Adrian Rogers
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| Adrian Rogers | |
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 Adrian Rogers |
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| Born | September 12, 1931 West Palm Beach, Florida, United States |
| Died | November 15, 2005 (aged 74) Memphis, Tennessee, United States |
| Nationality | American |
| Occupation | Pastor, Author, President of the Southern Baptist Convention |
| Religious beliefs | Baptist |
| Spouse(s) | Joyce Rogers |
| Website Love Worth Finding Ministries - LWF.org |
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Adrian Pierce Rogers (September 12, 1931 – November 15, 2005), was an American pastor, conservative, author, and a three-term president of the Southern Baptist Convention (1979-1980 and 1986-1988).
Rogers was born in West Palm Beach, Florida, and decided to enter into the Christian ministry at the age of nineteen. He graduated from Stetson University. Rogers was ordained by Northwood Baptist Church (now known as The Village Baptist Church) in West Palm Beach. In 1972, he became the senior pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis, where he remained until March 2005. During this period, the church's membership grew from 9,000 to 27,000, and the church moved into a new, megachurch facility.
Rogers was instrumental in the Southern Baptist denomination's shift towards the right that began in the late 1970s, as he was elected president of the denomination during a theological controversy within the denomination. He published eighteen books and is featured on the internationally-available radio and television program, Love Worth Finding [2], which is broadcast in English and Spanish.
In November 2005, Rogers contracted pneumonia of both lungs as a complication of colon cancer treatments, and died following a period of mechanical ventilation at the age of seventy-four.
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[edit] Southern Baptist Convention Presidency
Rogers served three times as president of the Southern Baptist Convention, the largest American Protestant denomination with 16 million members. He was first elected to this post on a platform of biblical inerrancy, and under his leadership, the denomination shifted sharply rightward, firing liberal and moderate seminary professors, as well as requiring all employees of the denomination's seminaries and the national office to affirm their adherence to the Baptist Faith and Message, a document which Rogers later (when he was no longer president) succeeded in significantly revising. The denomination has remained staunchly conservative since Rogers' first term as president.
Rogers is the only person to serve three times as SBC President (the bylaws limit serving to two consecutive terms; however, Rogers served one term in 1979 before stepping down, thus he was eligible to serve again).
[edit] Theology
Rogers' theology is best described as conservative and evangelical. He believed in Biblical inerrancy, dispensationalism, and eternal security of the believer. Rogers generally opposed Reformed theology.[citation needed]
[edit] On politics and social issues
Like many influential conservative pastors, Rogers participated in the advancement of a conservative political agenda in the United States. He stated that Christians have a duty to be involved in government, and that it is a sin for a Christian to abstain from voting in an election. He often spoke in opposition to the legality of abortion.[citation needed]
Familial dynamics was a recurrent issue for Rogers. He focused most closely on fathers that he labeled "drop-out dads." According to Rogers, since the Bible emphasizes the paternal role in a family, the father should be the primary source of teaching in the home. He was critical of fathers who do not fulfill this role: "We have dads today that are interested in sports, business, and sex. They've forgotten their God-given assignments to teach the Ten Commandments [3]." He went on to say that social problems, such as gun violence, are the consequences of fathers avoiding this responsibility.
On the topic of pastoral endorsement of political candidates, he wrote that it is a pastor's duty to influence the political decisions of the members of the pastor's congregation. A pastor need not, however, endorse a specific candidate (and, under Internal Revenue Service regulations, a church cannot do so without losing its tax-exempt status). He wrote that "[i]f [a pastor] has done his job his members will prayerfully and correctly use the standard of God's Word to select the right candidate."[4]
In May 2003, Rogers, along with twenty-four other religious leaders and persons of influence, signed a letter sent from Gary Bauer's conservative organization American Values to President George W. Bush. The letter criticizes President Bush's proposed Road Map for Peace initiative as being too lax towards the Palestinians. The letter states in part, "Mr. President, it would be morally reprehensible for the United States to be 'evenhanded' between democratic Israel . . . and the terrorist infested Palestinian infrastructure." [5]
Cecil Sherman writes in his autobiography that he once questioned Rogers about biblical inerrancy with reference to New Testament passages that seem to support slavery. Sherman reports that Rogers replied: "I believe slavery is a much maligned institution; if we had slavery today, we would not have this welfare mess."[1][2]
Rogers was an adamant supporter of the pro-life movement, had stated that the institution of capital punishment is spiritually ordained, and (along with other Southern Baptists) supported a boycott of Disney because of the company's alleged promotion of homosexuality.[6].
As a traditional Baptist, he opposed the use of alcohol and tobacco, frequently telling stories to warn of their dangers. One particular story tells of a father who learned that his daughter had died while driving drunk, vowed revenge towards whoever had sold her the alcohol, only to discover that she had taken the bottle from his own liquor cabinet.
[edit] "You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it."
This quote appears frequently [3] [4] [5] on the Internet and is often attributed to Dr. Rogers with an incorrect date of 1931. In fact, the quotation is part of a longer sermon by Dr. Rogers' from 1984 in a larger series titled God’s Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom (CDA107) [7], but it also appears as a passage in Dr. Rogers' 1996 work Ten Secrets for a Successful Family complaining that "by and large our young people do not know either the importance or the value of honest labor"[6].
You cannot legislate the poor into freedom by legislating the industrious out of it. You don't multiply wealth by dividing it. Government cannot give anything to anybody that it doesn't first take from somebody else. Whenever somebody receives something without working for it, somebody else has to work for it without receiving. The worst thing that can happen to a nation is for half of the people to get the idea they don't have to work because somebody else will work for them, and the other half to get the idea that it does no good to work because they don't get to enjoy the fruit of their labor.
[edit] Selected works
- Believe in Miracles but Trust in Jesus
- Mastering Your Emotions
- God's Way to Health, Wealth and Wisdom
- The Power of His Presence
- Ten Secrets for a Successful Family
- Unveiling the End Times in Our Time
- The Incredible Power of Kingdom Authority
- What Every Christian Ought to Know
- Standing for Light and Truth
- Adrianisms (posthumous collection of quotes)
- Grace for the Widow (posthumous collection of unpublished material in appendix; book is written by his wife Joyce, to be published January 2009)
[edit] Sources
- Love Worth Finding
- AP Obituary
- Love Worth Finding's short web biography
- Ouramericanvalues.org
- Commercial Appeal article
- Actual Quote
- It Takes God to Make a Home
- The Uniqueness of Christian Experience
- Baptist Faith and Message 2000
- Video Broadcasts
[edit] Footnotes
- ^ Sherman, Cecil E. (2008). By My Own Reckoning. Macon, GA: Smyth & Helwys Publishing, Inc.. pp. 189. ISBN 1573125067. http://books.google.com/books?id=ThtH61pIk1kC.
- ^ Edward T. Babinski, ed., Leaving the Fold: Testimonies of Former Fundamentalists (N.Y.: Prometheus Books, 1995) ISBN 1-59102-217-7 p. 125 See [1]
- ^ “You cannot multiply wealth by dividing it.” blog posting by Tim Burt.
- ^ Adrian Rogers on Free Lunches blog posting by The Independent Institute.
- ^ Google Search results for the exact phrase most often quoted.
- ^ Rogers, Adrian (1996). Ten Secrets for a Successful Family. Wheaton, IL: Crossway Books. p. 138. ISBN 1581340338. http://books.google.com/books?id=TY6-XkzaS4sC.
