Leaving the Church

UNLESS I'M DREAMING, there are two big southern Baptist organizations/churches in the former American southern confederacy: a black one, and a white one. I think they are both called something like "The Southern Baptist Leadership conference". Ah, the blessings of the Christian faith: love and reconciliation! (only in America moment here?). The white branch, much larger than the black, numbering tens of millions of members, is losing membership rapidly, something like hundreds of thousands a year. The secularization of modern society is cited as the primary reason. At this rate, the southern white american baptist association will be extinct by mid century. Good riddance. Surely we can replace it with something better, something more enlightened, more appropriate to our modern, scientific times, something less primitive. It would be nice, for instance, to rid humanity of the insane notion that God speaks to us in books, and tells us to do ghastly things like kill our children for misbehaving. Perhaps the missing southern white baptists are at NASCAR events, confederate flags a flyin', guns and Bibles carried and poorly concealed. My local white baptist big shot minister is the biggest of big shots, head of the whole gang, Pastor Ronnie Floyd. And yes, it is a gang, a multi million member gang, just as much as the Bloods, Sharks, or Jets; a group which does things, good, bad, and both. Ronnie is a good guy. He insists he will never, ever perform a gay wedding, and I believe him. Just another example of how Christianity is on the wrong side of history, and is therefore withering away. Change, or be left behind. The choice is obvious. Pastor Floyd supported bringing minor league baseball to his/our town, until he found out that beer would be sold at games, so he turned against the team, which was voted into town by a single vote, out of thousands cast. Any preacher who damned near keeps minor league baseball out of my town is my enemy, henceforth. No gay weddings? His choice. We can all choose to walk away, and many Christians seem to be doing exactly that.