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"A
Document of Exclusion" Just
when I think that our national fundamentalist Southern Baptist
leaders couldn't possibly think of anything crazier to do, they
surprise me again! You have heard the news reports of the recently
released document on which Southern Baptists will vote (and will
likely approve) at our national convention in June. This document,
called the "Baptist Faith and Message," originated in
1925 and was revised in 1963. (Somehow, we managed to survive
as a denomination without any written statement of faith for three-quarters
of a century). The
1963 statement was revised by fundamentalist leaders in 1998 by
the addition of the family amendment which said, in part, that
"a wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership
of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship
of Christ." The amendment failed to mention that Ephesians
5.21 says we all are to submit to one another out of reverence
for Christ. We have lived with this narrow interpretation for
two years. News
media understandably have reported only the most "newsworthy"
(i.e., "what creates controversy and, therefore, sells")
aspect of the new document. This addition states, "While
both men and women are gifted for service in the church, the office
of pastor is limited to men as qualified by scripture." (Article
VI "The Church"). Scripture
does indeed list the qualifications of men who would be overseers,
or bishops in I Timothy 3.1-7. (The word pastor is only used once
in the New Testament in Ephesians 4.11 as an expression of the
grace of Christ given to some). It
also lists qualifications of deacons and deaconesses in the verses
following. There is no statement in the New Testament which says,
"Women cannot be pastors." Wisely until next month,
Southern Baptists have chosen to remain silent on an issue which
scripture does not address, deferring its resolution to each local
congregation. That day ends next month. The
2000 document will become known as a statement which excluded
women as pastors, but the document will rewrite our history because
it excludes other statements we have held dear. The
revisionists exclude from the preface the sentence, "Baptists
emphasize the soul's competency before God, freedom in religion,
and the priesthood of the believer." One wonders how one
can be Baptist without such distinctive beliefs. The
revisionists exclude from the first sentence of "Article
I: The Scriptures," the words, "the record of."
The sentence previously read, "The Holy Bible was written
by men divinely inspired and is the record of God's revelation
of Himself to man." Take away those three words and we come
closer to worshipping the Bible rather than the God to whom the
Bible points us. Scripture is holy and points us to God, but scripture
is not God. The
revisionists exclude the last sentence of the first article,
"The criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is
Jesus Christ." Since 1963, this sentence has allowed intelligent,
thoughtful analysis of biblical passages which are antithetical
to the revelation of God in Jesus Christ. Many Old Testament passages
fall into this category. Such passages, when compared with the
criterion of Jesus Christ, fail to have compelling merit for us.
No longer! The
revisionists exclude the word "inerrant" from consideration
as the Executive Director of the Baptist General Convention of
Texas had requested. Instead they used the odd phrase in Article
One, "...all scripture is totally true (italics mine) and
trustworthy." If
all scripture is "totally true," then we must believe
it is true in all matters of science. Archaeology and the advances
of science during the last 100 years prove us wrongheaded to keep
trying to assert something which the Bible does not claim for
itself. There
are more gems which can be mined from this new revision of our
faith and message. Our history continues to be rewritten as a
people and a faith of exclusion. I hope we survive long enough
for the pendulum to swing back to the center of the theological
spectrum where most Southern Baptists still long to reside. Thank
goodness that Texas Baptists continue to demonstrate a more accurate
reflection of the people called Baptists. May our tribe increase! July 2000 |