SBC name change talk ‘interesting’ discussion

This talk of a new name change for Southern Baptists is interesting. I am as sentimental as the next man for our traditions, but wish to point out that the name “Southern” has more than merely regional connotations – it is a relic of the Civil War, of old Dixie Land, and as such, one of the better things to result from the Confederacy. Unlike the states of the Union, however, the Southern Baptists never rejoined the Northern Baptists from whom they had separated at the time of the war. We have thrived since, thank God. I definitely think that our name should at least have the word “Baptist” in it because it refers to one of our denomination’s major contributions to the Reformation, of moving beyond infant christening back to the believer’s baptism by immersion of the first century apostles. To change the word “Baptist” would be moving into the new nondenominational craze, it seems to me. Why would we want to just be another new-fangled church? I hope that God will reveal a good name change for us, if He so desires one, to some prominent pastor in a vision or dream. Then, give that pastor a lie detector test. 

Stephan Allsup   
Little Rock