January 26, 2000
'Trail of Blood' sparks newspaper debate
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) --A column in a Tennessee newspaper linking a string of Southern Baptist Convention controversies to a theology called the "trail of blood" drew a harsh response from a top denominational official.
___The Nashville Tennessean published a column Dec. 26 by Robert Parham, executive director of the Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics. In the column, Parham noted recent criticism of Southern Baptists over targeted evangelization of Hindus and Jews, a 1998 call for wifely submission, the Disney boycott and other issues.
___Parham suggested there is a common thread in those controversies; he described it as "a crusading theology rooted in a flawed view of history."
___Parham, who has a Ph.D. from Baylor University and is a former staff member at the SBC Christian Life Commission, said Southern Baptists' penchant for criticizing and targeting others stems from a belief about Baptist origins called the "trail of blood."
___The view, which also is called Landmarkism, was popular in the 19th century, but today most scholars dismiss it. It contends that Baptists are able to trace unbroken succession from early Christianity through a series of dissenting sects that were Baptist in everything but name. As a result, local Baptist churches are the only "true" church, while others, including Catholics and mainline Protestants, are then false religions.
___Many of the historical groups listed in the trail of blood were persecuted for their views. Southern Baptists, Parham said, likewise believe they are being persecuted.
___"The self-administered test for faithfulness to the trail of blood is how much resistance one receives from the larger culture," he wrote. "So, fundamentalists are not discouraged when they encounter opposition from Jews, Hindus and other Christians. Rather, their faithfulness is confirmed."
___The newspaper ran a second column Jan. 6 written by Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee. The headline termed Parham "misleading and malicious."
___Chapman disputed Parham on a number of issues.
___He denied there was a "right-wing takeover" of the SBC. He attributed a leadership change to Baptists working through a democratic process.
___Rather than boycotting, he said the SBC encouraged Baptists to "avoid patronizing" Disney.
___Chapman termed "laughable" Parham's suggestion linking trail-of-blood theology to current events. "Not one Southern Baptist educational institution propounds that theology," he said.
___In the late 1800s, the president at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary came under fire for writing that Baptists invented baptism by immersion in 1641. William Whitsitt resigned under pressure in 1899, but most modern histories of Baptists today support his findings.
___One Kentucky church, Ashland Avenue Baptist Church in Lexington, still publishes the "Trail of Blood" booklet and advocates its teachings. That church's pastor, Herschael York, was named to the faculty of Southern Seminary in 1997 and now serves as associate dean of the School of Theology.
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