NaNoWriMo: Southern Baptists and Pentecostal beliefs?

Question

Hello, all:

I'm reposting this from last night to have (hopefully) more people see it and respond.

I am doing research for my NaNoWriMo novel (details of the "write a novel in 30 days" concept at http://www.nanowrimo.org), and I have a main character who is going to be either Pentecostal or Southern Baptist.

I would greatly appreciate anything that anyone can tell me about these two denominations or point me to good online resources, and information from someone "on the inside" would be supremely helpful. I want to be sure that I portray the character's beliefs accurately and in a way that does justice to these faith traditions.

Thanks to everybody who takes the time to answer.

Answer 1

You can email me if you'd like. I'm a 20 something year veteran of the Southern Baptist faith and am the granddaughter of a minister. I'll answer your questions without bias, though I'm not a part of it anymore. I'm doing NaNoWriMo as well, so I feel your pain. : )

Answer 2

I was raised a Pentecostal.

It messed me up a little.

They are fundamentalists (i.e. the Bible is the literal word of God). They are very closed minded to science and discovery. Some of them do not believe in medicine but that number is shrinking. The believe that they can be filled with the Holy Ghost/Spirit and can speak in tongues. They misinterpret the day of Pentecost in the Bible and place great importance on speaking in tongues even though the Bible says it is a lesser gift and that there must be an interpreter present.

They are very outspoken with their judgments and they are very judgmental and some of them feel that other Christian denominations are wrong (my Mom thinks I am hellbound because I am Catholic). They are also inconsistent. They don't support abortion but they support the death penalty. Politically, they tend to be swayed easily by religious rhetoric and are one issue voters.

They also believe that salvation can be easily lost. Instead of accepting it once and confessing your sins from then on out, every sin you commit causes you to lose salvation and you have to accept Jesus all over again. The preach against "once saved always saved" but they do not understand the context behind it.

Also, they have a very broad definition of sin because of their literalism of the Bible. For example, I have sinned because I got an industrial piercing. My boyfriend was a sinner because he smoked. My dad sins because he enjoys an occassional beer. My dad is also a sinner because he divorced his first wife. They are more concerned with what people do than how they act.

They put a lot of importance on going to church. Which is OK, but they would find more fault in someone who didn't go to church but spent their time volunteering than someone who came to church every Sunday but went home and did nothing to help their fellow man.

They say love the sinner hate the sin, but very few practice what they preach.

My advice to you is to go to a service. But if you don't want 1000 people on you trying to convert you, sit in the back.

I am sorry to sound biased, but I am still a little bitter (which is not good, I am working on it). I once had a Pentecostal minister tell me, without a shred of emotion, that I would go to hell if I believed the planet was 4.55 billion years old.

Pentecostalism varies largely though from place to place. Your results may vary.

Answer 3

Both believe true biblical fundamentalist doctrine (there's always a few in every group that depart from biblical doctrine, so you have to watch out for that)

Baptists say (in general) the spiritual gifts of the Holy Spirit are not active today. Pentecostals say the gifts are active.

Baptists are more conservative in worship. Pentecostals are more active. Both are loved by Jesus.

Answer 4

I would go with Pentecostal. They have a whole bunch of strange practices. They are full of dysfunctional people that feed off of the drama of each other, and the pastors know how to milk them for their money.