The Demonization of Moderates: NC Baptists Oust CBF

Messengers to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina decided today that Churches will no longer be allowed to support the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship through the BSCNC beginning in 2010. Check the Biblical Recorder for the story later today.

One NC Baptist fundamentalist had this to say about the decision over on his blog, Southern Baptists in NC:

The reason this amendment passed is that NC Baptist are Southern Baptist they are not CBF Baptist.  (This statement is something the Baptist General Convention of Texas would do well to heed.) NC Baptist are trying their best to say that we do not want anything to do with CBF.  If there are churches that desire to be CBF then have at it.  However, do not try to tell the world that you are Southern Baptist and be part of an organization that was organized as a result of being disgruntled with doctrines Southern Baptist believed and held dear. What does this mean for BSCNC?  It means that the churches that were bypassing the convention are now going to need to stop.  It means that we are in this together and thus we need to support the budget together. 

Also, there needs to be a call now to the head offices in Cary that NC Baptist have clearly stated we are not CBF. Thus, an employee at the convention offices should be a member of a NC Baptist church not one that is dually aligning themselves with the CBF and the BSCNC.  We had the clarion call today during the budget vote that we will not even give you an opportunity to send funds through us to the CBF.  We certainly should be able to say we want you attending a BSCNC church.

And here is a response to the BSCNC's decision from a moderate North Carolina Baptist. The blog post is appropriately titled Demons.

I am sitting in my office after spending the last day and a half at the Baptist State Convention of NC.  I witnessed a historical moment, and it breaks my heart.

The Baptist State Convention has, for about 18 years, provided 4 giving plan options for churches to contribute their missions giving through the state convention.  One of those plans, plan C, provided for 10% of our total giving to the state to go to CBF national.  For years now, the multiple giving plans have been under attack, with the primary focus being on plan C.  In the last couple of years, the state had determined that the 10% apportioned to CBF would not count as NC Cooperative Program giving.  Last year, the state formed a committee to investigate a single giving plan that would preserve multiple options.  That committee brought its recommendation today.  There would be a single giving plan, and churches could check a box on their giving form if they desired a portion of their proceeds to go to CBF.  An amendment was brought from the floor to remove this check box.  After a secret ballot vote, the amendment passed.  After years of efforts, plan C was officially dead.

This isn’t what broke my heart.  Anybody with a brain has been able to see this handwriting on the wall for years.  There are going to be those who argue, as there were today, that churches can just send their money directly to CBF and negatively designate the SBC out of their missions giving.  CBF churches are still welcome in the Baptist State Convention of NC, they will say.

They are lying.

Those who spoke in favor of the amendment based their arguments on 2 points:  CBF doesn’t affirm the inerrancy of Scripture, and CBF isn’t true Baptist.  There were calls for the convention to “take a stand”.  And so they did.  They thought they were taking a stand against some faceless organization.  Instead, they took a stand against Christian men and women I serve and work with every day.  They called me, my church members, and my peers in ministry enemies.  They demonized us.

That is what breaks my heart.  They made people I love and respect into demons in order to get what they wanted.  I could have lived with a decision that said, “We are SBC, and we want a plan that says we are SBC only.”  I would not have agreed with it, but I could have respected it.  I can’t respect this.  Especially when I know it is going to be followed by somebody saying, “We aren’t kicking you out.  You can still send your money to us.” 

When the announcement of the vote was made, there was no comment or response.  A couple of folks clapped, though not as many as I honestly expected.  The President just moved on to the next item of business.  The convention moved on and left behind Christ-loving, Christ-serving people who had just been accused of not being true Baptist or even true Christians, people and churches who have been a part of the state convention for decades.  I’m sure some will say it was just an example of the convention saying, “Get behind me, Satan.”

Funny, Jesus said those words to Peter, the rock upon which he would build his church. 
To those CBF pastors, laypeople, and churches who winced at being made to feel like demons, my heart hurts with you and for you.  My prayer for all of us is that we will be able to put aside the hurt and anger that rises in our belly at being called a demon so that we might fully concentrate on being the rocks upon which Christ will build His kingdom.

 Texas Baptists should pay attention to the fundamentalist from North Carolina cited above and the actions taken today by the fundamentalists in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina.  What happened today in North Carolina is just one of MANY examples which demonstrate that Cooperation with Fundamentalists is not possible.  It just ain't.  

Fundamentalism by definition seeks power and control.  First, the state convention cuts the CBF option off.  Second, the state convention decides to tell its employees which Baptist churches are OK to attend and join.  Power and Control. 

We can be nice and drop the fundamentalist tag and just call 'em Southern Baptists - as if a good many of those Southern Baptists are not fundamentalists.  That what some folks here in Texas are doing.  They pretend that somehow moderates and fundamentalists can work together under the same roof.  They pretend that somehow a Baptist organization can be supportive of both Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and George W. Truett Theological Seminary.  They pretend that a Baptist organization can support programs which affirm Women In Ministry while also accommodating an institution that wants to keep women out the pulpit and in the home; baking cookies, cleaning, and birthing babies, Quiverfull style. 

Naive?  You Bet'cha.  That's putting it charitably.  Why any person who eschews fundamentalism would want a better relationship with a Baptist group completely controlled by fundamentalists is beyond my comprehension.  Some Texas Baptists need to pay attention to what happened in North Carolina and Georgia this week.  They need to read a book or two.  A primer on fundamentalism is apparently needed.  Or, just keep that head in the sand.  

The ONLY Way to Cooperate With a Fundamentalist Is To Obey Him.

Myers Park To Challenge Messenger Seating

Ripped from the headlines of the North Carolina's Biblical Recorder.....

The Executive Committee ruled Monday morning that Myers Park Baptist Church is not "in friendly cooperation with the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina."

Myers Park Pastor Steve Shoemaker

Myers Park will challenge that finding at the BSC annual meeting Tuesday morning in Greensboro.

Myers Park is affiliated with several groups that "welcome and affirm" homosexuals as members and in leadership.

They wrote a letter to the Baptist State Convention in January declaring both that fact and their intent to stay affiliated with the Baptist State Convention.

At issue is a membership requirement - passed in 2006 - that says churches which in any way affirm homosexual behavior will be considered to be "not in friendly cooperation" with the BSC.

To be "in friendly cooperation" with the Convention's purposes is one of only two qualifications for membership.

The other is financial support in any measure.

If a church is ruled not to be in friendly cooperation, then it is effectively not a member church of the Baptist State Convention.

Myers Park representatives challenged that membership parameter, pleading instead "from the mercies of God, to refrain from removing churches like ours from your fellowship," said pastor Steve Shoemaker.....

Shoemaker said Myers Park had been studying the issue for 20 years. "We do not claim to have the whole mind of God," Shoemaker said. "We respect those whose perspectives differ."

"Jesus welcomed those considered outcasts into his Kingdom of God," Shoemaker said in his comments to the Executive Committee, where each church member also spoke. "We hope to live in His spirit. We have overcome our original resistance to the inclusion of gays and lesbians as Peter overcame his resistance to gentiles being included in the Kingdom. "

Shoemaker said unity could be based on "any number of issues of interpretation" such as speaking in tongues, war, divorce, sexuality or others, but said, "Let us base our unity on Jesus Christ as Lord."

Read the rest here.

Back in February, I wrote a post about Myers Park entitled "North Carolina Congregation 'Outs' Itself."

At that point, Myers Park had sent an open letter to BSNC officers 'outing' itself as a congregation in violation of the state convention's newly adopted policies concerning homosexuality. Now, Myers Park has been kicked out of the state convention.

It is unfortunate that Baptist life is merely but one long continuous fight over who we can and can not cooperate with.

Meanwhile, there is a concerted effort in North Carolina by "conservatives" like Tim Rogers of SBC Today to effectively run off the remaining moderates. Under the guise of "unity," Rogers has advocated that congregations in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina should no longer have the option to direct their tithes through the CP to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

Is it really UNITY when that unity is only obtained by kicking out non-creedal congregations who actually value authentic Christian cooperation over doctrinal rigidity and conformity?

The old saying goes that the only way to cooperate with a fundamentalist is to OBEY Him.

And to quote German theologian Dietrich Bonhoeffer: obedience without freedom is slavery.

There is no freedom in fundamentalism. Attempting to cooperate with fundamentalists is indeed admirable. But as long as moderates and progressives continue to retain relationships through state convention's with their fundamentalist brethren - they will always lose.

That's just a sad fact of Baptist life.

Liberal congregations like Myers Park will never have a voice at any Baptist state convention. The exclusion that Myers Park has faced is nothing new. But if committed SBCers like Tim Rogers have their way - even moderates will no longer have a place at the Baptist table in North Carolina.

Sad but not surprising.