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What
Happened to the Southern Baptist Convention I grew up in? All of my life I have been in a Southern Baptist church. Both my parents were strong Christians with a Southern Baptist heritage. I learned about Christ and gained my Bible knowledge under the influence of Southern Baptist parents, family and church leaders. I was saved and baptized in a Southern Baptist church. I was educated in a Southern Baptist Convention seminary. I have been a SBC leader in many Baptist associations, three state conventions and in the national SBC. With much grief I have watched the wonderful SBC I knew and loved disappear. It has been destroyed and replaced with a new SBC that now has turned away from many cherished basic Baptist beliefs and distinctives. What happened? How did it happen? It is a long story and hard to explain in detail. My abbreviated explanation follows. Let me offer an illustration that compares with SBC events. Being Southern Baptist was like being in a boat flowing down a mighty river representing the Baptist Way. It was an approach to living a Christian faith based upon basic principles that have identified us in history as Baptist Christians. Baptist principles are:
Most Southern Baptists were in the center or mainstream of the Baptist River. They were careful not to get too close to the right or left banks. We knew that the right banks could pull us out of the mainstream, and we would get caught up in beliefs that were not truly Baptistic. The same thing could happen if we got too close to the left banks, so most Southern Baptists (like me) functioned in the mainstream. In Southern Baptist life some preferred traveling closer to the far right banks while others preferred the far left banks. So Southern Baptists had people in the same river who shared the same basic Baptist beliefs. They cooperated in their conviction and zeal to fulfill the Great Commission (Matthew 28:19-20) while not all shared the same views and approaches to church life and Christian practices. I learned early in my Christian life that not all Southern Baptists were the same. Not all shared an identical theology on every issue facing the Christian faith and the church. I learned this was a wonderful aspect of being Baptist. It is a result and benefit of the priesthood of the believer. Since all of us are on a spiritual journey, we will all be at different levels of spiritual maturity and understanding. Therefore, in God's kingdom agreeing on the basics of the Christian faith is important. Diversity on other issues is important so that ultimately we may all grow into the oneness of Christ (Ephesians 4). The SBC allowed diversity until now. So, what happened to this river called Southern Baptist? Most Southern Baptists functioned in the center or mainstream of Southern Baptist beliefs as outlined in the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. We can best think of them as traditional Baptists. In the realm of Christian theology today we would identify these mainstream or traditional Baptists as conservative in their understanding of the Christian faith and practices. Even within the mainstream some choose to function more to the right and others to the left. A few Southern Baptists, however, functioned near the extreme right banks and would get pulled off into other tributaries and embrace beliefs not in the mainstream. In Christian theology today we would identify them as fundamentalist. Fundamentalists are different from people who believe in the fundamentals of the faith. Traditional Baptists in the mainstream believe in the fundamentals of the faith. Fundamentalists possess certain theological views and understandings of scripture that lie outside traditional Baptist beliefs. Fundamentalists also are intolerant of anyone who differs from their views and understandings. They believe they have the truth on all issues, and anyone who does not agree must be considered an outsider. Their quest is to purify the faith. They do this either by gaining allegiance to their views or eliminating those who disagree. Fundamentalists champion authority and control. Fundamentalism cannot survive outside a hierarchical system of authority and power. Another few Baptists functioned near the extreme left banks. They too get pulled off into other tributaries and embrace non-mainstream Baptist beliefs. In Christian theology today we identify them as liberals. Liberals differ from people who believe in the liberality of Christian grace and service. True liberals give token appreciation to scripture. They function most comfortably in the realm of personal opinions and practices. They do not try to purify the faith. Rather, they dilute the faith to the point of spiritual ambiguity. Until now Southern Baptists had functioned within this Baptist river and cooperated on ministries and missions. Most Southern Baptists were in the main stream, so most of what the SBC did was by the influence of traditional Baptists. Those who functioned closely to the far left and right banks also had contributions to make. The SBC experienced the benefits of this diversity and God used the SBC to become an amazingly effective force for the Christian faith. Now the SBC has changed radically. Those who functioned near the extreme right banks found a way to take control of the denomination. To gain control, they needed to have one of their leaders elected president of the convention 10 consecutive years. SBC presidents make appointments which ultimately filters down to the appointments of all leadership. Fundamentalist leadership eventually could remove all other leaders. Once replaced, the fundamentalists would gain complete control. This has happened. Fundamentalists succeeded by deceiving enough people to believe that those functioning in the far left banks were taking control of the convention and needed to be stopped. They promised to stop the liberals. The fundamentalists aggressively enlisted people to go to the annual meetings to vote for their selected man for Convention president. They paid the way for people to travel in buses to vote. One year a man was elected SBC president who had never before attended a meeting. Once they voted on the president, their buses left. Messengers did not participate in any other plenary sessions. Now that fundamentalists have gained control, they have insisted that everyone must follow them to the far right banks and into their tributary of beliefs. Now they must eliminate both the left bank and the main stream. Fundamentalists have eliminated all former leadership from all SBC organizations, boards and agencies. Present leaders have replaced them with their selected right bank fundamentalist leaders. They also have rewritten the Baptist Faith and Message to suit their theological spin. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and several new Mainstream or Centrist Baptist groups have formed. They seek to reestablish the mainstream river as a way to help some Southern Baptists continue to be Baptists in the truest sense and not to be purely fundamentalists. I believe we must get back to the main stream of our Baptist history and beliefs without being reactionary. Some success of the far-right fundamentalist movement has come from our Baptist desire for a stronger set of societal values. Fundamentalists promise to accomplish this. We must not abandon our heritage and foundational beliefs in hopes that the fundamentalists will fix the wrongs in society. I appeal to us; do not embrace the fundamentalism that has captured the old SBC. Nevertheless, in rejection of the fundamentalists' control we also must be careful not to move to the far left, because it too would involve an abandonment of our foundational beliefs. I want to get back to the strength of our Baptist heritage and tradition. I cannot function in the new river on the right. I have chosen to get on the boats of those groups that are striving to steer back into the river's main stream. January 2001 |