The Southern Baptist Convention will be holding its annual meeting in North Carolina June 13-14 this year. They will be electing a new president this year, and there is a push (largely through blogs and other internet forums) by many younger pastors to elect someone not in the ‘inner circle’.
The tradition has been for the SBC president to be a pastor of a mega-church (8,000-15,000 + members), have a large number of baptisms in the last year (since that is the only true measure of whether a church is functioning properly), and be someone willing to make more rules for everyone to follow. There is a grassroots campaign to elect someone who is willing to make changes in rules that no longer have the same meaning, someone who is, at the very least, sympathetic to the growing Reformed movement in the SBC, someone who is willing to focus only on the essentials. The Old Guard is doing it’s best to try and discredit those who embrace the use of blogs to let people know what is really going on.
Wade Burleson, a Southern Baptist pastor in Oklahoma who is at the center of the SBC blog controversy, wrote a post recently entitled I Believe in the Fundamentals But Don’t Call Me a Fundamentalist on his blog. He includes this ditty, crediting it to Chuck Swindoll:
Believe as I believe no more, no less;
That I am right (and no one else) confess.
Feel as I feel, think only as I think;
Eat what I eat, and drink what I drink
Look as I look, do always as I do;
And then and only then I’ll fellowship with you.
He ends his post with this comment: “God save the SBC from Fundamentalism.”
I’ll amen the sentiment, but the SBC is not just lost to the fundamentalists, they are the fundamentalists. Even the reformers in the convention don’t want real change, they just want fundamentalism-lite. No thanks; there is more ground to be gained by disavowing them as protectionist knuckle-draggers than by associating with all their hideous baggage.
I agree, at least partly, which is probably why I didn’t even consider going to an SBC church when I moved to Nashville. I could list the reasons, but here’s a big one: Richard Land.
I say what I did because I am a Baptist. And I’ll soon be a Baptist minister. Among the fastest growing American denominations are ex-Baptists. Churches are disassociating left and right. That’s why I say that more is to be gained by disavowing them than reforming them. The reformers don’t want to go far enough and in the meantime people are being turned off to church because of the SBC. It’s faster and more economical to disassociate and disavow, especially in my generation which doesn’t put much stock in denominations to begin with.
And amen to Richard Land. For me, a bigger name is Paige Patterson. I went to a pre-screening of the Passion at his church in Plano. He hosted it as part of a conference they were hosting. They invited Jim Caviezel to speak. Everyone knows Jim is a Catholic. They knew that when they invited him. Jim gets up and is talking about the experience of playing Jesus. He says, “It was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do. I prayed daily to God for strength. I asked my Mother Mary what it was like raising this son…” As soon as he said ‘Mother Mary’ the entire staff of Prestonwood stood up together from the front row and walked out of the room led by Patterson. I’ve never been so embarrassed in my life. That was the straw that broke the camel’s back for me. I’ll never be part of a church that associates itself with the SBC. Patterson’s said some vile and stupid things before, but that showing of disrespect, hostility, and ugliness spoke louder than all the ignorant things he’s said put together.
The reason I grew up Independent Baptist and not Southern Baptist is because my great-grandfather, John R. Rice (Sword of the Lord newspaper), was one of the leaders who split from the SBC when it was more liberal. I know Patterson credits him and his newspaper as being a major reason for the conservative resurgence. Do you think a different kind of resurgence is possible? Will the Old Guard relinquish it’s control? If it does happen, I don’t think it will be anytime soon.
Honestly, I don’t see it happening. They ran off all the moderates in the mid-80’s. There’s no real reformation lurking within thier ranks, and Patterson & Co. have set up the convention to filter out any ‘liberals’ from even entering. The rewrote rules and regulations to make sure that dissent and variation were not a part of the equation. I’ll give it to them, they are in it for the long haul. When the Old Guard relinquishes control, it will be to a generation of clones that they raised. I think the SBC will slowly crumble and continue to diminish in importance until the day, long from now, when it is no longer recognized as a leading denomination. The ecuminical movement is a serious threat to their power and standing which is why they oppose it from paper to pulpit. The only togetherness and accord they desire is one in which everyone comes to agree with them. That’s not a recipie for longevity. Rather than a moderate resurgance, I think it is very possible that a combination of a strengthening CBF and the ecuminical movement will eclipse the SBC eventually
I just read some more quotes from a typical Independent Baptist sermon on http://orangechuck.blogspot.com. Although I haven’t heard these exact statements, I’ve heard ones pretty close to these:
Slits are for sluts; halter tops are for harlots; and britches are for bitches!”
and
A certain IFBx celebrity pastor stopped in the middle of his tirade and began to remark about his cowboy boots. He thundered, “I don’t wear those yuppie dress shoes. I wear cowboy boots. Where I come from, we use these for stomping fags!”
Can you just feel Jesus smiling down…? I attended a Presbyterian church while living in NYC, but I always admitted to being a Baptist when asked. This was always a particularly hard conversation with my fellow actors and singers. They had a very concrete idea of what a Baptist was and it was hard to disagree with them. I just hope our friendship helped alter that perception ever-so-slightly.
Here’s another interesting article about the SBC, Blogs, and the convention: http://www.abpnews.com/www/1070.article