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Former SBC President, Bailey Smith, made some caustic remarks about the younger generation (calling them the "Barabbas generation") at the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention in November 1999. Southern Baptists of Texas is a group of Fundamental Baptists (leaders of the SBC) who have left the Baptist General Convention of Texas (led by Mainstream Baptists) to form their own state convention. Nathan Brown wrote this response to Smith's remarks. Click here to read the news story to which Nathan is responding. From the Barabbas Generation- A Response to Bailey Smith at the SBT Assembly
Every time I receive an Associated Baptist Press in my box at work, I go through a little process of deciding whether or not I’ve got enough mental and emotional stamina to read it this time. I have no problem with the publication itself. It’s just that, invariably, some item or quotation will catch my eye and cause my shoulders to droop, and my gaze to fall to the floor. And, invariably, I will be forced to take precious time out of my life to write a response. This time I made it through most of the newsletter, and was beginning to believe I might make it to the end unscathed, when the last half of the last article caused my head to sink to the table… Total disbelief consumed me as I read the quotations from yet another ill-conceived Bailey Smith railing. I forced myself to bear with him as he called me and mine the “Barabbas generation,” a “senseless generation,” and the “moron majority.” I gritted my teeth while he berated “spineless preachers” for not promoting his particular angle on what every good little Southern Baptist should be, say and do. I know exactly to whom he is referring. One is my father, and several others are good friends of mine. And it was these spineless few who stood up in the face of one of the largest denominations on the planet and boldly stated that SBC might be losing its way, if not its mind, with a bunch of new credos, invented doctrines, and questionable addenda to its faith and message statement. I sat in awe as he insightfully expounded the term “crooked politicians” with the phrase; “Crooked as opposed to straight.” I was amazed at his ability to offer without hesitation the rather oxymoronic thought that the women’s movement is a “man-made religion.” And I laughed out loud at this defense of the main difference between these two fundamentalist groups, “A fundamentalist Muslim will kill you, but a fundamentalist Christian will pray for you.” Well, you’re right Mr. Smith. We are the moron majority. Or at least we’d have to be to believe such a childish oversimplification as this. But when he mindlessly uttered the words, "trailer-park trash," he chose very poorly-again. This is a completely unacceptable phrase that he’ll never be able to take back. A rather uncanny ability Bailey Smith seems to have. And in so doing, he lost me and my generation. Permanently. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> Actually, Mr. Smith-who’s-working-so-hard-to-go-to-Washington, let me explain my generation to you from our perspective: Our generation cares less and less every day about the politics of denominationally based religion, its institutions, and its malfunctions. Our generation cares less and less about an overwrought theology that clouds the simple truth Jesus offers. What do we care about? We desperately want to learn to care more about what Jesus appears to care most about in the gospels-loving God, loving our neighbors, feeding the hungry, clothing the naked, visiting the sick and imprisoned. We want to live out and act on these teachings of Christ-instead of sitting on our high horses and talking about them until our hair turns gray. We want people like you to stop wasting God’s precious time, as well as ours, with your endless, and ultimately pointless, rhetoric. <><><><><><><><><><><><><><><> And so, Mr. Smith, I offer this warning-“sorry politicians, spineless preachers, people who believe women should be treated fairly and equally, and especially ‘trailer-park trash’”-every one of these sounds to me and my generation like a pretty good representation of the kind of people Jesus hung out with while walking the planet. We take offense to every category you’ve carelessly abused. But we hang our heads in shock and disgust at your use of the term “trailer-park trash”-just as low as we hung them when you said, “God doesn’t hear the prayers of Jews.” People, Mr. Smith, live in trailer parks, not trash. And contrary to what you believe about us, the “moron majority,” we are listening, we are watching, and we will not allow an unthinking person like you, or anyone else from your elitist minority, to label us, lie to us, or lead us. -Nathan Brown (who, for the record, would not pick Barabbas over Jesus) Student Coordinator - CBFO Associate University Minister - FBC Norman |
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