You would think after 25 years in the pastorate, I would have learned not to call the office while I'm on vacation. I'm a slow learner. In fact, I may fit into the “old dogs” category at this stage of my life. At any rate, I called just to check in and learned that Bob Reccord had resigned as president of the North American Mission Board and that a missionary couple had refused to resign after being given the unappealing choice of resigning or getting the axe.
Both stories are amply covered in articles in this issue, so I will not elaborate. I will, however, take up a notion expressed by my wife when we discussed the misfortunes of both Mission Boards. She said “I'm so glad to be a Virginia Baptist where people respect differences and where we have options.”
I probably should have asked her to continue her thoughts and write them in a guest editorial, but I am already having enough trouble keeping her subservient. Unlike the above sentiment, she often feels the liberty to express feelings quite at odds with my own.
In this matter, however, we are in complete agreement. I'm glad to be a Virginia Baptist.
Not long ago I had a conversation with a very conservative pastor over hoagies in a sandwich shop. He was lamenting the multiple giving tracks in the Virginia Baptist budget which he viewed as excessively complicated. I told him that I fail to see the complication. To me, our budget speaks of respect for different positions. I asked him if he thought the day might come when the Southern Baptist Convention would offer people who cannot in good conscience support some aspect of its work the option of supporting something else. He laughed. So did I.
To demand uniformity and limit choices is to seek control. It puts down other opinions and demeans other people. To offer choices is to imagine that others might have valid positions and that we might all benefit from their being expressed. No choice, no freedom. With choices comes freedom.
Now I understand that freedom is often threatening. It means we are responsible to examine our choices and think through our options. Not only that, we then must bear the consequences of our choices. This is hard work. It is also risky because we have to make our choices without the benefit of omniscience. It is possible to make mistakes and when I am responsible for the choices, I am also responsible for the mistakes. Most of us experience some measure of self doubt, so when people come along who are absolutely certain they are right, it is easier to acquiesce than question them. Studies have shown that even when people know they are right, many will give in if the majority say they are wrong.
No wonder so many are willing to let other people make their choices for them. Life is complicated enough. Simplify where you can. Let other people tell you what to believe and what to do!
One benefit of life in the Marine Corps, I discovered, was I never stood before a closet full of clothes and wondered what to wear. I never took a tie to the window where the light was better trying to decide if it matched my jacket. Choices are made for you. On the other hand, there were times that I didn't want to wear khaki. In fact, in the last 35 years since my release, er, I mean discharge, I have never worn a khaki tie with a khaki shirt and khaki trousers.
Over against the tendency to surrender choices to others is the God-given desire to be free to decide for ourselves.
Getting back to Virginia Baptists, you can support the Southern Baptist Convention right down the line and still be a fully appreciated family member with a place at the table. Or, you can support the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (which would never have come into being if some Southern Baptists had been allowed choices) right down the line and still be a valued member of the family with a place at the table. Or, you can choose a little of this and a little of that according to your own preferences and peculiarities.
Some might think this is complicated. To me it is as simple as can be. Virginia Baptists care. Virginia Baptists care enough about the lost to do Kingdom work with anyone who knows Jesus as Savior. Virginia Baptists care enough about the Kingdom to place it above self importance. Virginia Baptists care enough about minority opinions to protect and encourage them. Virginia Baptists care enough about one another that we grant freedom to support what our consciences dictate and what the Spirit requires.
I am so glad to be a Virginia Baptist. Now, if I could get someone to volunteer to help me with my pride!
Yes, Sweetheart, I see that hand.