Baptist Born and Bred… and I haven’t changed!
by George W. Hawkes
Deacon, First Baptist Church, Arlington

At age 11 as the oldest son of my Baptist parents, I walked the aisle of a small rural area Baptist Church and professed the Lord Jesus as my Saviour and Lord. For some 70 years I have contributed to and been a member of a Baptist Church, the past 50 in FBC/ Arlington, and have gloried in the freedom and sense of purpose my membership has meant to me, as well as to untold myriad of friends and relatives who have enjoyed the blessings and challenge of being faithful to the One whose kingdom we try to serve.

Now a retired 50-year newspaper publisher, I have long been active in a Baptist church in practically every responsibility assigned me by my church and my denomination. As member and chairman of the Advisory Board of Southwestern Seminary during Dr. Robert Naylor’s presidency, I learned to appreciate and love the purpose of the Seminary.

As member and two-year chairman of The Baptist Standard’s Board, I received a wonderful statewide view of Texas Baptist work during the editorship of John J. Hurt, and on more than one occasion stood by the independence and purpose of our great state paper.

A student in my teens at Baylor University under the venerable Pat Neff, I still have an abiding faith in Baylor as it seeks to be an accredited university and still retain its long-held Baptist heritage.

All through this tenure, I gloried in the work of Texas Baptists and the Southern Baptist Convention and our adherence to long-held Baptist beliefs of the independence of the individual Baptist church, the priesthood of the believer, and the right of the individual Baptist to search out the truths of God’s infallible Word, using the preaching and interpretations of other Bible scholars as a guide, but not subject to any hieracratical fiats handed down by others. I do not try to enforce my individual interpretations on others, but I cannot stand still and do obeyance to others, who by virtue of a rounded-up majority and misleading charges of infidelity, claim an infallible hold on the Kingdom’s keys.

My pastor, Charles R. Wade, who is the present president of Texas Baptists, has close adherence to the basic truths I hold sacred as a freedom-loving Baptist. I have been privileged to be selected by my church to head up the pastor search committee for the past two pastors who have spanned the last 45 years of our church’s growth and service to his Kingdom.

Neither has ever made me feel they were superior in commitment. Their work of preaching the gospel, caring for the membership, helping the underprivileged and downtrodden, and respecting the right of others to learn and serve and even to disagree, has never been questioned by me or the very large majority of members and denominational friends who have been acquainted with their dedication and leadership purpose.

If anyone has strayed from the true Baptist path by advocating pastoral dictatorship and absolute adherence to their own Biblical interpretations, it has not been Charles Wade nor H.E. East. They have always been about the Master’s business as outlined by the Great Commission, and they still hold fast to the basic and long-held aspirations of the Southern Baptist Convention’s stalwarts to help win the world for Christ.

I do not enjoy the present denominational political “fight” we have been faced with the past decade. It has thrown a real blanket of discouragement over many of us who have felt that the Kingdom is too important to be muffled by infighting. But I cannot acquiesce and bow to the action of others who seek to brand those of us who may have a slightly different idea of God’s purpose in our lives as being “heretics” to the Baptist cause. I do not hold to be the only one in charge of the Holy Grail. God’s love reaches far beyond the fences men build to “protect” God’s purposes. Would that we as God’s children only put up fences that encircle all who love Him and make use of the varied talents and dedication exemplified by His teachings.

In these days of frustration, charges and counter-charges, here I stand! I haven’t changed!

June 1997