Oh, great. The Southern Baptist Convention has affirmed the reality and eternity of hell. Let’s recall this fact — and that it’s the largest Protestant body in the United States, despite recent shrinkage — whenever someone makes the silly assertion that “the Universalists won” the moral or intellectual battle.
Writing about Universalist Christianity and improving how churches work
I absolutely agree with you that it’s important for us to continue to assert the Universalist message. And no doubt millions do believe in the hell that the SBC describes — and many are harmed by that belief.
That said, I do think that Universalism and pluralism are winning the cultural war. And I also think that what leadership says and what the membership privately believes are not to be mistaken for each other…
It would help those of us who wish to advance universalism if UU, UCC, or Episcopal churches would discuss or at least define or mention it from time to time. I attend a Bible Study that meets about eight times a year, and members there do bring it up quite a bit. When I visited a Christian Science church two years ago, one hymn by Hosea Ballou was sung—something that would not happen at our Universalist Church here.