Lord wherever he leads.

And, Whereas the Lord is not immediately to hand, and Whereas that manual He left behind is shot-through with ambiguities and outright imbecilities, we had best consult His representatives who are here on earth, the Experts!, in all matters of importance.

You can see why some Holy Men think that John Calvin is the second greatest man who ever lived, and now you know their goal, too — to destroy utterly your self-respect and will.

And so much for Calvin. He makes me ill. I have a small collections of essays by Thomas Huxley in my to-be-read stack, and I’m going to get to work on it. Huxley was among the first, and certainly the most important, of Charles Darwin’s champions. It will be good to read something by somebody really smart, for a change.