March 18, 2002

EDITORIAL:
Preserve God's image in humanity--protect freedom
___Some people think Texas Baptists make too much of a fuss over freedom. They've got it backwards. When we protect freedom, we help preserve the divine image stamped upon God's creatures. You can't make too much of that.
___The controversy at the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board illustrates the issue. You probably know the story: Bowing to pressure from critics who question the theological faithfulness of international missionaries, IMB President Jerry Rankin has called on all the board's missionaries to affirm their support for the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement. The Baptist General Convention of Texas has refused to endorse this statement, citing its creedal nature, elevation of the Bible to parallel the status of Jesus, subjugation of women and denial of church autonomy. So, fearing the violation of missionaries' consciences, the BGCT Executive Board has created a transitional fund to help missionaries who lose their positions because they refuse to sign the Baptist Faith & Message. Subsequently, a mission board leader has accused the Texas convention of "manufacturing a crisis where none exists."
___Supporters of the mission board's new rule build a pretty good-sounding case. Southern Baptists sacrificially fund their global missions enterprise year by year. They entrust millions of dollars and the opportunity it buys into the hands of the missionaries, who in a way represent them on mission fields around the planet. Doesn't the SBC have a right to say exactly what its representatives will believe? Aren't the missionaries ultimately accountable to the people who pay their way to mission fields? Shouldn't Southern Baptists expect a proportionate return of faithfulness on their investment?
___Unfortunately, such a position ignores Baptists' historic belief in and support for freedom, particularly religious liberty. It proposes to deny true freedom to the nearest thing Baptists have to saints, our missionaries.
___We cannot say it often enough or loudly enough: Freedom is vital. This is a sticking point with some Baptists today. Many people don't know what freedom really means. No, it's not "just another word for nothin' left to lose." It also is not another word for license to do whatever a person pleases. Some people don't want others to have freedom because they presuppose others will do wicked and evil things if they are free. This attitude says more about the moral perspectives of those who deny freedom than it does about those whose freedom is denied.
___Freedom is vital because it reflects the divine image stamped upon us. The Bible teaches us people are created in God's image. That's not the same as having thumbs opposed to fingers. It's not the ability to walk upright. It's not even the capacity to reason. Monkeys have pretty good thumbs. Bears walk well. Porpoises can think straight.
___Humans were created in God's image in that we can exercise freedom--free will--with respect to our individual relationship to God. The creation story in Genesis clearly teaches that God made man and woman because God wanted to have a relationship with beings who could receive and reciprocate God's love. Therefore, God gave us free will to choose to accept or reject that relationship. God could have made robots who acted in loving ways. God could have made mammals whose genetic structure caused them to act in ways we associate with love. But God chose to make humans with a free will, so they could love God or hate God or act completely indifferently to God.
___That's because love must be freely given and freely received or it's not love at all. God would not receive authentic love from humans if we also did not have the capacity to despise God. That capacity to receive and return divine love of our own free will is the spark that fires our souls. It is a singular characteristic that makes us like God, reflecting God's image.
___Interesting, isn't it, that God's primary vulnerability directly relates to this gift. God so desired creatures who could receive and return holy, divine love that God gave us the power to reject it. When we feel the strongest urge to love and be loved, we most closely mirror the impulse that led God to create and love us.
___So, freedom is vital, but it is not license. (The missionaries acknowledge this. All of them previously have passed incredibly close scrutiny regarding their theological beliefs.) Freedom born of divine love is not truly and only the opportunity to make decisions. Freedom fired from the flames of God's love is at once ferocious and precious. It can unleash unthinkable evil; but only it holds the key to unspeakable love. God felt this was a risk worth taking. So should we
___Baptists instinctively have understood this.
___For freedom's sake, our Baptist and Anabaptist forebears died martyrs' deaths in the swirling rivers and on the burning stakes of Europe. They preferred to die for their faith than deny their freedom by signing creeds. They determined to die physical deaths with free souls before they would enslave their souls in order to save their skins.
___For freedom's sake, Baptist preachers in England and Early America languished in prison rather than register with the state or pay religious taxes. They would not trade their souls for release from bars and shackles. That's why Baptist preachers John Leland and Isaac Backus played a pivotal role in securing the religious freedom clauses in the First Amendment to the U.S. Constitution.
___For freedom's sake, the BGCT has created a transitional fund for foreign missionaries. We do not seek to undermine the International Mission Board. But we do believe freedom is a divine stamp upon God's creatures.
___We would not erase that from a single soul--particularly a faithful missionary.
___ —Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com



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