Although Baptists routinely deal with critical issues, at
least five rise to the top in 2005. These issues have the potential to disrupt
forward progress; frankly, they have already contributed to such disruption.
However, the Lordship of Christ, the authority of the Bible, and historic
Baptist ideals rise above all Baptist issues. In fact, all issues challenging
Baptists today must be measured by, put in line with, and subjected to the
plumb lines of Christ, Scripture, and Baptist values.
RAW SECULARISM—Raw secularism daily rips holes into the morality and
spirituality of Baptists. It affects individuals, churches, associations,
conventions, fellowships, unions, federations, and alliances. No facet of
Baptist life is exempt from the temptation to succumb to the powerful
influence of worldly enticement. In the past, Baptists exercised strong
patterns of discipline in church life; today, that is virtually non-existent.
Therefore, when churches take less interest in the accountability side of
church membership, individual church members must become more responsible for
their own patterns of conduct and behavior.
The good news is that millions of Baptists regularly fight off the
secularistic impulse and its temptations through private prayer and Bible
reading, corporate worship, attention to Christian ethics, and massive
contributions to humanity through Christ-centered discipleship, education,
lifestyle evangelism, ministry, and missions.
WIDESPREAD REJECTION OF HISTORIC BAPTIST VIEWS OF CHURCH-STATE SEPARATION—
Today, church-state issues dominate religious news. Faith-based grants,
“Justice Sunday” telecasts, Ten Commandments cases, Supreme Court
appointments, religion in public schools, religious discrimination, religious
fundamentalism’s cozy relationship with right-wing politics—these are just
some of the topics that work their way into the news. The work of the Baptist
Joint Committee on Religious Liberty in combating illegitimate mergers of
church and state has become more challenging.
Early Baptists in England and America in the 1600s struggled mightily to
convince themselves and the world around them that a state-church was a
mockery of New Testament teaching, an affront to infants baptized into it
against their will, an endorsement of civil religion, and a disservice both to
the church and to the state. Those Baptists took two simple positions: coerced
faith driven by directives of the state was meaningless, but free faith driven
by liberty of conscience and sheer voluntarism was the pattern taught and
practiced by Christ. Perhaps the time has come to listen up to these Baptist
heroes of religious freedom.
LOSS OF THE PROPHETIC VOICE IN BAPTIST NEWSPAPERS AND PULPITS—Many Baptist
state paper editors and preachers have abandoned the prophetic element of
their calling. They simply refuse to provide “Thus-says-the-Lord” editorials
and sermons. The net effect is that they routinely subject Baptist readers
and congregations to biblical half-truths, leaving out the prophetic thrusts
of the Old Testament and the prophetic claims of Christ. A big question
arises: Where are the leadership models of courage like that of Daniel willing
to defy the dictates of a king and to go to a lion’s den rather than worship a
false god?
Several factors help to account for a decline of the prophetic side of the
Baptist experience. First, many Baptist state newspapers and pulpits have been
converted into public relations outlets; thus, there is no reason for an
editor to write an editorial countering a convention’s decisions or activities
or for a preacher to question obvious doctrinal flaws in church or
denominational life, no matter how wrong they are. Second, many editors and
preachers have virtually abandoned studies of Baptist history, and therefore
are unfamiliar with the thousands of highly prophetic writers and preachers
who, at whatever risk was necessary, told the truth and nothing but the
truth. Third, job security sometimes provides a powerful motivation to keep
one’s pen quiet or mouth shut.
PERSISTENT FRAGMENTATION—Baptist fragmentation started in the early 1600s, and
it has never stopped. Baptists disagree about everything; sometimes, that
causes organizational rupture and the multiplication of new Baptist bodies.
Today, in the United States alone, there are more than 50 Baptist groups or
sub-groups. That number grows many times when one looks at Baptists worldwide.
The nature of Baptist life feeds disagreement and diversity. Put simply, no
authority exists in Baptist life that can control how Baptists think, believe,
and practice their faith. Respect for the rights of private interpretation of
Scripture is paramount. Congregational self-determination is important. The
power of dissent, nonconformity, and liberty of conscience drives Baptists in
different directions. Personality factors feed Baptist battles. A decline in
trust always causes Baptists to view one another suspiciously.
Crises, however, have helped some Baptists rediscover more accurate biblical
perspectives of what it means to be Baptist. They have also learned some
valuable lessons through controversies. For example, championing biblical
causes in the context of heated debate, even if it results in organizational
fracture, can lead to spiritual progress.
ENTRENCHED FUNDAMENTALISM—Religious fundamentalism has rigidly entrenched
itself into some facets of Baptist life. Built on the need to control
religious thought, faith, and practice, fundamentalism constructs tactics
designed to guarantee such control. One obvious technique is to convert
voluntary confessions of faith into enforced creeds, to which absolute
compliance is expected of all denominational professors, missionaries,
curriculum writers, and the news media. It focuses on Old Testament law, not
on the freedom-based ministry of Christ. It is a religion of regulation,
rather than deregulation.
Despite it all, wonderful resources for Baptists result when fundamentalism
systematically squeezes out of its camp those Baptists who refuse to buy into
its tenets and practices. New seminaries emerge. New mission programs are
born. New publications find the light of day. New centers for ethics and
Baptist history come into being. New life is breathed into hurting people.
My reply to these and other issues facing Baptists today is this: Being
Baptist is still worth the effort. Careful reading of the primary resources
produced by the earliest Baptists in the 1600s reveals heavy reliance on the
Lordship of Christ and the authority of the Bible. Rather than cave in to
secularism, church-state mergers, prophetic decline, more fragmentation, and
religious fundamentalism, perhaps we should focus increasingly on what we can
do to advance the cause of Christ, as defined by him in the New Testament, in
every phase of life.
The best Baptist principles are biblically-based and positive; they rise above
negativity. They recommend aggressive efforts to be in the world, but not of
it; they urge appropriate contributions to church and state, but not a
marriage between the two; they make bold calls for justice by editors and
preachers, not pathetic departures from the prophetic call; they offer
opportunities for conversations and joint actions among Baptist groups, not
endorsements of continuing segregation and relational breakdowns; and they
endorse liberty of conscience and authentic voluntarism, not the control
orientation of fundamentalism.
Charles W. Deweese is executive director of
the Baptist History and Heritage Society in Brentwood, Tennessee.
