Ambition

I read this article on bloggers in the Southern Baptist Convention and I don't know what to think.
I was anticipating really enjoying hearing about the renegade bloggers' challenging of the increasingly tight circling of the wagons of the political old guard.

Instead I found myself thinking both "sides" are more alike than they think.

Near the end of paragraphs and paragraphs of journalistic text -- some of it reflecting incisive commentary on the conflicts/movements, some of it reflecting a basic and biased ignorance of the people being examined -- comes this almost offhand note, perhaps the most telling of all the observations in the ostensibly investigative piece:

The successful vote on the Faith and Message was [Ben Cole's] valedictory -— he plans to participate more at his church (the parking lot was finally repaved) and less in SBC politics.

(Emphasis mine.)

Ambition. Aspiration. Success.

The Church does not need brilliant personalities but faithful servants of Jesus and the brethren . . . Pastoral authority can be attained only by the servant of Jesus who seeks no power of his own, who himself is a brother among brothers to the authority of the Word.
-- Dietrich Bonhoeffer

(Related: To God be the Glory)

(HT: Bene Diction)