In my own reflections over the past month, I've found myself returning again and again to a very different context from that of Lambeth, but one that, I feel, is one of the "signs of the times" which Jesus advised us to discern if we are wise. During the years from 1979 to 1985, I watched in great concern as fundamentalists systematically took control of the Southern Baptist Convention and its institutions. Some of the same strategies and tactics which I observed during that struggle are in use today in the Anglican Communion to oppose the ordination of women and the ordination of lesbians and gay men and the blessing of same-gender relationships. Those who are leading this opposition have taken a page from the playbook of Southern Baptist fundamentalists, and I would not be at all surprised to find that they are consulting with Southern Baptist fundamentalist leaders, in order to impose their will on the Episcopal Church and the Anglican Communion "by any means necessary."
Perhaps you are thinking this is not germane to our struggle to achieve full Baptismal parity for lesbians and gay men in Anglicanism. We are, after all, a very different kind of Church, with a very different kind of polity and ecclesiology. I beg you, however, to hear me out. I want to summarize for you the conclusions of Bill Leonard, a professor of church history at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, in his book God's Last and Only Hope:The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention. See Bill J. Leonard, God's Last and Only Hope: The Fragmentation of the Southern Baptist Convention pp. 177-182. (Eerdmans: Grand Rapids, 1990). Bill Leonard is now Dean of the Divinity School at Wake Forest University.
Leonard says there were seven elements to the triumph of the fundamentalist campaign. The first was that they successfully redefined the use of Scripture in Baptist life, making the theory of biblical inerrancy the only acceptable dogma for defining the nature of Holy Scripture. "No longer was it permissible merely to affirm Scripture as authoritative for the church and the individual. Rather, Scripture was authoritative only because it was inerrant . . . Any attempt by the moderates to explain their position on biblical authority was judged to be a denial of the 'total trustworthiness' of the Bible."
Second, the fundamentalists "directed their attacks toward a particular group of enemies whom they believed were destroying the denomination." The list included seminary professors and "pastors and denominational bureaucrats who entertained compromise in the name of unity."
Third, the fundamentalists "insisted that they had long been excluded from leadership," although there was documented evidence that this was untrue. They demanded what they called "parity" on the boards of trustees of denominational agencies. As they gained the majority, however, they were quick to demand unanimity and not parity.
Fourth, fundamentalists "promised to maintain the numerical growth" of Southern Baptist churches, "charging that if the SBC continued down the path of liberalism, it would experience the same decline as the mainline denominations." Leonard remarks that this fails to acknowledge that "a denomination can decline as easily from the right as from the left."
Fifth, fundamentalists were aware of the power of populism in Baptist churches, promising to take power out of the hands of the bureaucrats and rettore it to the people in the pews, and claiming to represent the "real" Baptists. Says Leonard: "If it takes political methods to return power to 'the people', the fundamentalists explain it is only a response to the political labyrinth created by the bureaucrats. Political means are necessary to achieve orthodox ends."
Sixth, fundamentalists "set the agenda from the pulpit," using talented orators skilled in the use of the media and holding convention-wide forums and conferences to whip up support.
Seventh--and this was the only element out of their control but to which they have been significant contributors--fundamentalists rode the coattails of a rightward drift in American culture and politics.
Leonard also details why the Southern Baptist moderates lost. First, he says, "the so-called moderate coalition was virtually no coalition at all. Its members lacked consensus and direction, particularly in the first five years."
Second, most moderates "misread the times and the future. Many promoted the old methods for dealing with denominational controversy: let the controversy run its course. Do not confront or antagonize the opposition publicly. Bring opponents into the denominational bureaucracy and there they would be pacified and ultimately give up their ideological quest." Leonard warns that in this way, moderates lost valuable time in confronting both the methods and the ideology of fundamentalists.
Third, many moderates tried to avoid the theological and concentrate on the political issues. They never formulated a theological response to the fundamentalists, which kept them on the theological defensive and effectively ceded the "high ground" to fundamentalism, while the moderates appeared to lack convictions.
Fourth, moderates "often promoted the programmatic and corporate identity of the denomination, thereby contributing to the impersonal, bureaucratic image that the fundamentalists exploited" with their populist rhetoric.
Fifth, "a significant number of people sympathetic to the moderate cause refused to get involved. . . Some did not agree with the fundamentalist political agenda but were reluctant to oppose it lest they be branded as liberal. Many believed that the convention would self-correct before the fundamentalists went too far." By that time, of course, it was far too late. Perhaps Leonard's most damning characterization of Southern Baptist moderates is that they were "in a sense the Democratic party of the Southern Baptist Convention. They were a coalition of diverse subgroups unable to agree on a common vision for the denomination or evoke the focused ideological intensity that characterized the fundamentalist camp."
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