As I read the letter, I had mixed emotions. Before I get into that, let me tell you enough about me so that you know to take everything with a grain of salt.
I am 34 years old. For some, that qualifies me as a young Baptist. For others, not so much. I consider myself a young Baptist, however misplaced that opinion of myself may be.
I’ve pastored a Southern Baptist church for over 5 years now (other major experience is hospital chaplaincy). We are uniquely aligned with the BGCT and SBC. However, I have been a personal financial and vocal supporter of the CBF for over 10 years. I’ve been blessed to attend CBF conferences, even to volunteer during their last General Assembly here in Texas. Even though my church does not endorse the CBF, I do. In my heart, I am solely aligned with the CBF. Perhaps I shall tell the specifics of that another day. I’ve often prayed that my church might align itself with the CBF, but that has not happened, and I don’t expect it to. God’s answer has thus been, “no.”
I apologize for the length of my response.
…………………………
To David Burroughs, Scott Ford, Nikki Hardeman, Jeremy Lewis, Brent McDougal, Christina Whitehouse-Suggs, and Mike Young,
I’m sorry that I don’t know who you are. I’ve heard that you may not be young, but ages are relative…no? I must admit that I read your “Open Letter to Dr. Cecil Sherman” with mixed reactions, feelings, and thoughts.
First, was the positive reaction. I spend time with some that others may consider “older” moderates, here in Fort Worth. I’ve been on the side you are on. Seemingly a lone voice, asking if there is anything else we can talk about other than the fall of the “seminary on the hill?” Unless you are here, you have no idea how often that is spoken about. People here are still grieving deeply over the conflict that erupted in Fort Worth.
I’ve been to Texas Baptist Committed meetings, seemingly the youngest one there. When asked for opinions on our future, I stated that I believed we should become more of an educational movement than political (This was around 3 years ago). One of those same Fort Worth Elder Moderates, stood up right after me, and in no uncertain terms told me to be quiet and be grateful for my “moderate” education (I’m a HPU and Truett graduate)…and the funds that provided it. I’m still a little sore about that one, thus I’ve never written about it. I’ll say this much though, a scholarship does not put freethinking Baptists into indentured servitude to any Baptist Institution, moderate or fundamentalist. Perhaps more on that another day.
I’m saying this to say, I’ve had similar thoughts and I’ve had the arrows of my elders pierce my chest. I sympathize with you and your desire to “embrace new opportunities for ministry and discipleship.” I agree with you that the Holocaust “analogy was misguided.” I would go a little bit farther than that if I had the proper words for it. For anyone to compare the Holocaust to any pain and hurt that doesn’t include the death of millions of people is more than wrong. Compare it to genocide, not denominational wars.
However, I find myself also reacting in a negative fashion to your letter. If you are truly young, then you’ll have little to no memories of the actual fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. Perhaps your dad, or even grandfather, was fired from a position in the late 1970-1980s. I’ve met at least one person that fits that category, and he doesn’t consider himself a young Baptist. He’s around 10 years my senior. From my experience with him, I don’t think that he would be in agreement with your letter.
If you are a young Baptist, then how can you say with any certainty that our forefathers suffered a “…relatively small amount of pain…?” Having spent many a day and night with people in pain, both physical and emotional, I find that statement arrogant, patronizing, and utterly reprehensible. One thing I’ve learned is to not degrade another’s pain, especially when you’ve little to no experience with it.
You made a remark that I believe you meant with the best intentions. The remark was, “…we recognize those wounds are real. They are also wounds that need healing, and for some the grieving process is not over yet.” I find this to be a misrepresentation of grieving. For those people that have suffered a loss, you never quit grieving. Please note my post about this years Father’s Day. Gray’s Anatomy speaks more truth than their writers probably know. We never get over loss. We should strike the words, “get over it,” from our pastoral care language. They are horribly crass, uncaring, and show a lack in the area of pastoral care. If you truly have little to no understanding of the pain suffered by those that have gone before, then I can understand why you use such inappropriate language.
I’m afraid that those of us that are young have a larger than unusual lack of sensitivity towards our elders. After all, we’ve seen our parents put our grandparents into the warehouses known nursing homes. It just makes sense that we’ve an over developed callousness of heart.
This brings me to my next negative reaction. Even though you seem to couch the letter in language of respect, and perhaps you genuinely think you are being respectful, the things of substance that you say (as per above), shows your lack of respect and honor for people like Dr. Sherman.
Hear me, I’m not saying that you shouldn’t say anything. I believe that dissent should be even more welcome in our midst. We need to be able to speak freely about our differences, especially when it is about the future of the CBF. But, perhaps there could have been a better way to go about the conversation. Here is where my inexperience truly shows itself. I’m not sure how we could have gone about it a different way. Maybe some of the forums through the CBF-wiki pages would have been appropriate? Perhaps on a smattering of blogs would have been a good start?
I digress though. I hope you know that people can’t just “lay down the pain of the past.” Paraphrasing Captain Kirk, it becomes a part of us and makes us who we are. Our past is important, and I think that is something most young people don’t get until they are much older. History helps define who we are. Regardless of what some of my peers said in college, identity really does matter. If we forget our history, we forget our identity.
Now, to you Moderate Elders that may be reading this. As much as it is the younger generations responsibility to learn from your experience, your lack of mentoring is appalling. You don’t want to listen to the younger generations, and your denigrating speech towards them will not help. It will take all of us, intergenerationally speaking, to make the kind of difference we need to make in God’s Kingdom. The old ways have failed, just look at our failing churches. It is time for something different. Help us to find out what it is. One reason the young lack respect for their elders is that it was never reciprocated.
Finally, back to the authors of the “Open Letter.” My main negative reaction was due to a sense of arrogance that came through in the letter. It is hard to pin down just where it comes from. Perhaps is that it feels like your are lashing your grandfather with a willow branch. Perhaps it is that there is a sense you are claiming to speak for all young CBF geared Baptists. But, at the end of your letter, you end with: “Respectfully submitted,” …That left an ashy taste in my mouth. In the end, I just didn’t have that feeling at all.
Sincerely,
Tim Dahl
Pastor
FBC, Lake Worth, TX
June 28, 2008 at 1:32 pm |
Tim,
Thanks for your expressions. I was two years older than you when in 1979, the ground beneath the SBC began to move. I watched as hero after hero in my theological development and denominational life began to fall. At times the end was voluntary. For others it was at the hands of others.
“People will come to their senses soon,” I said to myself.
Men like Cecil Sherman tried to shine a light on the violence. They became the hope that the craziness would stop. It never did and has not stopped today.
My hunch is that Mr. Sherman doesn’t live in that past. The recognition given him at the session was for giving a look at what he saw. His words may have been drawn from an extreme historical analogy, but from his perspective and mine, the events of those years were our Baptist Holocaust. Instead of gas there were words that wounded.
Which was inappropriate? Cecil’s analogy or the resultant letter of condemnation. Maybe both, but I’m on Cecil’s side in this one.
June 28, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
Thanks for reading Les.
Personally, I believe that the letter was a bad idea upon the part of the authors. I believe that there could have been a better venue to air their displeasure (as I mentioned in my post).
Having been friends with people who have survived some of the WWII German camps, I would never compare any denominational war with the Holocaust. I have a different friend that survived the genocide in Uganda. I believe that she is one of the few people that I know who could make an accurate analogy.
That being said, in no way would I want to denigrate your pain, or anyone else that went through the fundamentalist takeover. I believe that the letter shows little respect for what you and others went through.
So, to answer your question, “Which was inappropriate? Cecil’s analogy or the resultant letter of condemnation.” My answer is: “Both of them are inappropriate for different reasons.”
June 28, 2008 at 11:00 pm |
I don’t really know how you could put something like this forward any other way with an expectation that it would generate some kind of response. The authors have been told repeatedly that one of the major differences between CBF and the SBC, perhaps the single most distinguishing factor, is that CBF doesn’t just tolerate dissent, it welcomes and celebrates it, unless, of course, it comes from a more conservative or fundamentalist position. But apparently, dissent isn’t welcome when the old guard is questioned, either, and that’s an old Baptist fault that hangs over from the days when the moderates held control of the SBC and its committees and boards.
Where does the Bible give any of us, regardless of how much of a “veteran” of some kind of denominational “war” we are, or how many bad names we have been called, the right to hold on to past bitterness? There were many people who experienced wounds and pain from “The Controversy,” myself included. In fact, many who followed Cecil Sherman, Ken Chafin, Daniel Vestal and others sacrificed their livelihood while these leaders remained in the comfortable pulpits of churches that supported them, gave them a podium for advancing their position, paid them substantial salaries and insulated them from what many others went through. And what entitles them to a pass on accountability to Jesus’ clear instructions in the scripture regarding such things?
And in the long run, what were they defending? Some sort of vague denominationalism? The elitist, influence-peddling, exclusive aristocracy of the pre-1979 SBC?
CBF has paralyzed itself by not being able to get past an identity of being the disgruntled, displaced, tight, narrow little oligarchy that ran the SBC prior to 1979. The letter writers said things that needed to be said. The response from some segments of a group claiming to be free and faithful Baptists, a “new way to be Baptist,” and who come from a background of dissent is disappointing.
June 29, 2008 at 8:52 pm |
“If we forget our history, we forget our identity.” ???
June 30, 2008 at 1:18 pm |
Hey KGray,
Assuming that you’re not trolling for something to fight about, I’ll attempt to answer what I think your question is.
Why do I think that forgetting one’s history may also entail forgetting one’s identity? What that the question? If not, let me know and I’ll do my best to answer.
As I look at the sentence, abstracted from its context, it does seem kind of weird. I can almost guarantee that there is a better way to say, whatever it is I’m trying to really say.
Maybe a better attempt would have been, “If we forget our history, we forget the foundations of our identity.”
Maybe a better attempt would have been, “Our history helps to make us who we are, if we loose it we loose a part of ourselves.”
Nah, that probably wouldn’t have been any better than the original quote.
So, instead of trying to rewrite it, let try another tack.
My last name is Dahl. Its a Norwegian name, that means “valley.” When I hit my mid-20s, I was able to dig up a little history on my family. Frankly, I knew nothing of that side of the family. My dad died 2 months before I was born. His parents died before he married my mom. I knew of one uncle from that side of the family, but we didn’t visit him as much as my mother’s side.
On a particular Father’s Day, I called my uncle up and asked him to tell me of my father, and his side of the family. He told me some wonderful things of the father I never knew, and then pointed me to a town in TX where the Dahl-Texicana began. One of the most special events of my life was a minor pilgrimage to this town, seeking out my family history. The things I learned I continue to treasure to this day. It helped to fill in gaps, and showed family tendencies that I otherwise would have been unaware of. It was truly an enlightening journey. I am a different man due to this.
I find Baptist history captivating as well. Not because I value history in general, my grades would argue against that ; but because of the stories of the people known as “Baptist.”
I can agree with certain doctrines of the faith, certain teachings like Believer’s Baptism for instance. But the teaching takes on life in the trials and tribulations of our Baptist fore-fathers and mothers that died because of the belief.
Another particularly Baptist distinctive is Religious Liberty. I think that the only other group that sought after this was the Quakers, but I’m not sure of that. Why in the world would our country even have that, when practically every other country has some sort of Church-State union? Practically everyone that came to America due to religious persecution end up forming states where they could persecute others of different belief. Even today, we have Evangelical Leaders (some self-proclaimed Baptist) that fight for a State sponsored Christianity (like school sponsored prayer). It seems that our Baptist fore-fathers would roll over in their graves if they knew about some of our brethren’s Church-State desires.
But, when we hear the stories of our Baptist history. The trials that were held, the people that were hung, in both Europe and America…we might begin to value this Baptist distinctive a little bit more. But, the young people that grow up in a Baptist church, never hearing of our Baptist history, may never understand the role we had in ensuring Religious Liberty for everyone. They may never appreciate the role of Believer’s Baptism in our churches. They may claim to be Baptist, but yet still sign creedal statements of accountability, take the name “Baptist” from their church signs, and treat it with scorn…when it is actually something to be celebrated.
So yes, I think I’ll stick with the original wording. If we forget (or never even learn) our history, we will probably forget (loose, maybe never even know) our true identity. We may end up selling our legacy for a bowl of some political agenda/lentil stew.
I sure hope not…but, I already see it happening.
Tim
June 30, 2008 at 1:29 pm |
Tim, your response to the letter has much wisdom, young man. I find myself desiring less reflection on the past battles and more focus on future goals, which I believe is what these so-called young pastors were trying to say. The fact that they said it badly should not obscure the message. As I stated on another blog, I cannot imagine the pain Sherman must have experienced in being called every vile name in the book by other Christians, but he should not have used the holocaust analogy.
June 30, 2008 at 1:47 pm |
Ken,
Your kind words continue to reinforce something Rick Davis said about you…
My paraphrase of Rick’s words: “Ken Coffee? Yeah, I know Ken. He’s good people. I like Ken.”
Tim
July 1, 2008 at 6:06 pm |
In case you don’t log back onto Pastor Danny’s blog, I wante you to see what I wrote:
Thanks, Tim. I took the time to read your blog and it was excellent. For such a young Christian pastor, you have your head and heart in the right place. Thanks for sharing your thoughts in such a clear, compassionate way.
June
July 1, 2008 at 6:23 pm |
I don’t know what to say. Thanks June.
Tim
July 3, 2008 at 7:14 pm |
Tim, thanks for your words of wisdom. Our challenge is to learn from our pain and make something good out of it.
I consider Cecil and his colleagues the first generation of a new Baptist movement; I am part of the “second generation,” a Baptist who left a position of leadership in a state Baptist convention in 1998 because I could not longer walk “the company line” and maintain my integrity. The third generation are those who were born after the controversy began and are products of progressive Baptist churches and CBF-related seminaries. Those of us in the “second generation” have the opportunity to honor the past and encourage a new direction for the future. It is a matter of stewardship. Thanks for assuming part of that task.