We got tired of explaining what "kind" of Baptists we were. As a pastor I have made home calls constantly, and during the past 20 years I have explained to many thousands of people just what "kind" of Baptist church I was pastor of. I found myself constantly under the necessity of trying to explain what the difference was, and I don't believe that I ever explained this difference one time with any degree of satisfaction.
When I grew up there was only one kind of Baptist, and that was the regular type of Baptist people which we know as being associated together in their local associations and cooperating together.
Today there is a sprinkling of churches across the nation claiming to be Baptist. Many of them are true Baptist churches, while others are semi-Baptist or half-Baptist. For instance, there is the innocuous "Bible church" which is strong on dispensationalism, strong on "separation," strong on "faith missions," and strong on using the name "Baptist," but not strong on the distinctive principles and tenets of Baptists at all. The only use such churches have for the name "Baptist" is because it proves useful to them in catching innocent Baptist people and getting them into the membership.
This type of church wants to feed and grow upon the increase of Baptists, but its leadership is not interested in supporting the Baptist way, the Baptist program, the distinctive Baptist plan for evangelizing the world; and this type of Baptist church has nothing to do with the regular and genuine Baptist churches of its locality.
It will associate with the various "Bible" churches, "independent" churches, inter-denominational churches, Gospel missions and whatnot, having plenty of time to have representatives of various faith missions,
some of them operated by only one man, where all of the money is handled by one man, and an accounting is given to no one -- to speak in its pulpit. But it never sends one cent to legitimate Baptist channels to be spent under the supervision and direction of responsible Baptist leadership.
The endless wars and factional fights among brethren. Meetings of Fundamentalists are called "Fellowship Meetings," but they are everything else but that. I have attended such meetings which were truly spiritual and uplifting; but especially in recent years when the bankruptcy of leadership began to really show up and the movement fell into a state of disintegration, every meeting was the scene of endless factions and disputes among brethren. The energies of those who were laboring to promote a solid and constructive work were spent in adjudicating differences between pastors and churches and in an atmosphere of antagonism, while many preachers were clamoring and struggling for office, for recognition, for leadership to generate and gather a personal following around themselves. It proved to be a well-nigh impossible task.
Not only so, but various small publications of the "yellow journalism" type carried these wars and frictional fights out to the people in the churches, so that the pastor was embarrassed by having to explain these matters or to try to settle the minds of this people over some issue which had been raised.
We came to see that this was because any banner of protest raised by any reformer of the denomination gathers around itself the dissident and divergent elements of the ministry. Every preacher who has flunked out with the denomination immediately assembles with others under the banner of protest. Every preacher seeking a position of some kind gathers there. Every preacher with some grudge against his brethren gathers there.
The false philosophy of Fundamentalism. The philosophy of Fundamentalism is unchristian. It has no basis in the Scriptures upon which to rest. That philosophy is: Fundamentalism supposes itself to be right doctrinally. Therefore people who are not aligned under its banner are wrong. Therefore any steps that Fundamentalism may take to gather disciples out from under the banner of others and assemble them under its own banner are right, and they are fully justified in taking them.
The philosophy of Fundamentalism is: that "it is right to do wrong in order to do right." This is why many a Fundamentalist preacher has no conscience whatever as to the ethics of the ministry.
A certain church comes to mind. The church employed a song leader. The pastor and his wife and staff of workers had worked very hard and built up a congregation. Unknown to the pastor, the song leader went to work to undermine and to split the congregation, which he was successful in doing. He took a large group of people with him, organized them into a new church in the hope of establishing himself in a secure position.
However, it was not long until this same man was discharged by the very people he had led out, whereupon another pastor in another city in the same movement immediately picked this man up and installed him in his own church as the music director. The song leader who did this doesn't seem to bear any signs of reproach, and what he did is passed over as of no consequence.
Such ethics would not be tolerated in the business world. A doctor who would do a thing like this would have his license revoked and would be disowned by the American Medical Association. A lawyer who would do a thing like this would be disbarred by the State Bar Association, and he should be.
But in the realm of Fundamentalism, preachers may split each other's churches, make war upon one another, print and publish lies and slander against the character of others and all be accepted as the normal procedure. It is a lawless and anarchistic world under the guise of evangelical Christianity. Many are the broken and blasted lives which this scourge has touched through the past quarter of a century.
Fundamentalism judges, tries, condemns, sentences and executes those with whom it disagrees in order to gain a following or carry a point. I repudiate personally and utterly the false philosophy of Fundamentalism as such. I believe in fair play. Loyalty to Jesus Christ will not allow any man to make such damaging accusations of another without having absolute proof of the truthfulness of the charge.
The whole movement of fundamentalism is a proselyting movement. It is a parasite, feeding upon the labors of others to a large degree.
But there is a boomerang in this. Paul was right when he said, "Whatsoever a man soweth, that shall he also reap." Through the years, I have watched God vindicate His churches and pastors, and I have watched the spiritual streams of a man's ministry dry up when he has to live with the knowledge of betrayal locked up in his breast.
And whatsoever a movement soweth, that shall it also reap. Although Fundamentalism has deceived and deluded many people and lured many thousands out of other Baptist churches, this has by no means hindered or even slowed down Southern Baptists. The wilder and more fantastic the charges became, the more Southern Baptists grew, and the louder Fundamentalism protested the more dissension was generated within.