I'm a former SBC person, and not particularly pleased with them, but these allegations have little to do with reality:
Originally posted by Shiloh:
The average SBC church however compared to the average IFB church would not be as 'convictional'...
Convictional? Does that mean that these churches spend their time trying to "convict" people of their sins instead of connecting people with God and training them on how to live a life in God's Kingdom?
Certainly clothes can be an issue for believers, but if this is the "women cannot wear pants" false doctrine, then I'd say that most SBC churches are innocent of this.
Some SBC churches are still reacting against long hair, but I don't think you can make a blanket statement either way.
Most SBC churches are not caught up in the false doctrine of KJVO, but unfortunately, there are always a few churches in a region who have more faith in their Bible translation than they have faith that God can adequately get His message across to believers who seek him through "modern" translations.
...and disponsational eschatology...
You can't make a blanket statement about this either. Lots of people are caught up in dispensationalism (especially since the "Left Behind" books because such a hit), but it is by no means the only common viewpoint.
Most SBC people I know have enough faith to trust God with the details and keep working for the day when faith shall be sight.
...woman or gay preachers.
You're really off the rails with this one. The SBC specifically rejected women as pastors and homosexual activity in their BF&M 2000.
That being said, I don't think that there are any female pastors in the SBC anymore, although I imagine that there are a large number of women who publicly proclaim the name of Jesus before groups (preach) inside and outside church meetings -- just like in the New Testament church.
As far as gay preachers, there ARE gay preachers in the SBC, but they are very secretive. (I feel certain that there are gay IFB preachers too.) Homosexual activity is condemned (rightly so), especially in vocational ministers, so it only comes out when there are scandals.
In my years in SBC life and in friendship with several IFB preachers, I've discovered that IFB members often have a faulty and negative view of Southern Baptists. Often, there is not that much different between the groups except that Southern Baptists tend (in theory) to cooperate in a more trusting and open way that IFB.
The biggest difference I have seen is that IFB folks seem to think that God is judging them according to the sins of their coworkers instead of actually judging them for freezing out people who desperately need to hear the gospel.
