Selected Writings |
| Is our Louisiana Baptist Convention worth a struggle? Four principles have defined Baptists since their inception during the Radical Reformation. Baptists have been a people who cherished separation of Church and State, non-creedalism, autonomy of the local church, and the priesthood of every believer. In 1979 control of the Southern Baptist Convention passed into the hands of a group of Baptists whose adherence to these historic Baptist principles is questionable at best. Consider the implications of the following actions: The Convention moved towards Creedalism by making the 1989 Peace Committee Report a creedal type of statement. No one can teach in a Southern Baptist Seminary or be hired by a Southern Baptist institution unless he or she affirms the creedal beliefs about the Bible of the Peace Committee Report. The Priesthood of every believer was attacked in 1988 when the Convention passed a resolution declaring the pastor to be the ruler of the Church. No church true to Baptist principles would ever agree to such a statement. Since 1979, the Southern Baptist Convention has consistently moved towards government, and away from the separation of Church and state. The Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs was defunded and replaced by a political action committee of the Christian Life Commission. Political support of religion is a top priority of current Convention leadership. Autonomy of the local church was hampered by the 1994 action of the Convention in instructing the trustees of all its institutions and agencies to accept no more money from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Perhaps most egregious of all, the Convention has been restructured with more power in the hands of fewer people. Nineteen agencies were consolidated into twelve. The Women’s Missionary Union was not recognized as having any role in Southern Baptist life. Our Louisiana Baptist Convention is involved in a struggle to stand firm for historic Baptist principles. Current trends seem to be toward peace, and we applaud those efforts. But peace which calls for compromise of our core principles is not worth the price. Do we want our Louisiana Baptist Convention to move in the same direction as the Southern Baptist Convention, or are we willing to take a stand for the principles that have made Baptists who they are? |