July 14, 1999

EDITORIAL: Baptists
should heed call to forgive
___Daniel Vestal's call for forgiveness should be heeded by all kinds of Baptists.
___Vestal, a former Texas pastor who now leads the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, called on moderate Baptists to forgive conservatives for hurt sustained during 20 years of denominational conflict. (See page 8.)
___Set aside what you think about the Fellowship. Vestal's pastoral plea is good advice, no matter how you view the Baptist battles of the late 20th century. Lord knows, we've administered enough anger and bottled enough bitterness in two decades to last two millennia.
___None among us has cornered the market on spiritual, emotional and relational suffering.
___Moderates have felt maligned, especially when conservatives have claimed they "don't believe the Bible" and are "soft on sin." They have felt anguish, directly or indirectly, as good and godly people have suffered slander and lost ministry opportunities to which they felt called. They feel the convention they loved and helped to build has been taken away from them.
___Many sincere conservatives have felt vilified because they received criticism for voting their consciences throughout the conflict. Likewise, thousands of Baptists who refused to choose sides have felt red-hot rebuke from partisans who condemned them for refusing to commit to either cause.
___This said, we must remember that Baptist disputes need not be denominational in scope to inflict pain and suffering. During the past 20 years, many more Baptists have been bruised and battered emotionally by intra-congregational battles than have been hurt by the national conflagration. Seems like we excel at inflicting interpersonal pain.
___And Vestal admonishes us to forgive.
___Forgiveness is tough work. That's partly because we expect too much--and too little --of forgiveness.
___ We expect too much when we hark to the "forgive and forget" platitude. We assume we must forget in order to forgive. Emotional and spiritual wounds shape our souls in the same way fleshly scars mark our bodies. They can heal, but they don't go away. Acting as if they don't exist fools no one, least of all ourselves. And it inhibits honest conversation about the past and, more importantly, the future.
___Among Baptists--in our denomination and in our churches--we do not forget actions, even hurtful ones. By God's grace, we forget to seethe. We forget desire for vengeance. We forget to hate.
___ We expect too much when we assume forgiveness allows us to pretend nothing has happened. Sometimes, people refuse to forgive because they think they then must move forward as if wounds were not inflicted. Nothing could be further from the truth. Forgiveness accounts for the past, encompasses it into the present and positively appropriates it into the future. Of course, horrible things have happened. Assuming otherwise denies truth. And it hinders us from learning and growing.
___Honest Baptists realize discord has been sown and lives altered. We do not act as if radical institutional transformation does not matter. We do not pretend uprooted lives and truncated ministries do not account for anything. But in the hands of a loving God, we look ahead to new opportunities. They may not be what we would have chosen. Many among us feel they are far outside God's perfect will. Yet because of what has happened, they shape our possibilities for tomorrow. And we move ahead.
___ We expect too little when we believe forgiveness won't make a difference. Left to our own devices, it won't. Placed in God's hands, it changes almost everything. It may not alter the behavior of the one who hurts us. But it reforms our response, redeems our suffering and allows us to work with God for good.
___Many times, I have been convicted to pray for personal forgiveness and for the ability to forgive one particular person. Every time, this person commits another hurtful deed. And I un-forgive. I have "forgiven," hoping my action will change his. This is not biblical. Jesus' forgiveness did not change the behavior of the Pharisees and the Roman soldiers. Yet he prayed, "Father, forgive them ..."
___How can we do any less? Forgiveness does not forget suffering, but it makes us strong. It does not pretend wrong never occurred, but it enables us to learn from it and grow beyond it. Forgiveness may not change our adversary, but it deepens our faith in Christ and ennobles our spirits.
___God grant us the ability to forgive.
___ --Marv Knox


E-mail the editor at marvknox@flash.net

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