The Tennessee Liberal

So, for those of you who don't know, the Southern Baptist Convention's actual, well, convention is taking place in Nashville. This typically means the inevitable articles that just get it wrong about what Southern Baptists really are. While I'm sure there will plenty of that, there have been two very good stories in the Times Free Press that have presented a more realistic and nuanced picture than you typically get.

The first addressed the lingering issue of a resolution that has popped up recently admonishing Baptists to remove their children from public schools. Even any of the most stringent conservative rulers of the SBC organization realize this is just a silly idea, and it was good to see this shown:

SBC President Bobby Welch, a pastor in Daytona Beach, Fla., said Baptists should not retreat from public schools, adding that many Southern Baptists cannot afford to homeschool their children or send them to private Christian schools.

"I believe that public schools offer the greatest mission field," Welch said. "We are put on this planet as change agents. It seems contrary to me we would draw back from the opportunity to make a change. Public schools are a great place to make a difference."

While I am quite sure that I don't want to make the kind of difference in public schools that Bobby Welch wants to make, the point is valid across all interpretations of what Baptists are about. By withdrawing from society, we would act in polar opposition to Jesus' own actions. It's good to see some monicum of level-headedness winning the day here. I was most encouraged however, by the rather simple add-on at the very end of the piece:

With more than 16 million members, the Southern Baptist Convention is second in size to only the Roman Catholic Church in the nation. Resolutions approved by the convention are nonbinding, and all member churches are autonomous in their ministries.

How refreshing to see this point be made. I harp on it, but it remains true - if the SBC tells my church to jump, we'll most likely sit in response. There is no central structure of command.

The second piece gets much more into some of the very real issues facing Southern Baptists as we began to reap what was sown in the conservative takeover. As more people advocate a withdrawal from society, we drift farther from the Great Commissions. While the article relies too much, perhaps, on the statistic of people being baptized, the larger point is clear:

"The Southern Baptist Convention is less evangelistic today than it was in the years preceding the conservative resurgence," wrote Thom Rainer, dean of the Billy Graham School of Missions, Evangelism and Church Growth.

And in another shock, I once again, agree - if in a slant sort of way - with Bobby Welch:

But for the last couple of decades, news out of annual conventions has had more to do with battles against Baptist moderates, restatements of theology and resolutions condemning Disney and homosexuality.

That talk has been useful, but only to a point, Welch said.

"Talking doesn't get you much. It'’s getting us pretty much what we got," he said. "Look at the Muslims and the Mormons and the Jehovah'’s Witnesses. They'’re not just talking. They're out here walking the streets, out there meeting community needs."

Now, I don't think we have to worry about Muslims taking over America as much as Bobby does, acertainlyianly don't think any of that talk has been useful at all, but I think his larger point here is a good one. Southern Baptists have made a habicondemningeming the evil of the world wignoringrning our charge to make it better. and the moves towards more stricture in the denomination are having an impact, as well. The article quotes Arthur Farnsley, a religious scholar at IUPUI about this:

"Some very conservative folks may have been drawn back to the more '‘pure' denomination, but a lot of the Roger Williams-type Baptists who liked religious liberty were pushed away," Farnsley said. Williams founded the first Baptist church in America in 1639 and was a champion of "soul liberty," the right of each individual to complete freedom of opinion about religion.

Indeed, it is a lack of soul liberty that runs people like me away from the SBC and towards organizations like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

In any case, these two articles do a good job of showing the real issues affecting the convention - it's not just about conservative vs. moderate, but has to do with a shift away from the principles on which the denomination was founded.