The Changing Face of Baptists:
A View From Texas
By: David Currie, Coordinator

Excerpts from a speech, due to length, delivered to the Whitsitt Historical Society, June 25, 1998, in Houston.

First, as a Texas Baptist and as a traditional Baptist, it is essential that I make sure you understand this is "A" view from Texas, and not "THE" view from Texas. Texas Baptists understand and are committed to the freedom that should be synonymous with the term Baptist. Every Baptist is free and I would have no influence in Texas Baptist life if I ever attempted to speak "FOR" Texas Baptists.

Equally important is to acknowledge that this presentation is "A View of a West Texan." Texas is a large and diverse geographical state.

West Texas is heavily populated also with persons who totally agree with my late father who believed with deep conviction that it ought to be against the law for any town to have more than a population of 5,000. We believe that rugged individualism is a prerequisite for daily life and furthermore, to the shock of many, we are an area heavily populated with women who believe that it is important to say at least once per day, "don’t tell me what to do." I live with one and was raised with one and know of what I speak.

What is happening in Texas?

TEXAS BAPTISTS ARE REDISCOVERING BAPTIST HERITAGE. We are committed deeply to the founding principles of Southern Baptists. Principles which guided Baptists in 1845 are still valid, and in our mind, inspired and must be preserved. We believe the Bible is the inspired Word of God and should be our final authority in all matters of faith and practice. We believe every individual is a priest and we believe in the responsibilities and privileges that go with being a priest. We believe in local church autonomy. Most of us hold it dear. We believe in religious freedom and proudly have the Baptist Joint Committee in our state convention budget.

We believe the future can be built only on the strong foundation of the past and we emphasize it proudly. We are unapologetically traditional Baptists and claim all the word Baptist means -- freedom, autonomy, responsibility and cooperation between free partners.

TEXAS BAPTISTS HAVE NEVER BEEN AND ARE NOT NOW PREDOMINATELY FUNDAMENTALIST. WE BELIEVE FUNDAMENTALISM TO BE UNCHRISTIAN, UNBIBLICAL AND UNETHICAL AND FURTHERMORE, WE BELIEVE WE HAVE A MORAL RESPONSIBILITY TO PUBLICLY OPPOSE FUNDAMENTALISM IN ORDER TO EFFECTIVELY SPREAD THE KINGDOM OF GOD. MOST OF ALL, WE BELIEVE IN JESUS.

Now allow me to unpack that statement, starting at the end.

In Texas, we are first and foremost trying to focus on Jesus. It is easy in institutional religion to lose our focus on Him. It is easy to do in a local church because we are worrying about budgets, deacons, Sunday School attendance and whether to sing praise choruses or anthems. It is nearly impossible not to do if you are the head of an institution or a Baptist bureaucrat.

Some of us are pressing our BGCT leaders to focus on one question, "How can Texas Baptists be most effective in being Jesus in the world and expanding his Kingdom?" If the BGCT is not about Jesus, there is no reason to protect it and no reason for it to continue.

For too long we have been institutional thinkers, asking how to preserve an institution. Many of our former SBC leaders focused on that question, and tried to negotiate with fundamentalists to the bitter end in hopes of "saving their institution." Well, Southern Seminary still exists as an institution and is of little worth to the Kingdom of God and what Jesus is doing in the world.

Negotiation may have been a proper first response, but sooner than later we should have figured out it was not going to work. Sadly, some today refuse to learn from history and are still trying this unsuccessful approach to dealing with fundamentalists. All such efforts will fail.

Baptists everywhere need to be asking how the message and ministry of Jesus can be preserved and furthered out of the rubble of the past 20 years. Part of the answer is to preserve the institutions because in the modern world, institutions are a part of how Jesus spreads His Kingdom. If institutions are not important, why does CBF financially support 11 theological educational institutions? Because they matter!

How do we preserve the Gospel message and the institutions which are a part of sharing and proclaiming the Gospel message? We proclaim the Gospel and defend it against those who are perverting it in Jesus name. We defeat and destroy the power and influence of fundamentalism in our local churches, our associations and in our state conventions. We defeat, we do not negotiate.

Friends, we lost the SBC because we never fought to preserve it. We did not follow the model given us by Jesus, Paul or our Baptist forefathers and foremothers. We tiptoed around, trying to keep the peace, negotiate, be kind and sweet and we gave the SBC away.

We should have told Baptists the truth loudly, clearly and unapologetically like Jesus and Paul did.

The people in control of the SBC today are spirit brothers of the people Jesus called blind guides, blind fools and white-washed tombs.

The people in control of the SBC today are spirit brothers of J. Frank Norris. L. R. Scarbourgh never tried to negotiate with Norris or figure out how to work with him. Scarbourgh attacked Norris on the radio, through pamphlets and in the pulpit.

He used every means available to tell the Baptist world that J. Frank Norris was mean-spirited and power-hungry, thus helping to save the Baptist witness for several more generations.

We did none of those things, or tried them too late, and we lost the SBC. As Matt. 23:38 says, "Look, your house is left to you desolate." That battle is over but I say to you it is important to Jesus and His Kingdom that we preserve Baptist state conventions and institutions and we have a moral obligation to do so. But more than preserve, we have an obligation to see that they are effective instruments in His Kingdom.

Fundamentalism should be fought for the evil that it is because it is important to God’s Kingdom that there be a Baptist witness in America that is focused on Jesus and his message of grace. This witness needs to be as large and influential as possible. That is why we are going to keep pushing to make the BGCT effective in God’s Kingdom.

That is why in the next few years Texas Baptists will vote on changing the entire budget process as it relates to the SBC; why we will start our own literature program; why we will expand our lay theological education programs and start a Bible college; why we will take Richard Land’s money that is being wasted in an attempt to destroy religious liberty in America and use it in ways to help families and protect religious freedom; or we will fail trying. I assure you we will try.

The SBC should be funded by people who do not believe in religious liberty, who do not believe in servant leaders of churches and who do not believe in local church autonomy and the priesthood of every believer. The SBC should be funded by people who believe the Bible is a scientific blueprint for the modern world and that women are property and not partners. Fundamentalism should not be funded by traditional Baptists.

I urge you to fight fundamentalism in your state publicly and passionately. Do not negotiate, do not wait and be timid, do not moan and groan. Defend the faith and proclaim the message of grace.

You lay people and pastors will have to do it. You will not receive much help from most of your denominational leaders. There is something about becoming a denominational bureaucrat that renders them neutral. All Baptists should be fair, but no one should be neutral.

Too often we try to be nice and to keep the peace so the money will keep flowing. Too often our leaders are more like Chamberlain when they need to be more like Churchill. We have too many peace lovers and not enough peacemakers.

William Barclay got it right in his commentary on the Beatitude, Blessed are the peacemakers. Barclay wrote:

"The blessing is on the peace-maker, not necessarily on the peace-lovers. It very often happens that if a man loves peace in the wrong way, he succeeds in making trouble and not peace. We may, for instance, allow a threatening and dangerous situation to develop , and our defense is that for peace’s sake we do not want to take any action. There is many a person who thinks that he is loving peace, when in fact he is piling up trouble for the future, because he refuses to face the situation and to take the action which the situation demands. The peace the Bible calls blessed does not come from the evasion of issues; it comes from facing them, and conquering them. What this beatitude demands is not the passive acceptance of things because we are afraid of the trouble of doing anything about them, but the active facing of things, and the making of peace, even when the way to peace is through struggle."

Peace has to be made and peace will come only in state conventions when fundamentalism is rejected and defeated. History teaches us that there is no other option.

The vast majority of Southern Baptist churches could be partnering together now in an effective manner if sufficient leadership was being given. In most states, right now, if the state executive director, executive board chair, and convention officers called a press conference and announced that Paige Patterson’s election was the final straw; that they were calling an emergency meeting of their state executive board; that they were proposing a new budget process to partner with other states and CBF in a truly Baptist witness, most of the money would leave the SBC. Leadership is the key and we have very little of it.

In Texas, we believe Baptists have a bright future, a future free of fundamentalism and focused on Jesus and His Kingdom. I believe that if Texas Baptists Committed-type organizations were started in every state within 15 years fundamentalism would fall as state after state rejected fundamentalism and refused to fund its evil empire. This could happen quicker with leadership, as I mentioned above, but I believe it can happen still, over time, without help from the Baptist bureaucracy.

I believe the Baptist witness can be greater than ever before in America and around the world. I believe Jesus is alive and calling us to open our eyes to new visions and new partnerships. This, however, is where I differ with my friends who say, "Leave the fight behind, we are tired of it. Don’t talk bad about the fundamentalists, just talk about the future." People will not leave the status quo and move toward a new future until they understand how evil the present situation is. In any campaign for public opinion or a public vote, there have to be two messages: why vote for me and why not vote for the other person. That is the real world.

Churches and state conventions vote every year when they pass budgets. If we want those budgets to reflect giving to true Baptist initiatives we have to explain why giving to the SBC is working against Baptist principles and the Kingdom’s work.

It must be done. God’s Kingdom is not built on legalism. It is not built on condemnation of sinners. It is not built on some sort of Godless and mindless concept of hierarchical authority. It is built on the loving grace of Jesus Christ which extends even to fundamentalists if they could ever acknowledge that they might be wrong, for as the Scriptures say, "it is not the man who commends himself who is approved, but the man whom the Lord commends." (2 Cor. 17)

Jesus did not allow for the gospel of grace to be twisted and maligned. Paul did not stand for it. It is important to the Kingdom that the message of grace drown out messages which, according to Paul are "hollow and deceptive philosophy, which depend on human tradition and the basic principles of this world rather than on Christ." (Col. 2:8).

Paul said for us to contend for the faith. If we want the masses of Southern Baptists to move into the future we have to tell them why to do so. If we want the world to know Jesus and understand and practice grace and mercy and love we have to fight for our voice to be heard. We must take the debate over fundamentalism into the public arena and let everyone know of the danger it poses to the freedom of everyone, not just Baptists.

This is one West Texas Baptist voice who will not be silenced. I have committed my life to the message of the love of Christ, which includes, in my opinion following the examples of Jesus and Paul and challenging perversions of that love and grace. I will not go quietly. I hope you will join me.

September 1998