A MATTER OF PERSPECTIVE
Tradition and the Future
By David R. Currie
Executive Director

John Graves is an incredible writer. My friend, Phil Stickland, gave me a copy of his award winning book, Goodbye to a River for my birthday. I read it this summer (December 3rd is my 50th birthday, but Phil and I will be mule deer hunting).

John Graves grew up in Fort Worth and spent his youth fishing and camping on the Brazos River. When he heard it was about it be dammed, he got a canoe, took his dog whom he called “the passenger” with him and rode the river for three weeks from Mineral Wells to Glen Rose (I acquired a new dog after Princess died and named her ‘Passenger’ after reading the book). The book is a narrative about his three-week journey down the river, and it also mixes in history, religion, and fishing. mI urge you to go to the library and check it out.

I read the book and cried, laughed, remembered, and did all the things a good book should make one do. I remembered how in 1990, my brother-in-law, Danny Slaughter, my sons, Lance and Chad, and I put in our old boat at Winkle crossing. We rode it through the Blue Hole on our way to the Littlefield place where the Concho and Colorado Rivers came together because we wanted to see it one more time before it was forever in the bottom of Lake O.H. Ivie.

A great deal of Goodbye to a River deals with the sadness over a way of life lost forever. Once the land was “owned” by the Comanches. Graves tells a fascinating story about a group of Indians riding down from the Indian Territory (long after the buffalo were gone) to Charles Goodnight’s ranch. Goodnight had a small herd of buffalo. They demanded a buffalo so he offered them a female. They said, “Bull.” So Goodnight offered them his young bull. They said, “Big Bull.” Finally, Goodnight gave in and gave them his old, big bull. The Indians dressed up for the occasion, war paint and all. They took the old bull, chased him a few hundred yards down the road, killed him with spears, stared down at his lifeless body, then turned and rode back to the reservation in Oklahoma. The days of the great buffalo hunts were gone forever. Trying to relive the old days did not bring the same thrill. It was over.

I love history and tradition. The TBC office is in San Angelo, not Dallas, because I want it that way and our board graciously allows it. My office is in the old hospital building where I was born, so you could say that my Ph.D. has helped me move along in my life, about 100 feet if my calculations are correct.

I am born and bred to be a Southern Baptist. My great, great grandfather, Robert M. Currie came to Texas from Mississippi in the 1850s. He was a Southern Baptist preacher, and the first moderator of the San Antonio Baptist Association.

His great grandson was a very famous Baptist, W.A. Criswell, long time pastor of FBC, Dallas, and my dad’s first cousin.

My mother’s sister, Jewette, was married to Charles P. McLaughlin, a modern Texas Baptist saint, and long time State Missions director for the BGCT. Trust me, Uncle Charlie was Mr. Texas Baptist of the latter 20th century. If any man could “walk on water” because of the love in his heart, it was Uncle Charlie.

I love the history and tradition of Southern Baptists. I grew up knowing about it, seeing it first hand, and wanting to be a part of it. The one church I was privileged to serve as pastor, I led to increase its giving to the Cooperative Program by 10 percent.

I write all this to say that I understand the tendency to look to the past instead of the future. Our past is the Southern Baptist Convention. We remember it fondly. We miss it badly. It is tempting to believe it has not changed. But, the SBC has drastically changed. The SBC no longer stands for people committed to the Bible as the word of God and our final authority in matters of faith and practice, but rather people who have taken the Bible, turned it into a creed, the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, and are disenfranchising all who do not agree with their interpretation.

The SBC no longer values Baptist freedom and the priesthood of each believer, but rather that the majority makes the final decision. The SBC no longer values local church autonomy but rather wants local churches to agree with the national convention’s wishes . The SBC no longer values religious liberty (the single most important value that makes America—America) but strongly encourages the marriage of church and state on many issues.

I, one who values history and tradition, am in a dilemma and many others reading this share the same dilemma. I want to be true to historic Southern Baptist theology, biblical theology, but the SBC does not follow that anymore.

So I challenge you to look to the future and not the past. God is calling us as Texas Baptists to a new future, away from fighting and control, focused on Christ and his Kingdom.

The buffalo that grazed on my ranch when “the people” owned it are gone. There are fences now. I raise sheep and cattle. Life moves on.

The Blue Hole is in the heart of the lake. I will never see it again. Life moves on.

The future is not the SBC. If you doubt that, just read John 8, Matthew 23, and the book of Galatians. Neither Jesus nor Paul wanted anything to do with fundamentalism and neither should we?

I love living where I can touch my roots. I love the contribution my ancestors made as Southern Baptists. For me to honor them, I have to move on. I have to be true to their values, the Bible’s values and support CBF, the BGCT, and other organizations that truly honor what my ancestors devoted their lives too.

Please join me. You will not bring the buffalo back but you will make God smile, I promise you.

October 2002