A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE: LIVING IN DENIAL
By David R. Currie,
Coordinator

Grief experts tell us that one of the stages of grief is “denial.” It is normal for individuals to go through a period of time in which they are simply not able to accept the reality that a catastrophic event has occurred.

Sometimes denial lasts only hours or days. In severe cases it may last years.

As I travel the state, I consistently listen to people living in denial regarding the Southern Baptist Convention. Rather than except the reality of the death of the SBC as we have known it, these people look for hope in the midst of overwhelming evidence to the contrary.

An example is the election of Ken Hemphill as President of Southwestern Seminary. Many people, obviously quickly forgetting the firing of Russell Dilday on March 9, 1994, believe the seminary is now going to remain traditional Baptist in its approach to theological education. NOT A CHANCE!

Already the Baptist Standard has stopped being distributed on campus because of “negative press.” This is typical radical fundamentalism, control the access to information.

Then it is announced that the headline speaker at the fundamentalist controlled BGCT Pastor’s Conference, which meets prior to the BGCT annual meeting, although the convention is on record as requesting that NO meetings be held prior to the BGCT annual meeting is none other than Ken Hemphill.

Do you honestly believe Hemphill is trying to build bridges with all Texas Baptists by appearing at the non-sanctioned Pastor’s Conference with O.S. Hawkins? No, he is cementing his fundamentalist floor of support.

Denial is being practiced with our worldwide gifts. Texas Baptists reject fundamentalist leadership and then fund fundamentalism. According to the Baptist Standard, the dollar increase in giving through the Southern Baptist Executive Committee from Texas Baptist Churches was more than the dollar increase of all other states combined. That is denial.

I am not speaking of funding missionaries. That is a separate and distinct problem we must all be working to solve. I am talking about institutions like Southeastern Seminary, whose President is Paige Patterson. Texas Baptists sent Southeastern over $600,000 last year. They educate 19 Texas students. That is over $31,000 dollars per Texas student! And what are we supporting in doing this — not traditional Baptist conservative theological education, but fundamentalist indoctrination!

Churches and individuals have a right to support whatever they choose. But it is certainly time for them to stop and think about how their gifts are being used.

The biggest case of denial is being practiced by pastors and denominational workers. I pick these words carefully, because I understand that being a pastor in this climate is extremely difficult. But I also have a strong conviction that the quickest way for a pastor to get in trouble is to not tell his people the truth and encourage them to think for themselves.

The fundamentalists have controlled the SBC for 15 years. Yet, there are thousands of churches in this state in which the pastor has never stood in the pulpit and informed the people of what is going on in the convention. EVERY SINGLE HISTORICAL BAPTIST PRINCIPLE HAS BEEN REJECTED BY THE FUNDAMENTALIST LEADERS OF THE SBC, and yet pastors have lived in denial believing they could prevent the controversy from affecting their church.

Friends, it is affecting your church. Your lay people read The Baptist Standard. What I hear daily is “Why won’t our pastor take a stand and inform the rest of our congregation?” The laity wants pastoral leadership.

Texas Baptist churches need leadership. The next five years are going to be unbelievable years of change. All over the SBC, state conventions and local churches are rebelling against the exclusiveness and “my way or the highway” attitude of SBC leaders. Difficult choices are going to have to be made. Informed people will make rational, fair, Christian responses.

We have denominational people that believe traditional Baptists can influence SBC agencies. When Dr. Dilday was fired, a state executive secretary from another state wrote an article about how tragic it was and then said we have no choice but to keep supporting the SBC because of the institutions. That is denial!

If you really want to know how much influence traditional Baptists have in SBC institutions simply focus your memory on March 9, 1994. That is the day Russell Dilday was fired. That is how much influence we have.

Traditional Baptists have absolutely zero, none, nada, influence on the SBC and its institutions. And thirty years from now we will still have no influence. To deny that is to refuse to live in the real world.

The SBC takeover is done. It is complete. It is total. And the hardest thing for us to accept as rational people is that the fundamentalists will not compromise. They will not try to build bridges.

Texas Baptists have one option in dealing with fundamentalists. Do not let them take over the BGCT like they have the SBC. But always treat everyone fairly. And move on following God’s leadership.

Moving beyond denial is essential to the future of Texas Baptists and Gods reconciling work in the world. In order to be open to God’s leadership for the future, Texas Baptists must move beyond denial to reality. Then we can follow God into new frontiers of service and ministry.

As we move from denial to reality the questions we face include:

“How does God want Texas Baptists to provide theological education?”

“How does God want Texas Baptists to do home and foreign missions?”

“How does God want Texas Baptists to provide Christian Discipleship materials?”

Surely He wants us to cooperate with other traditional Baptists, but how, in what ways?

We cannot be open to God’s leadership in helping us deal with these questions if we are still living in denial. Can we cooperate with people who do not want our cooperation and who deny our most basic principles? Can we fund non-Baptist indoctrination? Can we limit our mission opportunities to organizations which are now Baptist in name only?

The future for Texas Baptists and God’s work can be exciting and glorifying to the Kingdom. The sooner we move out of denial, the sooner we can follow God’s leadership into an exciting new future.

September 1994