Dr. Russell D. Moore, Dean of the School of Theology of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, has just proven me wrong about the Southern Baptists. And I’ve never been more happy to be wrong. Check out his article God, the Gospel, and Glenn Beck.
Here all this time I’ve been blaming the excesses of the ultra-right-wing socio-political movement rooted in Liberty University, Focus on the Family, etc and egged on by Glenn Beck, on the Southern Baptist Convention. Judging by readers’ reactions to Dr. Moore’s post, the LU-FOF-TeaParty gang have departed from anything resembling a church denomination, including the Southern Baptist Church. They’ve become more like… well… a political party!
But I digress. Kudos to Dr. Moore for saying what so many people have wanted to say, and have been trying to say, in a voice that others will hear and from a position that other leaders will (hopefully) take note of.
Glad that you are happy to be wrong, but there are other areas that you are wrong also. First, Dr. Moore is not the President of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. He is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President of Academic Administration of the Seminary. While he would make a great President you elevated him before his time. 🙂
Second, there is no such animal as “the Southern Baptist Church”. We are a convention of churches not a denomination. Each church is completely autonomous and thus decides the direction of the convention. The convention does not decide the direction of the churches.
Blessings,
Tim
Hi, Peg,
Four things:
1. Outstanding article by Dr. Moore. Thanks for posting.
2. To tag along with what Tim said, we American Baptists also have autonomous churches that make up a convention–not exactly a denomination.
3. For another feather in the SBC cap, check out what the Southern Baptists had to say about the Gulf of Mexico oil spill. Apologies to Tim for my calling the SBC a “denomination” in the post (I knew better) but I was writing to a wider audience.
4. The first four or five paragraphs in Dr. Moore’s article remind me of the final paragraph in Orwell’s Animal Farm. Remember that this was a satire of what went wrong with the Russian Revolution, degrading into Stalinism:
“Twelve voices were shouting in anger, and they were all alike. No question, now, what had happened to the faces of the pigs. The creatures outside looked from pig to man, and from man to pig, and from pig to man again; but already it was impossible to say which was which.”
Dr. Moore says, “If you’d told me that ten years ago, I would have assumed it was from the pages of an evangelical apocalyptic novel about the end-times. But it’s not. It’s from this week’s headlines. And it is a scandal.”
Tim – thanks for your post and thanks for the corrections. And I agree, it sounds like Dr. Moore would make a great president!
Perhaps I should rephrase and say “the LU-FOF-TeaParty gang have departed from the mainstream of Southern Baptists” — would that be more correct? And forgive a totally clueless question, but… if every church is completely autonomous, how do you know you’re Baptist?
It’s a fun question: “If every church is completely autonomous, how do you know you’re Baptist?”
Although we are autonomous, we are not independent. We are still accountable to the Association (or Convention, whatever that distinction is), whether state or national, and must meet certain standards to remain within that–with all of its joys and frustrations, rights and responsibilities.
Some pastors, upon getting a pulpit in an American Baptist (ABC) church get fed up with the frustrations, or with the fact that the ABC is more liberal than they’d like (ABC is more than a tad liberal than SBC, and far more so than most independent Baptist churches) and pull out of the Association and go independent. Sometimes this suits the congregation; sometimes it causes more problems: No accountability to a higher structure, more dependency on the pastor himself, who may or may not be a loose cannon.
I digress.
Being a Baptist or “baptist”, little b, simply means that we practice believer’s baptism and have a congregational structure of government, that is, democratic and similar to a small town meeting. Churches also own their own property, unlike Roman Catholic or Episcopal churches. Independent Baptist churches follow these practices too, and are also considered Baptist (big or little b) even though they are not associated with other churches.
Anyway, back to my digression: whether liberal or conservative or fundamentalist, churches within the ABC (and presumably the SBC) can go any of those ways theologically without correction or condemnation from the association (or convention). Lots of latitude. My own chuch is quite conservative, as is the pastor, with an undercurrent of fundamentalism that remains polite about it. We also have a liberal social/political element within that theological conservativism. That would be me and my buddy Ed and several others.
In the “What I should have said” department:
How do we know we’re Baptists? Because nobody else will have us!
Ted — What great news to see the SBC supporting ecology!
I like the parallel to Animal Farm too. Well put.
Question: I was reading (and posting) somewhat in haste the other night… what’s your take? Is Dr. Moore more concerned about misplaced politico-spirituality, or more concerned about Beck being Mormon? Or both?
I’m trying to get out the door, but…
I think Dr. Moore is more annoyed with evangelical Christians than he is with Beck being a Mormon. His annoyance with Beck is probably more from Beck’s presumption that he speaks for evangelicals. And so far he seems to be getting away with it. I think Dr. Moore is trying to expose that and wake us up.
I’ll read the article again this afternoon. There’s probably something about idolatry in there too, on the part of evangelicals–or I could be making that up.
I just re-read Dr. Moore’s article and I’ll stick to my earlier reaction. Here’s what he said about ‘what he’s annoyed with:
“I’m quite willing to work with Mormons on various issues, as citizens working for the common good. What concerns me here is not what this says about Beck or the “Tea Party” or any other entertainment or political figure. What concerns me is about what this says about the Christian churches in the United States.”
He does criticize Mormonism as “contrary to the gospel of Jesus Christ” but he’s not faulting Beck for that in itself. It’s just matter-of-fact.
About the charge of idolatry on the part of evangelicals–It looks like I wasn’t making that up after all:
“Too often, and for too long, American “Christianity” has been a political agenda in search of a gospel useful enough to accommodate it. There is a liberation theology of the Left, and there is also a liberation theology of the Right, and both are at heart mammon worship. The liberation theology of the Left often wants a Barabbas, to fight off the oppressors as though our ultimate problem were the reign of Rome and not the reign of death. The liberation theology of the Right wants a golden calf, to represent religion and to remind us of all the economic security we had in Egypt. Both want a Caesar or a Pharaoh, not a Messiah.”
and…
“Where there is no gospel, something else will fill the void: therapy, consumerism, racial or class resentment, utopian politics, crazy conspiracy theories of the left, crazy conspiracy theories of the right; anything will do.”
Dr. Moore also says, “It’s taken us a long time to get here, in this plummet from Francis Schaeffer to Glenn Beck.” I was just thinking a few days ago how much I miss William F. Buckley, Jr. He used to be a right-wing champion, and he at least was intelligent, educated, and fair to those he disagreed with. It was a pleasure to watch his show.
Today’s right-wing champions are Glenn Beck and Rush Limbaugh. Talk about a plummet.
And Sarah Palin…
Thanks for your post Ted. (Glad I wasn’t seeing things!) I think Moore is spot on in identifying the “liberation theology” of both left and right and calling both idolatry.
And ah yes, Palin… it amazes me the GOP isn’t smart enough to see she will never win them an election. Makes you wonder just who’s running the show. Or who’s asleep at the switch…
Plummets indeed. *sigh*
“In the “What I should have said” department:
How do we know we’re Baptists? Because nobody else will have us!”
LOL!!
But… but… isn’t a ‘convention’ just sorta another name for ‘denomination’? What I mean is, there are lots of independent churches out there that I would call ‘denominations’ — like Nazarenes, Assemblies of God, the Vineyard folks, Calvary Chapels, Christian & Missionary Alliance, etc — because for all intents & purposes that’s really what they are. They just have less formal relationships (and/or hierarchies) than the older denoms. Maybe we should call them “Un-Denominations”?
Tho I have to admit it’s really convenient being able to own your own property. 😉 And I like the spirit of freedom within the Baptist church, the broadness of beliefs that are considered ‘within the norm’.
Yeah, I think “convention” is pretty much another word for denomination, but… the SBC and the ABC are probably a little more independent than most denominations. We’re autonomous, not independent, and have a system of accountability with a larger body.
The true “independents”, though, answer to no one (well, to God, and then not all of the time). Among the worst of examples is that pentecostal church in Gainesville that plans to burn copies of the Koran, as you’ve just posted about. They have no structure other than the pastor himself to tell them no. They probably have a board of elders or deacons, but it’s likely that they are hand-picked by the pastor, or are part of his family. And it would be typical if the pastor himself had started that church.
This all goes back to the Reformation ideal of the “priesthood of believers”. It has its advantages, but most honest pastors prefer to have some accountability structure.
All of the churches you’ve mentioned above are part of denominations, aren’t they? I wouldn’t call them “independent”. I think they all have accountability to other churches, don’t they?