CO-CHAIR THOUGHTS FROM JEROLD McBRIDE
The organized reconciliation effort

A number of people across the state have requested my thoughts about the recent discussion regarding reconciliation. I wrote about this subject in my pastor’s column of my church and decided to share it with you.

reconcile/reconciliation 1. to make friendly again or win over to a friendly attitude 2. to settle (a quarrel, etc.) or compose (a difference, etc.) 3. to make consistent, compatible, etc.; bring into harmony 4. to make content, submissive, or acquiescent. (The second edition of Webster’s New World Dictionary)

There is reconciliation and then there is reconciliation. It all depends on the meaning one gives this word.

Every Texas Baptist surely would support the first definition of reconciliation “to make friendly again or win over to a friendly attitude.” But only those who would use this word in an effort to dominate and control would support the fourth definition “to make content, submissive or acquiescent.”

The Biblical pattern “to make friendly again or win over to a friendly attitude” is done on a one-to-one basis. This is personal reconciliation, it is scriptural reconciliation, it is the only form of true reconciliation. Our Lord encourages personal reconciliation. He teaches that we must go first and be reconciled to our brother (Matthew 5:24). Efforts at personal reconciliation are Biblical. Efforts at programmed reconciliation are divisive.

Biblical personal reconciliation stands in stark contrast with political, structured, or programmed reconciliation. True reconciliation can neither be negotiated nor legislated. Only the individuals who are estranged can be reconciled and that only on a person-to-person basis.

This is what concerns me about any "reconciliation" effort that in a programmed and structured manner seeks to bring groups together and hammer out some kind of agreement. This, of necessity, requires that one or the other parties involved be made “submissive or acquiescent” or at best requires those parties to abandon or compromise their personal convictions.

Biblical personal reconciliation respects each others’ convictions and in a “friendly attitude” works with and is gracious to those with whom they continue to differ.

The Catholic bishop of the San Angelo Diocese and I are working together on the Religious Freedom Restoration Act. Few faiths hold more diverse theological positions than Baptists and Catholics. And yet, because we are not trying to control or convert each other, we are able to work together with a “friendly attitude.”

Texas Baptists must always support personal reconciliation, seeking on a one-toone basis reconciliation with those whom we have offended or who have offended us. This rather than structured reconciliation will keep us together.

So, if “your brother has ought against you” or if you have ought against your brother, go to your brother, and not a group meeting, in your quest for reconciliation. I think you will find it through this personal effort and apparently so does our Lord.

December 1998/January 1999