Baptist News Global
Sections
  • News
  • Analysis
  • Opinion
  • Curated
  • Storytelling
    • Faith & Justice >
      • Charleston: Metanoia with Bill Stanfield
      • Charlotte: QC Family Tree with Greg and Helms Jarrell
      • Little Rock: Judge Wendell Griffen
      • North Carolina: Conetoe
    • Welcoming the Stranger >
      • Lost Boys of Sudan: St. John’s Baptist Charlotte
      • Awakening to Immigrant Justice: Myers Park Baptist Church
      • Hospitality on the corner: Gaston Christian Center
    • Signature Ministries >
      • Jake Hall: Gospel Gothic, Music and Radio
    • Singing Our Faith >
      • Hymns for a Lifetime: Ken Wilson and Knollwood Baptist Church
      • Norfolk Street Choir
    • Resilient Rural America >
      • Alabama: Perry County
      • Texas: Hidalgo County
      • Arkansas Delta
      • Southeast Kentucky
  • More
    • Contact
    • About
    • Donate
    • Planned Giving
    • Letters to the Editor
    • Advertising
    • Ministry Jobs and More
    • Transitions
    • Subscribe
    • Submissions and Permissions
Donate Subscribe
Search Search this site

Developing ‘Conservative radicals’ in Christian higher education

OpinionBaptist News  |  August 14, 2008

By David Gushee

In his recent book, The Great Awakening, Jim Wallis suggests that it is time to move beyond the conservative vs. liberal paradigm to a framework he calls conservative radicalism. This is true in American culture, in evangelicalism and certainly in Baptist life. As the new school year dawns, I find myself increasingly clear that this is the vision I want to try to impart to seminary students and undergraduates here at Mercer. Perhaps others in Christian higher education will find it relevant.

Wallis defines this new term in this way: “To be conservative means to be rooted — in a tradition, in faith, in core values. To be radical also means to be rooted (radical comes from the Latin radix, meaning “root”), which gives one a consistent perspective on the world. So these two — radical and conservative — may not be contradictory but in fact deeply complementary.”

In other words, conservative radicals are tethered so tightly to Christ that they are consistently capable of a radical obedience to him.

Let’s unpack that a bit further.

Students need to be conservative in the sense that they should conserve a central focus on Jesus Christ, the Savior and Lord of the world and the head of the church. They should conserve a lived-out belief in the centrality, truthfulness and authority of the Bible. They should, if possible, learn to read the Bible in its original languages with the highest degree of skill and hermeneutical ability that they can muster and become adept in its practical application.

Students need to be committed to conserving the church and its sacred mission. Many of our churches are floundering in Baptist life, and in many colleges and seminaries a calling to serve the church is seen as second-class in comparison with other opportunities. We need to graduate from our schools generations of students who will instead love the church and consider local-church service a very high calling.

Students must be taught to be committed to conserving Christian tradition. This does not mean a slavish (or knavish) worship of Luther or Calvin, Augustine or Aquinas. But it does mean that they cherish the gathered cloud of witnesses who have gone before us in Christian history, and that they learn to think with the saints rather than against them or without them. Certainly there will be times for dissent from the tradition, but even dissent requires an informed, respectful familiarity.

Students need to conserve the personal piety and high moral code that so many imbibed in their families and local churches. After my conversion as a 16-year-old, youth leaders taught the practices of Christian spiritual formation and personal morality with sufficient clarity that our group was rapidly led to anchor each day in prayer and to clean up our personal lifestyles. May the freedom students enjoy in most of our colleges and seminaries prove to be an occasion for the personal choice to continue to live in a way that pleases God and bears witness to a life of high moral purpose.

I also want my students to be radicals. As Jim Wallis puts it, “what we need most are people rooted in ‘conservative’ values and commitments but willing to be ‘radical’ enough to apply those very values in the real world.”

Students should be radicals when it comes to loyalty to Christ as Lord. This requires the subjugation of all other loyalties, such as loyalty to a job, a lifestyle, a denomination, or a nation. Only a radical is willing to lose their job at a church because they are, for example, unwilling to permit class snobbery or xenophobia to prevail in local church life.

Students need to be radicals when it comes to loving every person whom God loves. Only a radical is willing to welcome the AIDS patient, the ex-con, the illegal immigrant, the doubter — or whoever else God brings our way in the local church.

Students should be radicals when it comes to defending the human rights of strangers. Only a radical speaks up for blacks victimized in the criminal-justice system, or for suspected terrorists who have been tortured, or for those evicted from their homes because of predatory lending practices.

Students need to be radicals when it comes to innovating how to do church in a postmodern age. Driven by a “conservative” evangelistic commitment and love for the church, they must be “radical” in finding ways to advance these commitments in an age in which traditional ways of doing church are often ineffective.

Students should be radicals when it comes to personally living out the teachings of Jesus. May all of us nurture students who will care for God’s creation, who will forgive their enemies and those who hurt them, who will resist violence, who will pray daily for the reign of God, who will tell the truth even when it might cost them, and who will keep their lifetime marriage commitments if they make them.

Students need to be radicals in racial reconciliation and justice efforts. May they create interracial community now and interracial churches in years to come. May they read, think, and dialogue across racial lines. I dream of my black students quoting Clarence Jordan and my white students quoting Howard Thurman. 

On my office wall at McAfee there is a display of photographs of people like Dietrich Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, William Wilberforce, Dorothy Day, Mahatma Gandhi, and Mother Teresa. All of the women and men pictured there were conservative radicals in the sense outlined. May our Baptist colleges and schools nurture the kind of young people who will follow their path.


OPINION: Views expressed in Baptist News Global columns and commentaries are solely those of the authors.
Tags:Commentaries
More by
Baptist News
  • Get BNG headlines in your inbox

  • BNG dinner will bring together Anthea Butler and Beth Allison Barr for a conversation on race and gender

    Two of the most prominent voices speaking to the American church about race and gender will appear together at the Baptist News Global dinner during the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s General Assembly in Dallas this June. Get your tickets now!

  • Featured

    • SBC plans to release list of known sexual abusers in churches, refutes its own former general counsel

      News

    • Who is Augie Boto, the central figure in the SBC sexual abuse cover up?

      News

    • Remember the women: The Southern Baptist cover up of sexual abuse

      Opinion

    • This is more than just sin

      Opinion


    Curated

    • Many Jewish World War II Soldiers Had Christian Burials. That’s Changing.

      Many Jewish World War II Soldiers Had Christian Burials. That’s Changing.

      May 25, 2022
    • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Questions Archbishop’s Decision Regarding Communion Ban

      House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Questions Archbishop’s Decision Regarding Communion Ban

      May 25, 2022
    • Burka Enforcement and Burka Bans: Where Extremist Policies Meet

      Burka Enforcement and Burka Bans: Where Extremist Policies Meet

      May 25, 2022
    • Climate Change Indicators Reach Record Levels

      Climate Change Indicators Reach Record Levels

      May 25, 2022
    Read Next:

    SBC report shows how five words turn abuse victim from ‘survivor’ to ‘whore’

    OpinionMarv Knox

    More Articles

    • All
    • News
    • Opinion
    • Curated
    • Rights, responsibilities and the two-fold commandment of love: A reflection on gun violence in America

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Mass murder and the soundtrack of our lives

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Letter to the Editor: Where are the repentant SBC leaders?

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • What I learned listening to others who have left the faith

      AnalysisRick Pidcock

    • United Methodist model could help Southern Baptists recover from sexual abuse scandal

      AnalysisCynthia Astle

    • Who is Augie Boto, the central figure in the SBC sexual abuse cover up?

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • This is more than just sin

      OpinionMeredith Stone

    • Remember the women: The Southern Baptist cover up of sexual abuse

      OpinionPam Durso

    • Becoming UNSTOPPABLE Christians

      Paid Promoted Content

    • SBC plans to release list of known sexual abusers in churches, refutes its own former general counsel

      NewsDavid Bumgardner, Jeff Brumley, Mark Wingfield and Maina Mwaura

    • Don’t overlook the depth of the disease in the SBC

      OpinionPaula Garrett

    • On three-month anniversary of Russian invasion, Ukrainian Baptists and neighbors keep helping everyone they can

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Tear down the SBC Executive Committee and replace it

      OpinionLayne Wallace

    • While SBC weeps over sexual abuse allegations, the TheoBros take on Beth Allison Barr one more time

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • It’s time to stop giving Christianity a pass on white supremacy and violence

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • SBC’s former law firm sharply disagrees with Sexual Abuse Task Force report

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • SBC report shows how five words turn abuse victim from ‘survivor’ to ‘whore’

      OpinionMarv Knox

    • Hearing from victims’ families changed the death penalty debate in Connecticut

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Former foster youth need to know they are not abandoned

      OpinionAlbert L. Reyes

    • What’s next for recommendations and reforms in SBC sexual abuse study?

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Author considers how to mourn what’s lost when the faithful leave church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • What I learned about Polish hospitality toward Ukrainians: There but for the grace of God

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • As joblessness rocks South Africa, fake pastor diplomas are in demand

      NewsRay Mwareya and Nyasha Bhobo

    • Who is Augie Boto, the central figure in the SBC sexual abuse cover up?

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • SBC plans to release list of known sexual abusers in churches, refutes its own former general counsel

      NewsDavid Bumgardner, Jeff Brumley, Mark Wingfield and Maina Mwaura

    • On three-month anniversary of Russian invasion, Ukrainian Baptists and neighbors keep helping everyone they can

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • While SBC weeps over sexual abuse allegations, the TheoBros take on Beth Allison Barr one more time

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • SBC’s former law firm sharply disagrees with Sexual Abuse Task Force report

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Hearing from victims’ families changed the death penalty debate in Connecticut

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • What’s next for recommendations and reforms in SBC sexual abuse study?

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Guidepost report documents pattern of ignoring, denying and deflecting on sexual abuse claims in SBC

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Author considers how to mourn what’s lost when the faithful leave church

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • As joblessness rocks South Africa, fake pastor diplomas are in demand

      NewsRay Mwareya and Nyasha Bhobo

    • Why breaking up is so hard to do for United Methodists: Connectionalism

      NewsCynthia Astle

    • Oklahoma legislators say life begins at ‘fertilization’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Baptists in Ukraine continue their humanitarian work amid devastation

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Louisville police training quoted Bible verse to say officers are God’s agents of wrath

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Transitions for the week of 5-20-22

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • ‘It’s still the economy, stupid’

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Pennsylvania Baptist church licenses transgender man for ministry

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Buffalo massacre is more evidence of white Christian nationalism, sociologists say

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Displaced by the war in Ukraine, some African students battle to continue their education in Germany

      NewsAnthony Akaeze

    • Does the Johnson Amendment have any teeth left?

      NewsMark Wingfield

    • Ministry jobs and more

      NewsBarbara Francis

    • Brian Dawkins says he’s blessed

      NewsMaina Mwaura

    • Bailey and Perrin named Vestal Scholars

      NewsBNG staff

    • Professor writes book to explain his journey from inerrantist to historicist

      NewsJeff Brumley

    • Rights, responsibilities and the two-fold commandment of love: A reflection on gun violence in America

      OpinionGreg Garrett, Senior Columnist

    • Mass murder and the soundtrack of our lives

      OpinionJustin Cox

    • Letter to the Editor: Where are the repentant SBC leaders?

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • This is more than just sin

      OpinionMeredith Stone

    • Remember the women: The Southern Baptist cover up of sexual abuse

      OpinionPam Durso

    • Don’t overlook the depth of the disease in the SBC

      OpinionPaula Garrett

    • Tear down the SBC Executive Committee and replace it

      OpinionLayne Wallace

    • It’s time to stop giving Christianity a pass on white supremacy and violence

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • SBC report shows how five words turn abuse victim from ‘survivor’ to ‘whore’

      OpinionMarv Knox

    • Former foster youth need to know they are not abandoned

      OpinionAlbert L. Reyes

    • What I learned about Polish hospitality toward Ukrainians: There but for the grace of God

      OpinionPatrick Wilson

    • Stop using Jesus to disguise your predatory patriarchy

      OpinionJessica Abell and Stephany Rose Spaulding

    • Sadly, I agree that a complementarian seminary shouldn’t offer women degrees in pastoral theology

      OpinionAnna Sieges

    • Intolerable cruelty is killing us

      OpinionKris Aaron

    • Another racist mass shooting and our failure to tend Jesus’ sheep

      OpinionEmily Holladay

    • Learning about change from Henry Ford

      OpinionBob Newell

    • Hymn stories: ‘Christ is alive! Let Christians sing’

      OpinionBeverly A. Howard

    • Gifts of hospitality in the midst of grief

      OpinionSara Robb-Scott

    • Bubba-Doo’s gets a new sign

      OpinionCharles Qualls

    • Conservative or liberal? Jesus widens our political landscape

      OpinionRussell Waldrop

    • Letter to the Editor: A response to Laura Ellis on abortion and Christian Realism

      OpinionLetters to the Editor

    • The Beloved Community and the heresy of white replacement: How ‘Beyoncé Mass’ gave me hope after the Buffalo massacre

      OpinionRobert P. Jones

    • The Holy Spirit: An advocate, comforter and encourager for times like these

      OpinionBarry Howard

    • The air of gathered worship: A 12-Sunday challenge

      OpinionPaul R. Gilliam III

    • Choose Life: Putin reminds us how bad theology can turn nuclear

      OpinionJillian Mason Shannon

    • Many Jewish World War II Soldiers Had Christian Burials. That’s Changing.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • House Speaker Nancy Pelosi Questions Archbishop’s Decision Regarding Communion Ban

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Burka Enforcement and Burka Bans: Where Extremist Policies Meet

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Climate Change Indicators Reach Record Levels

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • The Catholic Church’s views on exorcism have changed – a religious studies scholar explains why

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Indiana pastor admits ‘adultery’; woman says she was a teen

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Church of Scotland Approves Same-Sex Marriage

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBob Allen and Jeff Brumley

    • Banned from Communion in San Francisco, Pelosi receives Eucharist in Washington

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Senior Israeli lawmaker warns of “religious war” over Jerusalem moves

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Minnesota GOP apologizes for Soros puppetmaster video

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • If the media are reluctant to properly label the GOP’s racist, Christian nationalist ideologies, we’ll have trouble hanging on to democracy

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Pope voices hope church in China can operate in freedom

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Telehealth abortion demand is soaring. But access may come down to where you live

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • With AIPAC funding primary campaigns, young Jewish progressives move further left

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Welsh First Minister ‘regrets’ that Franklin Graham is coming to Wales

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Willow Creek announces major layoffs amid post-COVID struggle

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Ohio House passes bill requiring colleges give students 3 days of absences for religious observation

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • ‘Conversion therapy’ ban falls short in Minnesota Senate

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Don’t buy Alito’s assurances: here’s what happens next after Roe falls

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Leading Psychologist Bridges Trauma Healing and the Black Church

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • For some people, religious leaders might be most effective at communicating the importance of COVID-19 vaccination

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Former pastor in 2 states pleads guilty to child sex charges

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • A rabbi who ‘speaks to Christians’ condemned them on Twitter. It cost him his job.

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Deadly explosion damages historic church, Baptist offices in Cuba

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    • Faith on the ground in Buffalo: Voice Buffalo executive director Denise Walden

      Curated

      Exclude from home pageBNG staff

    Conversations that Matter.

    © 2022 Baptist News Global. All rights reserved.

    Want to share a story? We hope you will! Read our republishing, terms of use and privacy policies here.

    • Facebook
    • Twitter
    • Instagram
    • LinkedIn
    • RSS