New poll fuels Southern Baptists' concern over their own name

[SecularMotion]

The Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination and spiritual home to two living former presidents of the United States, is researching whether to change its name because of the public's negative associations with the church.

Forty percent of Americans have an unfavorable view of Southern Baptists, according to survey results released Wednesday by LifeWay Research, the SBC's research foundation.

The survey was conducted after the church's leadership appointed a task force earlier this year to consider the public image of the denomination, which has been associated with such polarizing political figures as the Rev. Jerry Falwell, convicted Watergate conspirator-turned-Baptist minister Charles Colson and television evangelist Pat Robertson. Just this month, a Southern Baptist church in Kentucky voted to ban interracial couples, a controversial decision the pastor later overturned.

http://usnews.msnbc.msn.com/_news/2011/12/07/9282920-new-poll-fuels-southern-baptists-concern-over-their-own-name

[niyad]

1. how about they change their bigoted, hate-filled policies instead.

how about changing that plank about "wives shall be submissive to their husbands" for starters.

[ellenfl]

3. amen. eom

[Vincardog]

2. They don't need to change their NAME. They need to change their "LEADERS"

OR learn to live with the rest of the world making JUDGMENTs as they(the Souther Baptist) seem to like to do.
If you are homophobic sexist and racist a name change is not what you need.
If you can't figure how to pour piss out of a boot with the instructions written on the heel,
you need education not PR

[RainDog]

4. wow. two factually incorrect bits here

Pat Robertson comes from the Pentacostal protestant sect. Southern Baptists, traditionally, did not like them because they spoke in tongues, etc.

The church that banned interracial couples in KY is from the Free Will Baptist sect, which is different than the Southern Baptists. Freewill Baptist congregations are generally more rural, even more confined to the south and their literalism would involve such acts in church like ritual foot washing.

hey, msnbc, give me a job as an editor.

[NMMNG]

5. They're not viewed negatively because of their name

They're viewed negatively because they're a bunch of backwards bigots.

[rrneck]

6. Typical corporate response. Rebrand it ank keep going.

I think I'll just continue to call them assholes.