Commonwealth Baptist College

[redcurls]

Does anyone have stories or information on Commonwealth Baptist College?

Earlier this summer, I was headed to the Lexington, KY airport and noticed their sign and campus. I had never seen or heard of them before but something told me they were fundy-esque. Maybe it was the nearby church, or maybe it said so on the sign, I honestly can't remember. Later, I googled them and sure enough, they are an "Independent, Fundamental Baptist College." If you check out their application for admission, you find these gems:

In the past three years have you engaged in drinking alcoholic beverages?

In the past three years have you engaged in smoking?

In the past three years have you engaged in taking illegal drugs?

Have you ever sought psychiatric/psychological counsel?

And the winner....

In the past three years have you attended a movie?

I have been dying to ask all summer but had to wait for my post count to get high enough. Please share! http://www.commonwealthbaptist.org

[emmiedahl]

Chapel is one of the highlights of Commonwealth Baptist College.

[crassy]

Never was an emoticon more appropriate.

I am so weary of unaccredited 'schools'. They are usually just diploma mills or scams. It makes me sad that people still give them money and they get fuckall in return. I noticed that some of their faculty are called Dr so-and-so but their 'degree' came from Hyles Anderson. Dishonesty FTW!

[kpmom]

Is any church or college with the word "Baptist" in it *not* fundy-esque? I'm honestly asking this. Are there some moderate Baptists?

riffle

[auntdocjulie]

Pretty sure the pastor/college pres is from HAC. Same place that fired their pastor in hammond, in this week.

[crassy]

Pretty sure the pastor/college pres is from HAC. Same place that fired their pastor in hammond, in this week.

Yeah, seems like most of them went to HAC, Pensacola, or something called Temple Baptist Seminary. Grade A education there!

[slh12280]

Does anyone have stories or information on Commonwealth Baptist College?

Earlier this summer, I was headed to the Lexington, KY airport and noticed their sign and campus. I had never seen or heard of them before but something told me they were fundy-esque. Maybe it was the nearby church, or maybe it said so on the sign, I honestly can't remember. Later, I googled them and sure enough, they are an "Independent, Fundamental Baptist College." If you check out their application for admission, you find these gems:

In the past three years have you engaged in drinking alcoholic beverages?

In the past three years have you engaged in smoking?

In the past three years have you engaged in taking illegal drugs?

Have you ever sought psychiatric/psychological counsel?

And the winner....

In the past three years have you attended a movie?

I have been dying to ask all summer but had to wait for my post count to get high enough. Please share! http://www.commonwealthbaptist.org

Yup on the alcoholic beverages, in fact, I just had one tonight.

No on smoking

No illegal drugs

Yup on seeking psychological counsel

Yup on attending a movie

Am I disqualified now?

[terranova]

I get the no drinking, smoking thing, but what's wrong with psychological counsel??

[emmiedahl]

Are all Baptists fundie? I just realized that every Baptist I know is at least fundie lite.

[terranova]

The Baptists here indistinguisable from your average WASP. Very mild mannered and unoffensive.

[Jezebel Duggar]

I get the no drinking, smoking thing, but what's wrong with psychological counsel??

Some Baptists tout "Biblical Counseling" instead of psychology. The "Scriptures" are all you need in life.

[emmiedahl]

The Baptists here indistinguisable from your average WASP. Very mild mannered and unoffensive.

Ours seem normal at first sight... until they invite you to a Passover meal and they pull out the Jesus and then feign surprise that he is not a part of the normal haggadah. And lots of things like that. Although I watched Good Baptist Friend literally throw Created to Be His Helpmeet across the room after reading a page when it was recommended by a mom at our homeschooling co-op.

[slh12280]

Are all Baptists fundie? I just realized that every Baptist I know is at least fundie lite.

There is the American Baptist church, which is a mainline denomination.

[NurseNell]

Is any church or college with the word "Baptist" in it *not* fundy-esque? I'm honestly asking this. Are there some moderate Baptists?

riffle

Bethel College in St. Paul, MN. Doesn't have the word Baptist in name, though I think it used to. Anyway, it is a Baptist college. It has a good nursing program.

[redcurls]

Yup on the alcoholic beverages, in fact, I just had one tonight.

No on smoking

No illegal drugs

Yup on seeking psychological counsel

Yup on attending a movie

Am I disqualified now?

Well dear, I'm sure we could get them to look past the alcohol and psychological care, but watching a movie.....that's just an unpardonable sin. :naughty:

[VintageJen1984]

Bethel College in St. Paul, MN. Doesn't have the word Baptist in name, though I think it used to. Anyway, it is a Baptist college. It has a good nursing program.

Houston Baptist University, but it's accredited, and they're thinking of dropping Baptist from their name, not because they aren't Baptist, but becuase they feel it's a turn off for potential students.

[synchroswimr]

Bethel College in St. Paul, MN. Doesn't have the word Baptist in name, though I think it used to. Anyway, it is a Baptist college. It has a good nursing program.

I would call Bethel fundie-lite.

We believe that certain forms of leisure, entertainment, and recreation are not congruent with holy living. We will make choices that are consistent with our pursuit of holiness in activities such as theater, dance, and music, or in the use of media and technology such as film, television, radio, and computers.

From: http://www.bethel.edu/about/covenant

ETA: they ban drinking, smoking, non-married sex, social dancing (last I heard), homosexual relationships... (I'm from the area and had friends go there for college, including one of Mr. Swimr's cousins)

[Rosa]

They're fundie light but they are at least accredited. That's the real difference, regional accreditation.

There's lots of perfectly normal black Baptist churches (National Baptist Convention) - they seem to vary a lot more, maybe since there's only one black convention so they don't split off along theological lines as much. A lot of SBC churches seem somewhere between normal and fundie-light - they talk the fundie talk (submission, conviction, etc) but don't seem to act different than mainline Christians.

[synchroswimr]

Very true, Rosa. And the cousin who went there said she got a good education

[NurseNell]

Very true, Rosa. And the cousin who went there said she got a good education

Yes, Bethel has an excellent reputation. Their nursing department is very well respected. I also knew several teachers who went there, they were very good teachers.

[Kaylee]

Commonwealth is VERY fundie. It's affiliated with an IFB chruch (Clays Mill, Clays Mill Road, something like that).

One of their co-founders is Dr. Anderson, who was the co-founder of Hyles-Anderson College, but left and distanced himself from it later on.

Jeff Fugate is pretty extreme. He is a HAC graduate. He used to speak at HAC on occasion but had a big falling out with Jack Schaap and reamed him out from the pulpit over several things, most notably for not taking a hardline KJV-only stance. He's very involved in right-wing politics and has made the news several times - he spoke at a "restore America" rally supporting mountaintop removal and other environmentally forms of coal mining, protesting the governor's calling a Christmas tree a "holiday tree", and shows up in the local media speaking against gambling and alcohol on occasion. He also wrote a parenting book with the typical advice - "train" and spank, teach them to be a carbon copy of you, little privacy & independence, & lots of control.

As far as Baptists in General go most, but not all, in the south are going to be fundie or fundie lite. The most fundies are usually IFB (it says fundamentalist right in the name), some Southern Baptist churches are fundie but must are fundie-lite and similar to other evangelical churches (many SBC churches have dropped the Baptist from their name and appear non-denominational, which confuses things even more), and it's similar with most Freewill Baptist churches, Primitive Baptists are fundie but don't get aggressively involved in politics or trying to convert people.

American Baptists (used to be called Northern Baptists) are more mainline, as are the Alliance of Baptists & Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and some of the groups that were or are mostly African-American (Progressive National Baptists, etc).

Since Baptists don't consider any of the group rules actually binding and individual churches can make their own policies and decisions, you can also have churches that are part of more than one group or that differ from the majority of the group. There's a church near here that is a part of the Southern Baptist Convention (mostly conservative) and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (more mainline) - they were a traditional SBC church and identify as such but support women in ministry and have a female assistant pastor and are LGBT "welcoming" (not totally affirming, but some members are trying to move them in that direction).

[Zoom]

This Baptist Church isn't fundy http://ibcnashville.org/

I have a friend who goes there and she doesn't smoke but won't say no to a drink and a movie or dancing :mrgreen:

[constantgardener]

There are more Baptist churches in the part of the UK where I live than any other denomination apart from the Church of England. I have a couple of close friends who are Baptist and you would certainly not be able to pick them out in a crowd - one of them can drink me under the table any day. They wear whatever they want.

It's only when you look more closely that you notice the differences. They 'don't do Harry Potter'. They don't let their kids do any activities other than church on a Sunday - if they get invited to a party they can't go. One of my friends' kids had to miss a ballet recital that her class had practised for months, just because it was on Sunday. I thought that was really sad. They always say grace before meals and they have a lot of biblical wallhanging etc in their homes.

It's interesting to me to even think that they are verging on 'fundy', because we're been friends since childhood. I even go into automatic 'non-swearing' mode in front of them!

[FlorenceHamilton]

My daughter's boyfirend's father is a Baptist Minister. His church is a member of the SBC. They are clearly evangelical and right wing in their politics. However, the family is fairly mainstream. Their (only) son went to a Jesuit graduate school. The pastor and his wife do not drink alcohol, but they socialize with people who do and they seem to be fine with it. I don't think they would entertain a drunkard, but then neither will I. There is nothing unusual about the way that Mrs. dresses or behaves. She is a professional woman with a full time career, independent interests and friends of her own.

There seems to be a good amount of variation within even the SBC.

[Kitty]

Every Baptist church I've run into in the South is Southern Baptist, which isn't anything like IFB but is still fundie-lite.

I used to go to SBC churches, and always wondered why my mother, who worked outside the home and out-earned my dad, chose it. It wasn't anything like all women HAD to be SAHMs, but most of the moms there did, and earning more than your husband would have been frowned upon. Oh, and she's a Democrat. In addition, she had no problems with me listening to rock music or reading Harry Potter, or going to school dances. Seriously, mom, WTF?

To be fair I've met a lot of fundie-lites my age who are far more free-wheeling than I am, but they do make a point of hanging religious decorations in their dorm rooms and going to Bible studies every week. You'd never tell they were fundie-lite unless you asked them what their political affiliations were.... :?