Thank you for your excellent editorial in the Herald of May 27, “Is it time for a name change?”
The problem for Southern Baptists is that we have been, or we think we have been, a majority with great power of numbers, money and tradition. Maybe so. In South America, where I grew up and served as an SBC missionary, Baptists are in the major minority, as they are in many parts of the world. There we have to prove our words by our reputation of being what Jesus wants us to be: honest, loving and “pure”; otherwise we have no voice. It is our best witness. We are told repeatedly “you can trust an evangelical.”
I doubt whether just changing our name will give us a better image, unless we live up to what we preach. The “world” may be sinful and going to hell, but they are not dumb.
As far as a name, why not “Evangelical Baptist”? That is a name many of our South American brethren like.
Franklin Fowler, Richmond