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Southern
Baptists Not Perfect on Bible Almost
every speaker that paraded across the stage at the recent Southern
Baptist Convention meeting repeated the mantra, "We are people
of the Book." That
Southern Baptists treasure, respect honor and recognize the absolute
authority of the Bible (and even worship it at times) is without
dispute. Unfortunately,
while we Southern Baptists are people of the Book, we are largely
illiterates. President Paige Patterson, thundered, "The Bible
is never wrong! Jesus is never wrong!" What Patterson couldn't
and didn't say was this - "Southern Baptists have been so
very wrong so many times in their interpretation of the Bible." Are
all of our interpretations of the Bible so infallible that we
can force them on every employee of the SBC? And further, shall
we also exclude from full participation in SBC life Southern Baptists
who believe the Bible is infallible and inerrant, but disagree
with certain narrow interpretations? The answer to both questions
after Orlando is yes. In
1845, the SBC was founded on the premise that the Bible sanctions
slavery and it is okay for Christians to own slaves. They had
dozens of Bible verses to back up their "infallible"
interpretation. Yet they ignored or explained away the Apostle
Paul's declaration, "In Christ, there is neither slave nor
free." Strike one. From
1865 through the late 1960s, the overwhelming majority of Southern
Baptists "infallibly" interpreted the Bible to teach
and sanction the racial inferiority of the Negro race which justified
inequality and segregation. They ignored or explained away Apostle
Paul's declaration, "In Christ, there is neither Jew or Greek."
Strike two. Now, on the threshold of a new millennium, Southern Baptists have "infallibly" pronounced that women cannot be called by God to be pastors. They ignore or explain away the Apostle Paul's declaration in the inerrant Holy Scriptures, "In Christ, there is neither male nor female." Strike three. In
1995, Southern Baptists officially apologized to the world and
repented for their previous "infallible" interpretations
in support of slavery and racism. If history repeats itself, in
about 2150 a generation of Southern Baptists will officially apologize
to the world for its chauvinism and prejudice toward women inflicted
at Orlando in 2000. Will God grant the SBC a fourth strike? July 2000 |