In a blog post Feb. 9, Ed Stetzer, president of LifeWay Research, which was cited in the column, said Calvinism is the new Baptist bogeyman, a nonthreatening issue that distracts the convention from real dangers. In the past, those who preached against the Purpose Driven movement and the emerging church movement ultimately drove out a generation of Southern Baptists who otherwise were sympathetic with the convention, Stetzer wrote

Southern Baptists must decide whether they are satisfied with a “presumable encroachment of Calvinism” in their leadership and their seminary graduates, Baptist paper editor Gerald Harris wrote Feb. 9, drawing responses from several SBC entities.

In a column titled “The Calvinists are here,” Harris, editor of The Christian Index, newsjournal of the Georgia Baptist Convention, set forth statements about Calvinism and quoted Southern Baptists on both sides of the issue.

“… It appears that some of our institutions and agencies are giving, at the least, tacit approval to Reformed theology or are, at the most, actively on a path to honor, if not implement Reformed theology and methodology in their institutions,” Harris wrote at ChristianIndex.org.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., was cited in the column as “a particular source” of recent graduates espousing Reformed doctrines.

“There is a growing perception that Southern Seminary has become a seedbed for a brand of Calvinism that is quite different from the Reformed theology of its founder, James Petigru Boyce, and also a training ground for Reformed church planters,” Harris wrote.

In response, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Seminary, told Baptist Press, “I have no idea what Dr. Harris has in mind with this comment, and only he can explain it. The theological standard at The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary is the Baptist Faith & Message and the Abstract of Principles, upon which the institution was founded, and on which the first signature is that of James Petigru Boyce.”

The North American Mission Board was included as an example of Calvinistic infiltration because a recent issue of its On Mission magazine highlights several church planters, “two of whom could be seen as Reformed in their theology.”

Harris also pointed to NAMB’s decision to include St. Louis as one of its focus cities in the Send North America church planting initiative.

“In St. Louis NAMB will encounter a Baptist association that has already launched 15 church plants, seven of which are listed as Acts 29 Network churches,” Harris wrote, characterizing Acts 29 as “admittedly evangelical, missional and Reformed in its approach to church planting.”

Mark Driscoll, founder and lead visionary of Acts 29, “seems to have a significant influence in the lives of some Southern Baptists,” Harris wrote, spending several paragraphs on the controversy surrounding Driscoll’s latest book, “Real Marriage.”

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary and its president, Danny Akin, are mentioned in connection with Driscoll. Specifically, Harris insinuates that Driscoll’s book is given credence by an endorsement from Akin and his wife Charlotte.

“In recent years Driscoll has been a chapel speaker at SEBTS and his influence at the seminary cannot be ignored,” Harris wrote.

The newspaper editor ended his column by addressing the possibility that Southern Baptists will move toward changing the name of the convention when they gather in New Orleans in June. He suspects the proposed name will be the Great Commission Baptist Convention.

“If that is the suggested name and if we dare vote for it to be our new appellation we dare not defame it with half-hearted evangelism and church plants that wither away in five years,” Harris wrote.

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