As one who once got kicked off a church committee for suggesting that the church maintain a balanced connection between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention, I read with interest the Aug. 21 letter from Russell H. Naron regarding SBC snubs (see also the July 10 editorial by Editor White).
If I may offer my perspective here: as an example, this coming November, we will be electing a new president and vice president and other officials. As a member of one of the two major political parties, if the new president and vice president are not members of my party, I will not leave the United States, moving elsewhere in a huff. I will also not incite armed rebellion against the government. Instead, I will simply realize that, someday, members of my party will again become president and vice president. Meanwhile, I will continue to live in the United States and continue to be a good citizen, supporting the president and vice president when I can and, within proper channels, expressing my opposition to their actions of which I do not approve.
I think that should have been the attitude which Baptists, both CBF and SBC, should have taken back when disagreements first developed. Someday, we will all stand before our Lord Jesus Christ, as mentioned in Matthew, chapter 25. At that time, it will not matter if we were a CBF supporter or an SBC supporter or what have you, it will not matter if we were liberals or conservatives or moderates. It will simply matter about whether or not we carried out the service to our Lord Jesus Christ mentioned in Matthew 25 and if we carried out “the Great Commission” and if we did so with love for our Lord and love for those whom we served in his name. Instead of having two Baptist state organizations here in Virginia we should still have only one. Both in Virginia and nationally, we should be finding ways in which we can work together as Baptists, as fellow Christians, in service to our Lord as well as finding ways in which we can work with other “mainstream” denominations.
Here in the central Virginia area, for example, a sister denomination did a study and, if memory serves, found that just west of Richmond, in the suburbs, there are at least 85,000 totally unchurched people. Instead of fighting with each other, Baptists, and other Christian denominations, need to be doing everything we can to work together to help those unchurched people come to faith in Christ and find a church home. There are many other things I could mention that churches and individual Christians need to be doing.
The fields are ripe for harvest. Will we stand around fighting with each other or will we work together in the fields for the Lord?
E. Marshall Buckles, Rockville