Earlier this week, the Baptist General Convention of Texas met in Abilene, Texas. This once-robust convention used to fill convention centers in Dallas, Fort Worth or Waco. This time, they gathered at the Abilene Convention Center with 2,007 attendees, made up of 1,136 messengers and 806 guests.
I lived in Abilene for 15 years and know the community well. For the BGCT to meet there is an indication of a state convention in decline — as most are. Fewer churches means fewer messengers. The most dramatic decline is noted in a nearly 50% budget drop over 30 years, from $53 million in 1994 to last year’s budget of $26 million.
Michael Chancellor
When the convention met in Abilene this week, Pastor Mike Miller of Central Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Texas, and Rody Alvarez from Oak Grove Baptist Church in China Spring, Texas, must have thought they were at a Southern Baptist of Texas Convention gathering. They sought to defund Baylor University because it has a single club on campus for LGBTQ students, and they also sought to defund the Baptist World Alliance because, he said, “They [BWA] stand with churches and organizations that promote an LGBTQ agenda.”
In case you haven’t noticed, the BGCT is not a friendly place for an “LGBTQ agenda.” But that didn’t matter.
Defunding is a powerful tool for coercion. It is a hallmark of fundamentalism, no matter what robe it dresses up in. It is the regalia of “aginism.” As far back as I can remember and have researched, fundamentalism has been against others who are different.
How that squares with their notions of evangelism is a puzzle I do not wish to unravel. If it were possible to drive Jesus “crazy,” and of course it is not, the temptation always present to see differences instead of similarities would do it.
“As far back as I can remember and have researched, fundamentalism has been against others who are different.”
Fundamentalism has a hierarchy of values.
First, there is Scripture. The significance of this could be understood as idolatry. I say this because the written word is more important than the Living Word. Most folks who pick up a Bible are not familiar with the history of Scripture or the tedious effort for translators to get it right.
Instead, translators, depending on who they are, look at the task through the lens of their faith and denominational bias. It is impossible to receive a Bible to read that has been dropped from heaven with the full intent of the Living God. However, that never has stopped fundamentalists from stamping a seal on a version or a translation as the “right” embodiment of the Word of Truth.
Some years ago, I showed up in an East Texas church that was without a pastor, only to discover they were a “King James only” congregation. I had the translation I had used for my whole ministry of 33 years, the New International Version. Respectful of their ignorance, they scrambled to find me a KJV to use in the message.
I explained to them that I had grown up with the KJV (there was no other at that time) but had preached my whole ministry from the NIV. I stumbled to translate from modern Scripture to Shakespearean language and mercifully got to the end. I suspected the former pastor was the instigator of that decision.
Second, fundamentalism exalts doctrine. The scribes and the Pharisees valued doctrine and tradition over seeing compassion, empathy and kindness and responding with such motivations. In fact, in the Gospels, what Jesus saw versus what religious leaders said and did not do continued to highlight the difference between the God they supposedly worshiped and the real object of their devotion.
Third, fundamentalism devalues “works,” as James speaks of it.
Fundamentalists always have split “works” into at least two categories. First, there are acts of devotion and worship, which are most important. Sabbath keeping, and in our day, church attendance and religious ritual, are front and center. Some might say in America today, religious rituals of worship, praise, giving and listening are the least productive actions in the kingdom. “Do Something!” is not a mandate, but an option many choose not to exercise.
However, the example of Jesus, the words of Jesus and the sacrifice of Jesus call us to action. We are wrong to believe sacrifice is only embodied on the Cross. Rather, it is the embodiment of who Jesus was, how Jesus made his way into this world, how he lived, how he ministered, how he was misunderstood, culminating in his death and resurrection.
While we sing of heaven, yearn longingly for Jesus’ return and read John’s words in Revelation, we rarely, if ever, consider that is what Jesus left behind to come to us.
Fundamentalism always has been a song sung out of tune, empty of real understanding, devoid of kindness, stripped of lasting service to those Jesus loved most.
Michael Chancellor served 33 years as pastor of four Baptist churches in Texas, six years as a mental health manager in a maximum-security Texas prison before becoming a therapist in private practice in Round Rock, Texas. He now lives in Taylor, Texas.