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The Stewardship of Freedom by Herbert H. Reynolds, Ph.D. Chancellor of Baylor University Address given to Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists on November 15, 1999. This Morning I want to visit with you for a little while on The Stewardship of Freedom, with five components to my talk: a brief Prologue, Moral and Religious Freedom, Political Freedom, Our Present Circumstance, and Where Do We Go From Here? And I promise that this will not be “an all day singing and supper on the grounds” session! PROLOGUE Those of us gathered here this morning received a marvelous legacy from our forebears in the form of our Baptist distinctives or principles, filled with freedom, meaning and joy which have made us the people we are today. The question that now confronts us is whether we will be good stewards of this legacy and strive to pass it on to our children, grandchildren and their children in an unfettered fashion - - of whether through indifference, sloth and lack of determination we will not only leave the legacy sadly tarnished but maybe nonexistent! If you and I believe that Fundamentalism tears at the fabric of the Gospel and our Baptist distinctives, we should oppose it with all our might, not only for the sake of the Gospel, and our particular way of propagating it, but very much as a matter of stewardship toward future generations. What is more important to our progeny than freedom of conscience, religious liberty and the opportunity to participate in a civil society? I can think of nothing that you or I could do economically, socially, culturally or otherwise, that should have a higher priority and that will have more ultimate meaning. Therefore, let me pose three questions for you to ponder as I talk. (1) Are there forces at work today in Baptist life and in our nation that would deprive us of our religious and political freedoms, and which would install a defacto church state, if not a state church, in America? (2) Are there those, particularly within the Religious Right, who would try - - as stated by the insightful author, Grace Halsell - - “to force the hand of God” because they want Armageddon now? (3) Is there a need for freedom loving Baptists to unite ourselves in more cohesive and effective ways, and act in a concerted fashion to combat those forces that threaten the liberties of future generations? If your answer to one or more of these questions is “yes” then think with me further about the matter of “Stewardship of Freedom.” MORAL AND RELIGIOUS FREEDOMFreedom is the condition or state of being free - - having liberty or independence. (This is why we can call our Declaration of Independence a Declaration of Freedom.) We generally like to do as we please but the vast majority of us are willingly inhibited or restrained from doing what we might like to do in recognition of the rights of others, by law and by custom as well as by our own personal limitations. As a psychologist I can tell you that we do not like to be restrained, beginning at babyhood. I would venture that we almost dislike being restrained more than we love freedom and, in our part of the world, a goodly number of folks resist restraint, intrusiveness and really don’t care a lot about what other people think. That is also sometimes referred to as “orneriness” or being self-willed - - in refusing to concur in, conform or submit to outside influences! Through the ages philosophers have pointed to two principal kinds of freedom - - even though these do not encompass our total First Amendment Freedoms or Rights as Americans. One can be identified as moral and religious freedom and the other as political freedom - - these two areas forming the basis for our church/state delineations. In the moral and religious realm we often refer to freedom of the will or free will, and many religions teach that God gave us the ability to discern good from evil - - and even philosophers who are not religious maintain that you and I have free will. I say all this to give emphasis to our basic Baptist commitment to individual soul freedom or freedom of conscience, with no institution or person standing between each of us and our God. Thus, we embrace the doctrine of the absolute Lordship of Jesus Christ and from this doctrine all of our Baptist principles emerge. Our Baptist principles of (1) individual soul freedom and interpreting the Bible for ourselves (2) priesthood of all believers (3) accepting Christ freely and personally (4) following the will of Christ as we find it in the New Testament (5) the autonomy of the local church, and (6) the separation of church and state have served us well over the history of our Republic and, in doing so, we have contributed to religious liberty at home and around the world. John Bancroft, a great 19th century historian and diplomat, stated that “Freedom of conscience, unlimited freedom of mind, was from the first the trophy of Baptists” - - and the eminent philosopher John Locke said “The Baptists were the first propounders of absolute liberty, just and true liberty, equal and impartial liberty.” As George W. Truett stated in his famous 1920 address on the steps of our Capitol in Washington, D.C. “Baptists… Have forever been the unwavering champions of liberty, both religious and civil… Our contention is not for mere toleration but for absolute liberty. There is a wide difference between toleration and liberty… Toleration is a concession, while liberty is a right. Toleration is a matter of expediency, while liberty is a matter of principle. Toleration is a gift from man, while liberty is a gift from God… IT IS NOT THE PREROGATIVE OF ANY POWER, WHETHER CIVIL OR ECCLESIASTICAL, TO COMPEL MEN TO CONFORM TO ANY RELIGIOUS CREED OR FORM OF WORSHIP… GOD WANTS FREE WORSHIPPERS AND NO OTHER KIND.” This is our inheritance as Baptist Christians and we should never forget it!! POLITICAL FREEDOMIf one studies the history of political freedom, it is clear that to some degree such freedom developed from the religious belief in freedom of the will. Both legal and political freedom arose from our ancestors striving to secure the right to live, work and worship as they chose without undue restraint. People were not free when their “lives, liberty and estates” were at the mercy of unpredictable decrees. Our ancestors sought political freedom through representative government - - government based upon the consent of the governed - - through the limitation of the power of government by a charter, constitution or division of powers, and through a system of laws interpreted by impartial courts. Lasting freedom is possible only if you and I respect the freedom of others. Freedom without respect for wise authority is unwise for all of us since a person who recognizes no authority but his own often abuses his freedom and may lose it entirely. Both religious and political freedom may be endangered by a person or group deciding to use his or her freedom, or their freedom, to circumscribe, curtail or remove the freedom of others. This has surely been the case in Southern Baptist life over the past twenty years, and this brings us to the fourth portion of my remarks. OUR PRESENT CIRCUMSTANCE Last November, when the Baptist General Convention of Texas met in Houston, I spoke at the Texas Baptists Committed breakfast. At that time I also spoke about “Our Present Circumstance.” There have been some further developments in Baptist life since that time and I will identify a couple of them in this section. First, I have noted that Adrian Rogers is trying to “soft pedal” his leadership and the potential impact of the Southern Baptist Convention Study Committee which is beginning a further evaluation of the Baptist Faith and Message statement - - as amended in 1998, of course, to keep our womenfolk properly submissive. This time, however, it appears that the initial review will be the section on scripture - - that is, what scripture IS!! This has been in the making almost 40 years, since the Ralph Elliott controversy in 1962 led to the revision of the “Baptist Faith and Message Statement” of 1963. Beyond the issue of evolution in the 1920s, which to a large extent brought about the Baptist Faith and Message statement of 1925, and the issue of academic freedom in Baptist institutions, which brought about the 1963 Statement, a third issue of the inerrancy of the scriptures has been all-pervasive for the past thirty-five years since the Fundamentalists did not think the 1963 Statement or confession went far enough doctrinally. As Carl Diemer, then a professor of Church History at Liberty College and Seminary, said in 1983 “The quest for unity in order to obey the Great Commission is sometimes used as an argument against working toward purity of doctrine in the Southern Baptist Convention.” And Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and a member of the Roger’s Study Committee, give us his much venerated point of view that he is “not pressing for a Calvinist agenda” and that his agenda is “biblical truth…. There is no personal agenda behind this (move to revise the BFMS)”. (Parenthetically, let me point you to a brief but very fine article by your own Bruce Prescott entitled “Why Fundamentalists Object to the Baptist Faith and Message” in the October 1999 issue of Texas Baptist Committed. Well said, Bruce.) In a Second development, Roger Moran and the Missouri Baptist Laymen’s Association, and their new counterpart in Texas, the Texas Baptist Laymen’s Association, led by W. G. (Bill) Streich and Northside Baptist Church Pastor Scott Copeland of Mineral Wells, have continued the Fundamentalist thrust to discredit and to demean any group which opposes their Fundamentalist takeover mentality and methods. “Guilt by Association” or insinuation are their major tactics - - which are so deceitful and bigoted that Christ Himself would have been indicted for condoning sexually promiscuity, engaging in bootlegging, and practicing medicine without a license - - and a host of other charges. To avoid “being in the world” and under the scrutiny of the predecessors of Moran, Streich and Copeland, Jesus would have stayed in or close to the synagogue in Nazareth, cuddled up to the Pharisees and stayed completely away from the downtrodden, the outcasts and the sinners of His day. But Jesus taught us that one does not have to condone or approve of people’s shortcomings and lifestyles to treat them with respect and compassion and to forgive them of their sins. I personally prefer guilt by association, even though this is a flawed and juvenile technique, to a holier than thou attitude toward my fellowman - - and I know that you do too. Jesus wants us to get on with His work in this world and to quit spending our time on matters which are not of eternal importance! The Fundamentalists have used and continue to use a very clear-cut approach to gaining control of various Baptist bodies, including what I have called the “mayonnaise on bread” technique, to wit: spread mayonnaise on bread or tell untruths about other and it is hard to scrape it all off. This form of victimization is a favorite of those who use “God’s inerrant Word,” as they love to call it, to demean, diminish and destroy others. In an article entitled “Liberalism Brews Within the Southern Baptist Convention” in the February 1983 issue of the Fundamentalist Journal, edited by Jerry Falwell, William A. Powell, Jr., editor of the Southern Baptist Journal for ten years at that time, stated that: “The attempt by Liberals to “steal” the convention would be the greatest ‘theft’ in history! Most Bible-loyal Baptist believe there is a solution to the problems the Liberals are causing in the SBC schools and agencies, with a seven-point procedure: (1) Recognize there is a “cancer” in the SBC that must be removed. (2) Recognize the Bible commands Baptists to earnestly contend for the faith. (3) Get the facts and identify the enemy. (4) Help inform other Baptists of the problems. (5) Support the loyalists who are leading in the turn-around efforts. (6) Help elect conservative presidents such as Adrian Rogers, Bailey Smith and Jimmy Draper. (7) Conservative churches should provide adequate funds in their budgets so they can send a full quota of messengers to the annual Southern Baptist Convention and state conventions.” The “greatest theft” in history had been carried out by 1990 when the annual SBC meeting was in New Orleans. It involved, according to estimates by Powell in his article, “property valued at more than $12 billion, 72 seminaries, universities, colleges and schools (in reality only the seminaries belonged to the SBC with” the total value of SBC agencies and churches “approximating $20 billion” - - little of which came from the penurious Fundamentalists who have always been more independent Baptists than Cooperating Baptists. The greater theft, of course, has been that of the freedom of conscience, the priesthood of so many believers, the loss of careers and a sense of wholeness on the part of so many, the autonomy of the local church, the separation of church and state, and the hopes and aspirations of Bold Mission Thrust which was supposed to move us into the 21st century as the strongest evangelical effort ever summoned up in the history of Christendom. But here we are in 1999, two decades “down the road,” still trying to “get our act together,” with far too many so-called freedom loving Baptists leaving any effort to extricate ourselves from this mess to someone else. The Southern Baptist Convention is gone, probably for good or at least until the younger Fundamentalists die off about mid-21st century. But Mainstream Baptists at the state level, in collaboration with the large body of alumni and friends of our colleges and universities, can still redeem our great state conventions for new visions and goals for the cause of Christ - - and surely it is worth our best effort to try to do so. So…. WHERE DO WE GO FROM HERE?? It is sad but true that not only is the Southern Baptist Convention controlled or dominated by the Fundamentalists but also a dozen of our state conventions, including Oklahoma. Several other states would say they are centrists and several more would declare that they are moderate conservatives. In 1980, one year after the Presslerites engineered the election of Adrian Rogers as president of the SBC in Houston, the Baptist General Convention of Texas met in Houston - - and there was an abortive attempt made to take over the state convention. Fortunately, Texans knew Pressler and Patterson and many of their cohorts and rejected their attempt. In my opinion, it was immediately thereafter that Pressler, Patterson and Company decided the best thing to do was to apply their energies to taking over every aspect of the SBC and only then turning their full attention to the individual states. These strategists were astute enough to realize that SBC institutions and agencies had a small or non-existent alumni pool unlike our Baptist colleges and universities which are a part of the state conventions. Our foreign missionaries and their families were out of the country, most employees of the SBC agencies wanted to keep their jobs until retirement and the graduates of the six SBC seminaries were scattered throughout all 34 states having Southern Baptist churches; thus, they were not a cohesive force for opposition. After the Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting in New Orleans in June 1990, where I spoke at the SBC Forum on “An Anatomy of an Illness,” I received word that about 25-30 of the Fundamentalists had a meeting where they acknowledged the consolidation of their power at the SBC level and agreed to turn their attention to the state conventions - - with Texas at the top of the list and Baylor at the top of that list. They planned for outside speakers and purveyors of discord to begin gaining access to Texas pulpits and podiums as soon as possible. The foregoing knowledge, plus Joel Gregory’s two year stint as the president of our state convention, and other factors of considerable import, led to our reserving both the name George W. Truett Theological Seminary with the Texas Secretary of State in July 1990 and our charter change in September 1990. This positioned Baylor to do everything possible to preserve the integrity of the Baptist General Convention of Texas while removing the risk to Baylor should our efforts at any annual convention fall short. As far as I know this was the only time the Fundamentalists were successfully thwarted. I want to publicly say once again how grateful I am to the men and women serving on our Board of Trustees at that time, along with our independent Alumni Association, for their support of and commitment to Baylor and to Texas remaining largely free of Fundamentalism. And I salute Dr. David Currie and the Texas Baptists Committed Board for his and their intense and unparalleled efforts over a period of many years in keeping the Fundamentalists at bay. And I want to thank three people from the BGCT staff for their constant and fine efforts: Phil Strickland, Ed Schmeltekopf and Roger Hall, who have gone the second mile with us on many occasions. Now, you must be thinking “what have these happenings and recognitions got to do with Oklahoma and the other states under Fundamentalist control or influence?” Actually, they have everything to do with “Where We Go From Here” or, rather, “Where Do You Go From Here?” since you are going to have to decide whether you are willing to spend the time, talent, efforts and financial resources to plan a strategy, organize your forces, direct the tactical events, coordinate everything to insure coherence, cohesion and completeness, and to follow up to turn the tide of battle. The Fundamentalists declared early on that you, we, were the enemy, so we have to engage them - - not using their methods of untruth, distortion, slander, libel and innuendo - - but through education of the laity, persuasiveness and outmaneuvering them to the point of producing decisive votes at the annual state convention. I believe our answers lie in telling the truth, living out the Word instead of arguing over what the word IS!, and keeping our eyes on and ears open to the Master Teacher, our Lord, who is still our Guide and who is our greatest inspiration and hope for fulfillment of our stewardship. We must take the high road and capture the high ground and pray fervently that the Lord will bless our efforts to bless posterity. Now, if you and we, and a number of other states, can prevail, and I believe that we can - - if we “set our minds to it and our shoulders to the wheel” we can begin even now to take some interim steps to bring us into a closer alliance. Just last evening some of us gathered from several states to discuss how we might identify ourselves from state to state more uniformly and clearly - - and how we might initiate some programs and engage in common educational endeavors to inform our Baptist people about the Christian principles which should guide and direct all that we do. In thinking about how we might partner with one another over the next few years, Dr. Prescott asked me to share my thought with you as regards to a Baptist Convention of the Americas (BCA). Many of you have heard or read my thoughts in full or in part, but I will reiterate some of these for the sake of emphasis. If we examine this hemisphere from the southern tip of South America through Central America, Mexico, the 48 contiguous United States, Canada and Alaska there is a population exceeding 800 million people – which will likely reach a billion within the next decade or so. That is one-seventh to one-eighth of the world’s population at our hemispheric doorstep involving 300-400 million non-adherents to the Christian faith with an untold need for education and benevolent services. While maintaining the autonomy and integrity of partnering states, it might be possible to create a BAPTIST CONVENTION OF THE AMERICAS with a very lean staff where the outsourcing of many services and functions could maximize the use of financial resources. 1. Telecommunications technologies now make it possible to engage in teleconferencing, in distance learning and in the presentation of a variety of programs by telephone lines or satellites twenty four hours per day. 2. A small high tech staff could provide ideas and support for small, medium and large churches for worship, including music, videos and film, as well as conducting seminars and workshops either by satellite, videotapes or CD’s. Such a staff could also publish a periodical to keep churches updated on new technologies, materials and services. 3. Stimulating Bible teaching could take place through closed circuit TV by satellite, along with morning and evening devotionals in the homes of Baptists who are members of affiliated and cooperating churches or other persons who want to subscribe to such services. 4. A wide host of literature and publications of all sorts could be obtained under contract with Smyth and Helwys rather than creating an entity like the old Sunday School Board or Lifeway or some other kind of Convention publishing house. 5. We could engage in discussions with the CBF as regards mission efforts now underway to determine if that major component of CBF might become related to Baptist Convention of the Americas enterprise. As for the total mission effort around the world we could modify and improve upon the Haggai model in preparing many indigenous pastors and lay-persons at six or eight major training centers throughout the world where they would study full-time for 3-4 months with three groups each year at each center mentored by highly capable faculty and staff members We could do this at much less cost than the present cost of training a full complement of career missionaries. We would need a cadre of Convention appointed missionaries who would direct and train the indigenous pastors, staffs and laypeople throughout the world. With the ever increasing world population we must develop entirely new strategies for the spread of the gospel as we enter the 21st century. The 5,000 missionaries envisioned as a part of Bold Mission Thrust really amounted to a “drop in the bucket” in relation to the billions we must try to reach for Christ. 6. We could contract with a half dozen Baptist university seminaries for the preparation of those pastors and church staff members we seek for various ministries, at much less expense than would be incurred in establishing and operating a group of Baptist Convention of the Americas seminaries. University seminaries could likely accommodate 2,000-2,500 seminarians within the next half dozen years. Our new facilities at Truett Seminary will accommodate a student population of 500-600 in a couple of years, with built-in expansion capabilities. 7. The Center for Christian Ethics founded in 1990 by Foy Valentine and now located on the Baylor campus could operate under contract with the Baptist Convention of the Americas and in collaboration with the various state Christian Life Commissions to expand upon this important area of work on a national and global basis. 8. We hope that the WMU would feel right at home with a Baptist Convention of the Americas whose people have been so supportive of these fine women during the times of travail they have experienced over the past decade, in particular. 9. Even though much can be accomplished through telecommunications it would be important to develop places of assembly similar to Ridgecrest and Glorietta where so many meaningful and useful gatherings have been held in the past. With the large geographical territory we have proposed, four or five assembly sites might be needed for periodic gatherings. 10. As we examine our global involvement, we might want to partner in various ways with the Baptist World Alliance if that body remains free of the forces of Fundamentalism. There is in place within the BWA six Regional Secretaries who work in collaboration with Dr. Nelson Fanini, President, Dr. Denton Lotz, General Secretary and the senior staff of the BWA in relating to the Union of Baptist in Latin America, the Caribbean Baptist Fellowship, the North America Baptist Fellowship, the All-Africa Baptist Fellowship, the European Baptist Federation and the Asian Baptist Federation. As many of you know, the BWA is comprised of 42 million baptized believers representing 100 million Baptists around the world, uniting them in evangelism, responding to people in need and defending human rights. In Dr. James E. Wood, Jr.’s treatise Baptist and Human Rights, published by the BWA’s Human Rights Commission in 1997, he states “The Baptist concept of religious liberty is integrally linked to human rights, for the theological basis of religious liberty is the cornerstone for all human rights…. And that human rights are rooted not only in the sacredness of the human person and humanity’s capacity for freedom by virtue of God’s creation, but also the right of God’s sovereignty. * * * * * As we reflect on these possibilities for our future, let me make a sharp turn back to the subject of freedom and convey to you a real sense of urgency, an urgency which grows out of my genuine concern for our freedoms and our future, which are threatened daily - - by not only the Fundamentalists who control the Southern Baptist Convention but by the whole of the Fundamentalist Christian Right to Reclaim America for Christ, and particularly the extreme right-wing of the movement, comprised of the Reconstructionists and the Armageddon Theology Dispensationalists. If you do not know already, let me tell you that the Reconstructionists firmly believe that the laws handed down by God for the spiritual, legal and political structures and activities of Israel, as recorded in the Old Testament, are just as applicable now as they were then and for all ages to come. These last 20th century Neanderthals are committed to the notion that America should embrace and enforce the Mosaic Code as the basis of our legal system. Such a political theology would eliminate religious liberty and personal freedom. Any theology or political theory to the contrary would be prohibited and a strict biblical legalism would be instituted. (See Derek H. Davis, Editorial, Journal of Church and State, Summer 1999, “Thoughts on the Possible Realignment of the Christian Right in 21st Century America”) As for the Premillennial Dispensationalists with their Armageddon Theology, in her new book, Forcing God’s Hand, Grace Halsell quotes James Dunn who has stated that “two men, John Darby and Cyrus Scofield, were largely responsible for giving a new interpretation to Scripture, called Dispensationalism, in the mid-1800s”… They wrote, preached and taught that “saved Christians will be Raptured before the Tribulation, “which has had a wide “appeal among those who long for a certitude that they need not suffer one hour, not one moment of a long period of hardships.” Halsell also states that “the Dallas Theological Seminary (is the) fountainhead of the doctrine that God demands that we destroy Planet Earth, … and has graduated many of the pastors now preaching Armageddon Theology in nearly one thousand Bible churches.” These Armageddon Theology Dispensationalists include individuals and groups like (according to Halsell): · “Jerry Falwell · Jack Van Impe on one hundred and thirty-three TV and radio channels · Chuck Smith of The World for Today radio program on hundreds of stations · Paul Crouch of the Trinity Broadcasting Network (TBN) where Hal Lindsey of The Late, Great Planet Earth book fame often makes appearances · James Dobson and his Focus on the Family with two million members · Pat Robertson, who writer and biographer Robert Boston wrote of in his The Most Dangerous Man in America? According to Boston, Robertson used ‘the money garnered by tax-exempt religious broadcasts to finance or provide seed money for other projects, including those of a political nature, especially the Christian Coalition. (Boston further states that) the Christian Coalition arguably is the single most influential political organization in the United States.’ · The Branch Davidians of 1993 notoriety · The Heavens Gate Suicidal Group of 1997 notoriety · Elohim City, a fortress-like town near Little Rock where one hundred or so heavily armed inhabitants work, pray and await disasters that will end human history · And, quite possibly, Oklahoma City bomber Tim McVeigh who phoned friends in Elohim City before the 1995 Oklahoma Federal Building bombing. · Finally, Oral Roberts and W.A. Criswell, who were once highly visible and heard by many but whose reputations and influence have diminished year by year." Sadly, Dispensationalism has attracted millions of adherents even though “for eighteen hundred years the Church of Jesus Christ did not hold such views as you read in Scofield… Scofield’s Dispensationalism teaches that Christ will return to establish a Jewish Kingdom, sitting on a throne in the third temple in Jerusalem, and presiding over Old Testament style temple worship such as sacrifices of red heifers” … But, as one pastor-theologian has observed, “reverting to tribal laws was not what Christ was about. He came with a new message. And He is now sitting on an eternal throne. He is the eternal King ruling over an eternal Kingdom. His mission was fulfilled.” (James R. Graham, missionary, theologian and educator) Dispensationalism “says Washington, D.C. broadcaster, Dale Crowley, Jr., appeals to those who like to feel they are on the inside… that they and others like them know what was always in the mind of God… and that they will be with the ‘in’ crowd and be rewarded with power, order, security and personal meaning… by accepting a cult of the land of Israel and the epochs of Dispensationalism that must transpire there” (end of Crowley quote)… with “Messiah Jesus striking down those who have ravaged His city Jerusalem… (after which) he will strike down the armies amassed in the Valley of Megiddo or Armageddon” (writer Hal Lindsey). * * * * * * If we are to pass on to future generations our coveted freedoms we must act and act now. We have procrastinated and languished long enough, and it is up to those of us gathered here today to give the kind of priority to these matters that they deserve - - or we will have forsaken a sacred trust which was placed in our hands by so many who were reviled, punished, banished or slain for freedom’s sake down through the ages and particularly in the four centuries since the Reformation. We can fret, fume and dream dreams from now until some or all of us pass from the scene, but if we really want to move beyond the Southern Baptist Convention - - and move forward individually and collectively - - in a larger endeavor or enterprise, then we must be willing to do at least four things: 1. We must discontinue sending funds to the SBC Executive Committee to produce more Fundamentalists ministers, many of whom will end up occupying pulpits and serving on church staffs in Oklahoma, Texas and in sister states where there are a great many free and faithful Baptists. Additionally, there are now a significant number of missionaries who have essentially embraced the credo of the Fundamentalists and who will win others to Christ around the world under the banner of a dispensationalist-driven theocracy. Lastly, funds from our state conventions are being spent on literature and programs antithetical to our stance on freedom of conscience, religious liberty and the future resting in God’s hands instead of that of the Falwellians, Presslerites and those on the Religious Right who more and more are engaging in self-deification. 2. We must create intrastate organizations comprised of free and faithful Baptists and Baptist congregations to achieve the degree of leadership and influence necessary to bring about the rejection of Fundamentalism in our state conventions. 3. We must join together on an interstate basis for a few years in some type of Council or Coalition that will allow us to partner and work together in enlarged evangelism, education and human welfare programs that none of us can accomplish on a solitary basis. 4. We must think ahead and envision where we want to be six, eight or ten years from now - - at a time when we might be strong enough and united enough to form a Baptist Convention of the Americas or something akin thereto. * * * * * * Now, let me share some information with you that may encourage us as we look to the future in a more focused fashion. Before the Texas Baptists Committed breakfast in Houston last November I had already secured a Charter or Articles of Incorporation for a Baptist Convention of the Americas from the Texas Secretary of State. I did not want some group to pick up on my talk and preempt us with the same or similar name soon after the notion was advanced - - and I have already filed all the papers at the federal level for the Baptist Convention of the Americas Trademark as well. So, we do own this name if and when we should decide to move forward under such a banner. * * * * * * In conclusion, let me return to the main theme of this talk by quoting again from George W. Truett who, in my opinion, has been the greatest Baptist Statesman of the 20th century. He has said this better than I could ever possibly do so. “How is it, then, that Baptists, more than any other people in the world, have forever been the protagonists of religious liberty, and its compatriot, civil liberty? Our uniform, unyielding and sacrificial advocacy of such principle was not and is not an accident. It is, in a word, because of our essential and fundamental principles. Ideas rule the world. A denomination is moulded by its ruling principles, just as a nation is thus moulded and just individual life is thus moulded. Our fundamental essential principles have made our Baptist people, of all ages and all countries, to be the unyielding protagonists of religious liberty, not only for themselves, but for everybody else as well. The student of history cannot fail to observe that…. two ideas have been endless antagonism: the idea of autocracy and the idea of democracy. The idea of autocracy is that supreme power is vested in a few who, in turn, delegate this power to the many. That was the dominant idea of the Roman Empire, and upon that idea the Caesars built their throne. That idea has found worldwide expression in both the civil and ecclesiastical realms. Until the principle of democracy, rather than the principle of autocracy, becomes regnant (the ruling practice) in the realm of religion, our mission shall be commanding and unending…. (Therefore), LET US TODAY AND FOREVER BE HIGHLY RESOLVED THAT THE PRINCIPLE OF RELIGIOUS LIBERTY, PLEASE GOD, BE PRESERVED INVIOLATE THROUGH ALL OUR DAYS AND THE DAYS OF THOSE WHO COME AFTER US.” Amen and Amen! FINIS |
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Online since April 7, 1999
E- mail questions or comments about this web site to bprescott@mainstreambaptists.orgCopyright © 1999-2003 MAINSTREAM OKLAHOMA BAPTISTS P.O. Box 6371 Norman, OK 73070-6371 (405) 329-2266.
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