February 19, 2001
EDITORIAL:
Like it or not, fire must be reported
___Dear Editor,
___I am writing to express concerns over your editorial titled "Sheep-stealing and cattle-rustling" (Feb. 12).
___As a pastor who is working diligently to be a peacemaker in the conventions and to keep our church focused on maintaining our relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Texas, your editorial was offensive and damaging to my efforts.
___How you justify your bias slant on the "news" has always amazed me. It is my opinion that the Standard over the past few years has been one of the major contributors in keeping conflict alive. However, your article confirms to me that you not only are callous to the spirit of reconciliation, you just basically don't want it to happen.
___ A concerned pastor
___Dear Pastor,
___Thank you for your letter. While I cannot say I enjoyed reading it, I'm always grateful for letters, because they provide an opportunity for dialogue.
___Let me begin by saying that I resonate with your concern for peace and reconciliation among Texas Baptists. I was raised the oldest child in a loving Texas Baptist pastor's home, and I was taught to cherish harmony and to try to please everyone. The strife and fighting among us not only are tragic but also personally grievous.
___I wish I had heard from you when, on behalf of the Baptist Standard, I reported and advocated on behalf of the Reconciliation Forum, which sought to bring Texas Baptists together before a split occurred. Most of us involved in that movement grew closer personally, but for our efforts we received criticism and ridicule from both directions. Still, I would do it again.
___Your comments prompt an analogy:
___Imagine you live in a large apartment complex. Some tenants get angry because of decisions made by the management, and they move out. Not content merely to leave, they return from time to time, setting fires in an attempt to drive other tenants from the building. Instead of expressing anger and frustration with the people who started the fires or even the management of the building, you criticize the person who reported the fires and identified the arsonists. The fire alarm didn't cause the blaze, nor did it cause the fire to spread. Rather, it focused appropriate attention on the fire so that it could be extinguished before more lives and property were destroyed.
___The Baptist Standard did not start the "fire" that has engulfed Southern and Texas Baptists for more than two decades. Observers from all sides can agree pressures built through the 1960s and '70s before the first blaze erupted in 1979, when so-called conservatives launched their bid to gain control of the Southern Baptist Convention. The flames eventually spread to state conventions and churches, as the same forces who succeeded in taking over the SBC next sought to control the states.
___In Texas, the conflagration blazed uniquely, in large part because many Baptists who opposed what had happened in the SBC banded together to ensure the same thing did not happen to the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Consequently, the BGCT took counter-actions in response to SBC activity. And those steps eventually received opposition from Texans more loyal to the new SBC leadership.
___The Baptist Standard duly reported these events through the years. Admittedly, the Standard could have sold more papers and dealt more gently with the editors' blood pressure by ignoring all this. Such a path, however, would have defied the Standard's charter, which stipulates the paper must report the actions and events that impact the BGCT. Further, avoidance of the issue would have meant defying our holy call to this ministry and desecrating the noble doctrine of the priesthood of the believer, which insists Baptists not only have a right but also a responsibility to know about the events that shape their denomination and churches.
___So, we report convention news. And, as uncomfortable as it is, we also report the "fire"--in this case the lies presented by the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention (more than 10 in one document alone) and the virtual extortion of BGCT agencies.
___We wish the fires would end. We pray for peace and reconciliation. But we will fulfill our duty to keep Baptists informed. We love, respect and trust your people enough to tell them the truth. And even though it may upset them, we believe only truth can put out fires and make them safe.
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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