September 11, 2000
COMMENTARY:
Children of the Baptist divorce
___By James O. Teel Jr.
___You hear it from the children when parents begin to break up. They loved each other, and through that love brought children into the home. Oh, they had differences, but they always managed to work through them. They had a higher goal than to always have their own way. They loved each other, and they loved their children. And above all, they lovedtheir Lord. So each difficulty was overcome for a higher good-- the unity of the family.
___ But somewhere along the way, something became more important than that unity. Perhaps it was an ambition long suppressed in order to please and build up the other. Or maybe it was a harsh word spoken in anger and never retracted. Or even making fun of the other in front of friends. Perhaps they drifted apart because of separate interests or friends. Maybe it was a combination of these and more. Whatever it was, it finally reached a point that neither party wanted to start the difficult journey of piecing the relationship back together. Not that it was impossible. It was simply that both parties chose to take what appeared to them to be the only way out-- the easy way--and rid themselves of the other. The children be hanged.
___ In this labyrinth of controversy in which we find ourselves as Southern Baptists, there are a great host of us who identify with the children of this fractious couple. I give personal testimony to my own experience.
___ The First Baptist Church of Electra was a typical church, and my home was also quite typical. Both had their share of strife and conflict and correction. But love and fellowship were the dominant characteristics. I came to know what it meant to be a Christian by the way others related to me. But the church was only part of my denominational family. I remember the first time the "district missionary" came from Wichita Falls. I sat just a few seats from him. He was a big man. He was respected, and he spoke of our common work together with other churches. There were RA camps and children's choirs--complete with simple robes our mothers made-- together with other churches, large and small in the association. There were also track meets at Megargel to which we rode in the back of pick-ups, and pastors ran against each other (I remember especially the one from Windthorst with his youth and vigor and smile), and the spirit and personality and love of each one was etched on my tender mind.
___ In church we also were introduced to other members of our denominational family. Father Buckner (I remember pictures of him) was sort of a Daddy Warbucks, who took care of the orphaned children, and we learned the importance of supporting that ministry. BYPU, BTU and Training Union-- since called Church Training, Quest and Discipleship-- prospered and survived in spite of Jack Benny's Sunday evening attraction sponsored by J-E-L-L-O-- but chiefly because of the fire lit in Texas that we are "saved to serve" by T.C. Gardner, who spoke in our church. I remember him, bald head and all.
___ The heart and soul of missions was taught by word and deed by the faithful women of our church and by RA counselors, both men and women. I learned of our wider involvement in the nation and the world and the rest of our denominational family. I shall never forget the lesson taught by our faithful pastor's wife, who was my RA counselor. She told of the idols worshipped by people in benighted lands. Their gods were made of wood and leather and fabric and stone--inanimate objects, incapable of helping, destitute of power. But then, she took her Bible in her hands and held it up. "God has given us this wonderful book," she said. "It is also made of wood and leather and fabric. If we do not heed its teachings, and do not come to know Jesus, who is its central figure, in a personal way, then we are also guilty of worshipping an inanimate, lifeless god made of wood and leather and fabric."
___ It was inevitable that I would go to a Baptist college. Though we were eight children, and my dad could not help me financially, he gave me all I needed: He gave me the desire. He had apparently heard the former "Simmons University" president, Prexy Sandefer speak, and he told me, "Simmons is the greatest university in the country." I believed him and haven't regretted it. While in college, I worked at another Texas Baptist institution. I worked at night as an orderly all four years at "Hendrick Hospital." It wasn't a bad job--working with the student nurses and eating with the student nurses, I married one of them, and together we set our sights on fulfilling the calling we both had felt, to carry the light of Christ overseas. While at the hospital, Mr. Collier, the superintendent, sometimes sent me out to represent the hospital at associational meetings.
___ God led us to Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, an agency of our national convention and another part of our denominational family. I worked full-time in secular work all through seminary, but we had time to get to know some very dear pastors and churches in Fort Worth and in Tarrant Baptist Association. (The association that paid $15 dollars of my salary each month as pastor of a small country church, which went from quarter-time to full-time--that is, preaching every Sunday). By the time I graduated from seminary five years later, we had three beautiful daughters.
___ Long before graduation, we were in touch with our Foreign Mission Board, to begin the process that would lead to our appointment with yet another member of our denominational family. We were in Costa Rica, Ecuador and Argentina for 20 years. On one furlough, I worked with our Texas convention, promoting the Cooperative Program. Upon returning home, I worked with the Stewardship Commission. My job was to promote the Cooperative Program through all of our denominational publications, state and national. Then for another three and one-half years, I worked at our alma mater, Hardin-Simmons University, in development, before returning to the mission field. We served another seven years in the Dominican Republic and Canada. When we retired from the Foreign Mission Board, I returned to my old job at Hardin-Simmons for another five years before retiring from there. Then I was asked to work as development associate part-time with our International Mission Board, which I am still doing, and which I enjoy very much.
___ When Georgie and I first came to Abilene in 1979 we joined a great missionary church, First Baptist Church, where we are still members.
___ It is a great church with a great pastor.
___ So, you see why I feel like the child of two feuding parents. I have been nurtured by both of them. I love both of them. Sometimes I feel that influences outside the family have been brought in which may not have understood the uniqueness of our family structure or appreciated its effectiveness. But I don't blame either of my denominational parents for this. I know who the enemy is, and it is neither of them. The devil is working overtime, and there is no doubt he is quite pleased with the results.
___ If you think I'm trying to decide what parent to go with when the break-up comes, you are wrong. We are nowhere near the point of no return in our relationships. Anyone who cherishes the rhetoric of separation, or demonstrates the venom of hate, or shows anything less than kindness in spirit and in work or action toward anyone in the family he disagrees with is certainly no friend of mine. Neither is he or she a friend of the denomination.
___ Many times I have been called upon to try to help heal the wounds caused by church splits. It may be of interest that in every one of those cases, the people on both sides always felt that the people on the other side were not even Christians.
___ We live in a society today with a break-up kind of mentality. There are forces from without which seem from within. As Christians, we have lost sight of the power of salt and light. We want to be the main dish, or at least the garnish on the main dish. We have separated religion so much from the rest of life and society that we are not satisfied unless we have our own billboard. We have lost the command to lose ourselves in the task. The ship is sinking because not enough lives have been given to buoy the ship aloft in storm.
___ There are memories of better days. I am proud of my denomination and the sacrifices and labor of love that have evidenced our Christ-centered focus. We still have it. Let us not throw it away. But let us patiently seek again the high road.
___ The answer my yet be found in Christian theology. At least I know it is with me, that through the Bible and unction of the Holy Spirit within my life, I feel a great unworthiness. His love and sacrifice overwhelm me as my own sin becomes more vivid to me. But it is then that I know that Christ has more of me, and it is then that I know I must not, I am in no position to, ridicule another.
___ Perhaps, after all, it is John the Baptist who can heal the wounds. For it was he who said, "He must increase, but I must decrease."
Get printer-friendly version of this story
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!