"Are Diversity and Freedom Bad Words?"
By William Neal

Baptist Heritage Breakfast
November 11, 2003, First Baptist Church of Columbus

I have chosen this place and this occasion to do something rather dramatic for me. I've decided to come out of the closet and admit publicly for the first time that yes, I am indeed a Moderate. That's not an easy thing for me to do because for many years I have tried to be all things to all people. I wanted to be a leader who could work with all stripes of Baptists. One who could work for peace and reconciliation and one who could, when necessary, work out a compromise, in order to keep unity in the ranks. I have always wished that Baptists could "get along" and agree to disagree rather than fuss and fight.

I have had a disdain for theological and political labels because they seem to me to be rather arbitrary. I find myself liberal on some issues, conservative on others, and still undecided when it comes to some matters. I admit that I have not been sure how to define myself, but I have certainly resented others trying to do it for me.

Unfortunately, we live in a day when it is almost impossible for a Baptist not to be arbitrarily labeled. We are defined by our position on a single issue such as our opinion about women deacons. We are labeled by who our friends are, how we vote in a church business meeting or Baptist convention, and even by what church we attend. Sometimes we are defined differently, depending on who is doing the labeling. As a newspaper editor I was labeled as a Right-wing Republican by some readers and a Left-wing Democrat by others. I was referred to at various time as a zealous Nazi and a bleeding heart Liberal. (Now you know why I've had such an identity crisis.)

I have decided that if you are going to be labeled anyway, if it's impossible to remain neutral and uncommitted, you might as well make sure that you get labeled as correctly as possible. And I suppose that of all the tags being thrown around today, the label "Moderate" comes closest to describing who I am. And the aspects of being a Moderate that most appeal to me are the emphases on Freedom and Diversity as hallmarks of the Baptist faith.

There is a powerful group of Baptist leaders in our country today who think of diversity as a bad word. They prefer the concept of uniformity-both from a theological and political perspective. They rationalize that since there is only one true God, there must be only one way to communicate with Him, only one set of legitimate beliefs about Him, one way to worship Him, one way to share the Gospel, one way to vote in churches and conventions, one orthodox position to teach in a Christian educational institution. Everything is black and white, as defined by them. They would never go so far as to say that they don't believe in freedom, but it is a limited freedom. You're free to believe as they do, or otherwise it's questionable as to whether you are really a Christian. They certainly don't feel that you should have any voice in the national or state conventions if you aren't willing to sign on to their orthodoxy. They spell diversity as a four letter word. For them foul language would include words like compromise and liberal, or phrases like priesthood of the believer, soul freedom, and separation of church and state.
Feeling both embarrassed and outraged at times by the rhetoric and antics of my fellow Baptists, I have often questioned myself as to why I remain in the fold. But I keep coming back to the fact that I am a Baptist at heart. I love both the freedom and diversity that has characterized the Baptist church over the last several centuries. At its best, the Baptist church represents not the only legitimate strain of Christianity, but certainly one of the most dynamic and flexible expressions of the Christian faith.

One of the great disappointments of my life has been to witness the exodus of so many of my friends and family members from the Baptist church. We have lost some wonderful leaders, especially women ministers. And we know all the reasons why they have left. But as long as there is a local Baptist church where I can feel accepted, encouraged, and challenged, I will remain a Baptist.

I've been through one of the most difficult periods of my life, and you could say that it was a group of Baptists who were responsible for that. They've made life difficult for a number of Baptist editors and educators. They have mistreated scores of committed Baptist missionaries. There have been plenty of martyrs in the Baptist family. But I would be quick to add that for the most part it was my Baptist family who rallied around me and provided the support I have needed this past year. I think that would be true for other casualties of the Baptist wars as well.

Fundamentalism may continue to be the most influential segment of Baptist life for many years to come. We hate to admit it, but when it comes to theological matters, most people prefer to have others tell them what to think rather than having to think for themselves. But there will always be a segment of Baptists who will refuse to give up their freedom to study and question and even change their minds about some things. While Moderates share more in common theologically with our Fundamentalist brothers than not, we still reserve the right to disagree on some issues. And we don't see that as a bad thing. Just as there was diversity among the disciples of Jesus, just as there is a difference of emphases between various books of the Bible, just as we have a variety of Christian cultures throughout the world today, so Moderates believe that the richness of our diversity only adds to the dynamism and effectiveness of our Baptist tradition.

One of the dangers facing Moderates in the Baptist family is that we, too, could overreact against Fundamentalism to such an extent as to cut off conservative influences within our midst. But true diversity allows us to learn from a rich heritage of ideas, and truthfully, Moderates can learn valuable lessons from Conservatives. They are actually right about a lot of things.

Like some of you I would have picked a different label for myself earlier in my life. I was pretty much a Conservative as a young Christian. And there is a lot that Conservatism has going for it. I admire the dogged commitment of some of my Conservative brothers and sisters, but I am concerned about the mean spirit that some of them have developed. They have carried over their anger about sin into a form of judgmental hatred against sinners, including fellow Christians with whom they disagree.

That is a danger that Moderates must avoid at all cost. It would be so easy for us to become bitter and cynical in these days of Fundamentalist control and takeover, but we must not become guilty of the same demagoguery of which we are critical in others. I can't stand here today and tell you that I haven't been angry and filled with some resentment against certain persons. I'm human and I've been hurt and I've got some wounds that still need to heal. But I am determined to work through that and get on with my life and not continue to harbor resentment, bitterness and hatred. I've seen that destroy too many other people. I don't want Moderates to become known as the sore losers because we couldn't get beyond the fact that we have lost a lot of battles. The truth is that even though it may be difficult at times, we do have the freedom to move on, to start over, to be what we feel God intended us to be and follow His will for our lives. And if down the road there is an opportunity for reconciliation, let's not be the ones standing in the way because our hearts have become hardened toward fellow Baptists.

When it comes to freedom, Fundamentalists try to imply that the Moderates' emphasis on Freedom is a radical belief in anything and everything. They paint us as people with no convictions. The truth is that we, too, believe in the fundamentals of the faith, we share many of those convictions with our Fundamentalist friends. As a matter of fact, many Moderates consider themselves very conservative theologically. Where we differ is in the length of our list of fundamentals. We don't necessarily believe that all traditions are fundamental to the faith. We are not afraid of intellectual pursuits that question the old ways of thinking about things or the old ways of doing church. Questioning the actions of the SBC Executive Committee doesn't make you any less of a loyal Baptist than questioning the policies of the President, Congress, or the Supreme Court makes you a less patriotic American.

For this Baptist, Freedom and Diversity are very important concepts. That is what attracts me to the Moderate label. Those are concepts that the Baptist Heritage Council needs to continue espousing. We recognize that even though we never question the ultimate Authority and Truth of God we appreciate the freedom that He has granted each of us and the colorful diversity that He allows and even appreciates among His people. If He did not appreciate that freedom and diversity He would have created us all as mindless robots.

Having said all that I have about the importance of Freedom and Diversity, I must conclude by saying that Love is more important to me than any intellectual concepts about freedom and diversity. I hesitate to bring love into the equation because I don't want to appear to insinuate that Moderates have a corner on love any more than Fundamentalists have a corner on the Bible. But one of the reasons I am a Moderate is because I feel that in these ranks I find the greatest level of love, acceptance, and forgiveness. I find Moderates to be, generally speaking, less judgmental and more accepting of a wider group of sinners for whom Christ died. I think that the emphasis upon Freedom and Diversity is more conducive to loving people than a narrow view of what makes one acceptable. I've met a number of former Fundamentalists who said that it was their Moderate friends who came to their rescue and loved them at a critical moment of failure in their lives. I've seldom heard of Moderates finding such solace among Fundamentalists.

As Moderates, we can talk until we are blue in the face about how much we believe in the Bible, and it is not going to change the perception among many Baptists that Fundamentalists are the true Christians who take the Bible more seriously and certainly more literally. Their theme song for all these many years has been "Nobody believes the Bible more than we!"
Moderates need a different theme song and I think it should simply be this: "They Will Know We Are Christians By Our Love." If we really live by that principle, we will draw many people to our ranks, because that is what the world is really seeking. If I may paraphrase the Apostle Paul: "You can have the faith to remove mountains, and you can be the most orthodox of all Bible believers, but without love, you're nothing!"

I am proud to be a part of the Moderate movement among Baptists. If we come up with a better label, I'll be proud to be whatever that is. I'll remain proud to be a part of this movement, even if it always retains its minority status, as long as we stick to what sets us apart-freedom, diversity, and the ability to love others unconditionally as Jesus has loved us.

April 2004