A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE:
I am losing my Patience!
By David R. Currie,
Coordinator

Sometimes I think I have been at this job too long. I first started getting a paycheck for trying to stop the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in January, 1988. I was field coordinator for Baptists Committed to the Southern Baptist Convention. We hoped to elect Richard Jackson that year, and then tried to elect Dan Vestal. Finally, we gave up and I started to work on protecting the BGCT.

It has been a long eight years. Now do not jump to conclusions. I am too much of a Baptist to quit. But I am losing my patience.

First, I am losing my patience with fundamentalists. I get tired of character assassination in the name of God, and of hypocrisy under the guise of spirituality. A few examples to make my point.

At TBC we try to stick with the facts. You might think my article on the mission giving of John Bisango, Ed Young, and Jack Graham is mean. I do not. But at least what is printed is the facts. You can look up the giving records in the BGCT annual.

Fundamentalists pay no attention to the facts. Case in point is a letter mailed out by Baptist With a Mission president, Ernest Gregory. In the letter he attacks Charles Wade and says, “He is not an authentic Southern Baptist. He has sold out to the moderate/ liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.”

I know Charles Wade well. He baptized my two boys. The only thing Charles Wade ever sold out to was Jesus, his church, and his family! His church, First Baptist, Arlington, is a shining example of a church deeply involved in missions and evangelism. He is as loving a person as I have ever known.

Gregory’s letter on two occasions mentions the “moderate/liberal leadership of the BGCT.” I am losing patience with the labeling of people. Who is he talking about — Bill Pinson, Ed Schmeltekopf, Roger Hall, James Semple, Bailey Stone, Herb Pederson, Phil Strickland, Joy Fenner? He never says. He paints them all with the same “liberal” brush. It is character assassination and it’s lying, and I am losing patience with it.

Then there is hypocrisy under the guise of spirituality. Read Jerry Rankin’s ($11,000 of your CP funds) letter regarding the WMU. “We ask that you pray with us that the decision of the WMU National Board to deviate from its historic role... will be abandoned.” I have no patience for people who “knife people in the back with smiles on their faces.” At least Judge Pressler was honest enough to admit he was “going for the jugular” and did not cloak it under pietism.

Second, I am losing patience with people who say that what we do at Texas Baptists Committed is just as bad as the fundamentalists.

I find this logic unbelievable!

Is defending the integrity and character of individuals (what we do) as bad as attacking the character and integrity of individuals (what they do)?

Is trying to keep Texas Baptists from embracing a creedal faith as bad as imposing a creedal faith on Southern Baptists? The Peace Committee report is now a creed all Southern Baptist Seminary professors must sign on to.

Is urging respect for local church autonomy as bad as denying local church autonomy? Send a check to CBF and ask them to pass it on to the Foreign Mission Board and that check will be rejected and local church autonomy will be denied. Try it.

Is advocating for religious liberty as bad as urging the state to deny religious liberty? Is supporting strict separation of church and state as bad as urging that the separation of church and state be violated with school prayer amendments and vouchers for church schools?

Is urging Texas Baptists to elect leaders who will respect all viewpoints and be inclusive of all Texas Baptists as bad as urging the election of leaders who will only appoint fundamentalists to positions of leadership?

Is urging Texas Baptists to elect leadership who will support our BGCT leaders as bad as urging Texas Baptists to elect fundamentalists who want to fire our leadership?

Is urging Texas Baptists to elect leaders who will appoint trustees of our institutions who will stand up for academic freedom as bad as urging the election of leaders who will appoint trustees who will deny academic freedom? See Southern Seminary right now!

I do not think so. I do not believe that working to keep the Baptist General Convention of Texas from being controlled by those who now control the Southern Baptist Convention and who have put into practice many non-Baptist methods of operation is the same thing. We are standing up for freedom. They are advocating control. Freedom is the Baptist way.

Our model is Jesus Christ. He did not stand on the sidelines in regard to the pharisees of his day. He opposed their taking religious faith and turning it into rules and regulations. He threw them out of the temple. He spoke out boldly, according to Matthew, not pulling any punches. And surely he did and spoke these things in love!

We are defending the same Gospel, the Gospel of Grace. Evil is evil, no matter who is doing it, even preachers and religious people. We often say “love the sinner and hate the sin.” What has happened to the Southern Baptist Convention is evil and a sin. And in love, we should firmly stand and not let it happen to Texas Baptists. The Gospel should be defended, even against members of our own religious family when they try to make it legalism instead of grace.

Standing against those who would do evil to the Baptist General Convention of Texas does not make us as bad as those seeking to do the evil. In fact, it seems to me to be the only honorable, Baptist thing to do.

So, I am losing my patience, but not enough to stop standing for what I believe. I pray that I do not say or write anything that is untruthful or unloving. But I also pray that my boys do not ever see me, their Daddy, not stand up for what I believe is right. If that day should come, then I would be a failure and would lose patience with myself.

October 1995