The Southern Baptist Convention

I refer to the "good 'ol days" I remember as "Classic Southern Baptist Convention",  where the community ran the theological gamut,  and many of them,  from the most conservative (and even fundamentalist) to the most liberal or radical,  were proud of this diversity.  We were all content to proclaim "We are One in Christ",  and the tolerance of the Convention was testimony to that.  The idea of religious autonomy and local church autonomy extended,  as appropriate,  to the idea that individual congregations were competent to discern their mission and develop their theology as it springs from the callings of their members and leaders.

Well,  the self-appointed theological cleansers struck,  and politicized the movement,  fuled and led by Judge Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson,  hundreds and maybe thousands of Southern Baptist teachers, leaders, and executives were confronted with their "deviations" from the newly prescribed orthodoxies,  the "theological litmus tests" devised by these leaders of the SBC crusades.  These litmus tests were classic fundamentalist "key doctrines" such as the infallibility of Scripture,  deity of Jesus,  etc.   The infallibility of scripture was taken to the extremes of using it apply numerous sub-tests based on ultra-conservative interpretations to determine if one's viewpoint on the matters supposedly "clearly outlined" in Scripture,  provided one interprets the sciptures "correctly" (meaning,  as directed to by the new masters of hermeneutics and guardians of the faith)

The Southern Baptist Convention is now a shell of its former self,  and the majority of its Churches mere reflections of the current Christian Right platform.  Of course,  there are exceptions to this.  I don't know where they are,  but I know people who are still members of Southern Baptist Churches,  and they are fine Christian, loving individuals.  I only know and sense what I see as I look around in "Lifeway Christian Bookstores",  formerly named "Baptist Book Stores",  renamed to stay in step with their new identity as echoes of the Religious Right,  shedding the "Baptist" designation and becoming more generically "Christian" and thus politically correct and marketable.  I know that some will say that it is to appeal to a wider audience (as if they didn't recognize this clear fact in the 60's 70's and 80's).  The fact that they can finally shed the Baptist "brand" is testimony to their taking on and projecting of a new image that more solidly forges their bond with the Christian Right.  

The people who saw their acceptance wither due to their commitment to original Baptist principles of tolerance of diversity under the banner of Christ had to re-group.  The CBF (Cooperative Baptist Fellowship) was formed by what are usually designated as "moderates",  but who usually are the more "liberal" or even conservatives who rejected the witch-hunt mentality and reject the notion that different interpretations equals heresy.  They continue to maintain that Christ is paramount;  that "Christian" is a follower of Christ,  and that the best judge of whether one is following Christ is the soul of that believer.

About my Seminary Days:  I wrote a piece for my original Website that I put up in 1993-4,  about the influence of Southern Baptist Seminary upon my journey here        

© Copyright 2003 Dale Lature. Last update: 9/23/2003; 3:35:45 PM.