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Responses to the Baptist Faith and Message Every
person, male or female, is responsible to God, not human beings,
for God's call upon his or her life. Every local church is responsible
to God for affirming through ordination those they believe God
has called to lead and pastor, male or female. To
limit the office of pastor to men in effect limits the individual
in her ability to respond to God's call. It limits the local church
in her freedom to affirm the work of the Spirit; and most seriously,
it limits the power and freedom of God to call whomever God's
person is for that moment and time of leadership. Raye
Nell Dyer, ***** So, the SBC leaders-who trumpeted "biblical inerrancy" as a battle cry to gain and implement control of the convention during the past 20 years-have a high view of scripture, after all. In fact, it's higher than we thought. Rather than a Trinity, they worship a de-facto Quartet: Father, Son, Holy Spirit and Holy Bible, with the Bible acting as the arbiter of the other three. This is dangerous, for several reasons. First,
it refutes orthodoxy-which asserts the primacy of the Godhead:
Father, Son and Holy Spirit-by exalting the Bible to near-divinity
and supplanting the influence of Jesus. Second,
by elevating a thing, as precious and authoritative as the Bible
is, to such lofty status, it at least implies idolatry, the worship
of something other than God. Third,
it denigrates the influence of Jesus and the power of the Holy
Spirit to work in lives and guide them toward God's will. Fourth,
it begs a vital question: Who then is to provide the authoritative
interpretation of all scripture? If
scripture stands over Jesus, then the teachings and actions of
Jesus are inadequate. If the Jesus can be imitated (as one SBC
leader indicated), then individuals can be led astray. So, who
will provide authoritative interpretation? Some SBC leaders seem
only too eager to step up to the chair of authority. Yet they
are mere men, not apostles, and certainly not God. Fortunately,
Texas Baptists reaffirmed the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message
last fall. At the time, most people saw it as a reaction to the
SBC's 1998 article on the family, which was important. But it
was much more than that. By
reaffirming the '63 version, Texas Baptists staked our claim for
the doctrinal statement that holds a high, reverential view of
scripture. But it places scripture in the appropriate context-at
the feet of our Lord and Savior, God incarnate, Jesus Christ. Excerpt
from editorial by Marv Knox, ***** The
consequence of the new Faith and Message, in distinction from
the 1963 version, will not be to unify, but to divide. Its purpose
is clearly to separate the "true believers" from the
"impostors" and force the latter to leave the denomination.
... Previous
generations of Baptists stood for bold, important truths: evangelism,
spiritual freedom, church renewal and unity, social impact. Nowadays,
we seem to concentrate on smaller things. Like telling local churches
whom to call as pastors; discerning whether charismatics have
a correct understanding of the baptism of the Holy Spirit; carefully
listing of all the different "vices;" and keeping women
in their place. Maybe in the next revision of the Faith and Message,
we'll decide how many angels can dance on the head of a pin. Mike
Turner, ***** "The
convention has a right to vote whatever it wants to, but it should
not take this document and use it as a creed. It shouldn't make
a single seminary professor sign it, it shouldn't make a single
missionary pledge allegiance to it. "It
should be what it's supposed to be - a confession of faith passed
by the messengers who attended this convention of what Baptists
generally believe." David
Currie, ***** The
decision to exclude women from pastoring is not about scripture.
It is a question of power and authority - a question that has
no place in the life of any congregation. No Christian exercises
control over another's interpretation of God's call on his or
her life. In
mandating that congregations submit to requirements of the convention
in choosing whom they will ordain or whom they will call to pastor,
the SBC has once again departed from its roots as Baptists and
overstepped autonomy of the local church. The Baptist Faith and
Message statement, a statement of faith in its beginnings, has
become a creedal document... . The
Holy Spirit has always been about breaking through into a new
age, and demonstrating a Gospel of love, inclusion and reconciliation.
We who do not agree with the SBC are again lumped into the mix,
and will have to spend hours defending our positions, being embarrassed
by this body, and bringing the Gospel of love into the forefront.
The SBC has again put stumbling blocks in the way of reaching
people who are hurting, lost and alone. That is its biggest tragedy. Sue
Enoch, ***** The Southern Baptist Convention's proposed Baptist Faith & Message statement contains a few pleasant surprises. But it also diminishes the convention's focus on Jesus and takes a slide down the slippery slope away from Baptist heritage. It is an exclusive, rather than inclusive, document. Its adoption may lead some churches to follow their consciences outside the SBC fold. Marv
Knox, ***** "Even
among those who personally do not support women serving as pastor,
there are many who would not presume to tell another church whom
that congregation could or could not call," Wade said. "The
right of a church to determine who should be pastor is severely
limited by this statement. It is a violation of local church autonomy
that many Baptists would find offensive." Charles
Wade, ***** "It
is religion gone sick. To say we don't continue to learn from
Christ and relate to Christ through the Spirit quite honestly
is heresy." David
Currie, TBC Coordinator ***** "There
are always people who would like to volunteer to be the approved
interpreter of scripture for your conscience. And Baptists have
been so reluctant to do that because they have feared what creeds
have been used to do-to manipulate conformity-and they have feared
ecclesiastical control. We have been confident that truth is always
God's truth and that it will win out. And if men and women will
faithfully live the scripture, proclaim the truth of the Bible,
proclaim the truth the Bible presents, then all will be well.
"We
need no creed to define what the Bible says, and we need no confession
of faith if it is going to be used as a creed. That's been the
Baptist position since we've been Baptists." Charles
Wade, Executive Director, BGCT ***** "They are trying to put God in a box, and Texas Baptists are not going to stand for it." "More likely than quitting the SBC, the 6000 Texas BGCT churches might redirect some of the $49 million in contributions to seminaries outside the SBC, where they are teaching about Jesus and not telling women to keep their mouths shut." David
Currie, ***** Baptists
who place Jesus over the Bible still affirm the full authority
of the Bible upon their lives. They do not exalt personal experience
over scripture; rather, they base their decisions upon scripture.
But some passages are paradoxical; they say different things about
the same subject. In those occasions, Jesus-first people look
to Jesus for help in understanding what the biblical norm means,
for help in applying the scripture to their lives. Marv
Knox, editor, ***** "I wish they wouldn't do some of that stuff. I think it gets misunderstood and misinterpreted. There are certain things in the faith that are non-negotiable; I'm not sure (the all-female pastorate) is one of them." Rev.
Jim Queen, *****
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July 2000