During their 2013 annual meeting, Southern Baptists overwhelmingly adopted a resolution entitled “On Mental Health Concerns and the Heart of God.”  That resolution states, in part:

RESOLVED, That we support the wise use of medical intervention for mental health concerns when appropriate; and be it further

RESOLVED, That we support research and treatment of mental health concerns when undertaken in a manner consistent with a biblical worldview; and be it further

At the same convention, Arkansas Pastor Ronnie Floyd — himself a two-time graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary — offered a motion calling for Southern Baptists to ramp up their ministry to people afflicted with various mental health disorders. Thom Rainer, during the Lifeway Report, strongly commended a book by famed pastor Rick Warren, who lost his own son to suicide after a lengthy battle with mental illness.  In 2014, ERLC President Russell Moore hosted a roundtable discussion on the topic of mental health with Warren and Pastor Tony Rose, the chairman of the SBC task force on mental health issues.

Clearly, Southern Baptists had determined to affirm and encourage a holistic approach to mental health ministries and care.

Enter Paige Patterson.

In a Feb. 2, 2015 meeting of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary faculty, a memorandum from Patterson was distributed that enumerated 10 items that Patterson said professors “must reinforce . . . at Southwestern Seminary among our students.”  His directive, he asserted, was “based upon what [he has] encountered in the field the last few months.”  His observations, he continues, underscore what he “already knew to be true.”

Item number three in Patterson’s list concerned mental health and biblical counseling. Patterson instructed faculty that the seminary’s “text driven methodology . . . should also inform our biblical counseling.”

Stating that “this is not an issue of whether or not mental illness actually exists” (as if that were up for debate), Patterson noted that the seminary is “not capable of doing the medical side of it.”

But he didn’t stop there.

“As recent works have indicated, the medical and pharmaceutical side of the healing industry is not a commendable one anyway,” Patterson added, then linking his views on mental health treatment “to a theology of womanhood.”

So did you get that?

Patterson’s theology of womanhood is closely associated with his views that medical treatment for mental health is “not commendable.”

Or put another way: If a woman’s husband is beating her, a woman needs to pray for God to intervene. If a man’s son or daughter is suffering from mental health issues, they should do the same.

So a question: Do Paige Patterson’s instructions to Southwestern faculty reflect the Southern Baptist Convention’s position on mental health ministries?

Click here to read the actual document that Patterson distributed to faculty on February 2, 2015.

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Nashville, TN — Lifeway Christian Resources, the publishing arm of the fifteen-million member Southern Baptist Convention, announced today the theme for the Summer 2018 Vacation Bible School curriculum.  “The Search for the Scrolls” will allow kids of all ages to join Big Daddy and his wife, Dottie, on their quest for tiny fragments of the Dead Sea Scrolls.

This year’s themed VBS kit is not quite what you’d expect. Rather than including creative ideas to turn your church into the caves of Qumran, this year Lifeway is providing churches with the ability to convert their sanctuary and educational space into a Swiss Bank vault, a Palestinian junk shop, a tea room for negotiations, and the materials necessary to make and authenticate their own forgeries of the ancient scrolls.

“We’re very excited about the opportunity to train young children in the disciplines of biblical archaeology, ancient manuscript authentication, and of course the art of bargaining with well-known fraudsters who have overtaken the Middle Eastern antiquities market,” Big Daddy said. “And Dottie is excited about all the flapjacks, Devon cream and fancy teas that are part of any serious effort to swindle donors into coughing up millions to buy bogus scroll fragments.”

Kids 5 and up will be able to enter a Swiss Bank vault, armed with their notebooks and accompanied by a Sunday School teacher dressed as a Swiss banker to “view” the parchments their friends have fabricated in the “fragment lab.” And with no training whatsoever, they will be just as equipped to authenticate Dead Sea Scrolls as if they had earned a correspondence course doctorate from the University of South Africa.

Of course, some kids will have to play the role of seminary professors and staff during this year’s “Search for the Scrolls.”  Basically, that means they won’t be given any lunch and will have their snacks taken from them.  Because, honestly, every seminary professor should know that little scraps of illegible and fraudulent fragments are more important than their salaries or retirement, right?

And when they are done “authenticating” the “Dead Sea Scroll fragments,” Vacation Bible Schoolers will be guided to write down their experience for their parents to self-publish.

For more information about Big Daddy and Dottie’s multi million-dollar spending spree and the bogus scroll fragments they purchased and self-authenticated, click here.

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The Baptist Blogger will release information later today that many Southern Baptists have been anticipating. Until then, we suggest our readers enjoy some beignets and chicory.