The Courage to Stand

By David Flick
 

The courage to stand firm in the face of opposition is a precious commodity these days. This is especially true in religious life. I suppose one could say this has always been the case. A cursory examination of church history reveals that numerous individuals possessed the courage to stand firm on their convictions about ecclesiastical and theological issues.

A few of my heroes from the Middle Ages are Peter Waldo of Lyons, John Wycliffe, Henry of Lausanne, Arnold of Brescia, John of Wesel, John Huss,^[1] Martin Luther, Ulrich Zwingli, Felix Manz^[2] and Balthazar Hübmaier.^[3] Among early Baptists, my heroes are Thomas Helwys and John Smyth.^[4] There is a heavy price to be paid when one exercises the courage to stand firm. All of these men had to courage to stand firm on their convictions to the point of facing persecution and experiencing death at the hands of their oppressors. Their oppressors were corrupt popes and church leaders who sought to force absolute conformity from these dissenters. Such courage was as uncommon then as it is now.

In modern Southern Baptist, life there has been a host of leaders who have experienced persecution at the hands of oppressing fundamentalist denominational leaders. Some of my modern heroes are Ralph Elliott,^[5] Russell Dilday, and Roy Honeycutt, Paul Debusman, Diana Garland, Molly Marshall, Randall Lolley, and the more than seventy Southern Baptist international missionaries, just to name a few. All of these individuals and many more, stood firm on their convictions and were harshly treated by mean-spirited fundamentalist leaders. Southern Baptist denominational leaders spared no venom with these people when they fired and/or forced them to retire from their positions. All of these people paid heavily for standing firm.

I confess that I don't have quite the same level of courage which my heroes have/had. Courage like theirs requires a willingness to sell out to God and stand unwaveringly on personal beliefs and convictions. There was a time when I had no courage at all. I entered the ministry in 1964, some fifteen years prior to the hostile fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. At the time the takeover of the denomination began in 1979, I had been pastoring for thirteen years, taking a four year leave complete my seminary training. I entered seminary nine years before the takeover began (1970). By the time the takeover began in earnest, I had nine years of pastoral experience.

I attended the SBC annual meeting in Houston in 1979. During that convention, I sensed that something was terribly wrong with the denomination. I watched with amazement as Dr. Wayne Dehoney pointed to the skyboxes of the Summit and exposed the fundamentalists who were directing traffic down on the floor. I recorded my experience in my personal journal.^[6]

 Rather than expressing opinions openly, I went along with my peers and the prevailing sentiment in Oklahoma. Since many of my peers and older pastor friends seemed to be caught in what became the fundamentalist takeover movement, I squelched the courage openly express my concerns.  I didn't want to be seen as supporting  "liberalism." The leaders in my association and state convention were strongly agreeing with the rising stars of fundamentalism. They were accepting the myths of rising liberalism in the SBC. They were duped into thinking that the convention was on a slippery slope to liberalism. I simply could not see liberalism invading the Southern Baptist Convention. I didn't see it then and I don't see it now.

 One of the reasons I resisted the urge to stand against the fundamentalists was that I valued my reputation among friends and fellow pastors. I wanted to be accepted and I wanted to rise to prominence in Oklahoma Baptist life. I wanted to become a leader in higher places other than my local church. I wanted to be elected moderator of the association. I wanted to sit on the Board of Directors of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. I even had dreams about serving in a position with the BGCO. I knew in my heart that to express opinions that ran counter to conventional fundamentalist thinking would bring a halt to my denominational political ambitions. So I kept my personal convictions to myself.

Keeping my convictions to myself did help me rise to some prominence in Oklahoma Baptist life. I have been moderator in three associations. I eventually served two terms on the BGCO Board of Directors. After the BGCO reorganized the denominational structure and changed the Oklahoma Baptist Homes for Children into an agency rather than a department of the state convention organization, I  served on the first Board of Trustees for the OBHC. Those were heady days for me. I was in the limelight a good deal in those days. The Oklahoma Baptist Messenger was  frequently printing my pastor's articles. The Messenger published about twenty-five of my articles over a twelve year period. Everywhere I went, I received nice compliments from people who had seen my articles on the back page of the state paper. I loved it because I liked being recognized. However, I continued to resist speaking out against the evils of encroaching fundamentalism.

Sometime in 1994-95, I signed up for a CompuServe Internet email account. Along with my email account, I had access to a Southern Baptist discussion forum. The Southern Baptist Convention was sponsoring SBCNet,^[7] which was headquartered at offices of the Sunday School Board in Nashville. I became an participant on SBCNet. It didn't take long for me to realize that I could express my opinions with a bit more freedom on this forum. I began to offer public criticism, such as it was,  about the fundamentalist takeover. I began to gain courage to speak out against powerful SBC leaders. I began to speak my conviction about the negative things that were happening to the denomination. 

Even though I was beginning to speak out against the atrocities of fundamentalism on SBCNet, I had a nagging fear that my expressed negative feelings about the evil SBC deeds would filter back to Oklahoma. I didn't want my close friends or the members of my church to know that I was being critical of Southern Baptist denominational politics.  I felt rather safe, though, because there were no Oklahomans writing to SBCNet. At the time discussion forums were in their infancy and few people paid much attention to such things. So I was cautious with my criticism and didn't "let it all hang out" as I do today.

In March of 2000, Bruce Gourley launched BaptistLife.Com. From the day SBCNet closed, Bruce began to make plans to launch his own Baptist internet discussion forum. I didn't know him personally at the time. We were friends only through email exchanges and because we had similar views which we expressed on SBCNet. After a series of email exchanges and  numerous phone conversations, Bruce invited me to become a moderator for the new discussion forum. I had moved from Dewey to Chickasha in January before March of 2000. Bruce wanted another moderator to join the forum and after discussing it, he decided to invite Ed Pettibone to be the second moderator for the forum.  Ed had been a student with Bruce at Southern Seminary and also had been a regular participant on the old SBCNet.

Gaining the courage to openly stand against the denominational powerbrokers was a  gradual process. During the time I served at the First Baptist in Dewey, I was not openly critical of the misdeeds and direction of the convention. I didn't feel that I had the full  freedom to openly resist fundamentalism until I moved to Chickasha to become the DOM of the Grady Baptist Association.  However, I continued to lack the courage to talk denominational politics with the pastors in my association. I restricted my opposition solely to the BaptistLife discussion forum. Never once did I discuss denominational politics with pastors in my association. I heard many negative stories about the "rise of liberalism" and the successes of the so-called "SBC resurgence" from local church leaders at the weekly  pastor's conferences. It was sickening to hear the pastors repeat the myths about the resurgence as though they were truth. I became convinced that most of them wouldn't know truth if they saw it full in the face. They were blinded by their loyalties to the denominational powerbrokers

The issue that forced me to take a firm stand against the denominational power brokers was a resolution^[8] on the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message. The resolution was presented to the Fellowship of Oklahoma DOMs in August after the  2000 SBC annual meeting. It had been written, without the assistance of a Resolutions Committee,  by BGCO Executive Director, Anthony Jordan. The 2KBF&M had been adopted by the SBC  two months prior and Jordan was determined to lead the BGCO to become one of the first state conventions to officially adopt the creed-like confession.

The resolution came as a complete surprise to me.  Jordan had not discussed this with the DOMs but his intent  was to use the Fellowship of DOMs to accomplish his agenda. Anthony Jordan has a tendency to surround himself "yes-people." And there are several DOMs in the body who function beautifully as his personal "yes-people."  I have called them political bootlickers,^[9] for that is what they are.

The resolution is completely illegitimate because it was not written by the body of DOMs.  It was written by Anthony Jordan, with the possible help of one or two of the political posturing DOMs. There was no committee on resolutions. It  was not presented by a DOM. It was simply passed out to us and we were expected  to rubberstamp it with a minimum of discussion. It was one of the slickest, top-down, denominational power plays I have ever seen.  Jordan was determined to push this through and he was determined to use the DOMs as his pawns to get things rolling so that Oklahoma would be among the first state conventions to adopt the 2KBF&M.

After the resolution had been presented to the DOMs for consideration, Tom Owens, Chairman of the Fellowship of Oklahoma DOMs, invited Jordan to speak to it. It is a mystery to me why that Jordan should have spoken to the resolution. He had no right to speak to the resolution because the organization of DOMs is an autonomous body  and  he is not a member of the Fellowship. This was a classic example of top-down, power denominational politics.

There was very little discussion^[10] on the resolution. At that moment, the idea of  courage was not on my mind. I did not consider the possible consequences of my voting against it.  I knew what I had to do. I Also knew that there were at least three or four other DOMs who secretly opposed the 2KBF&M, and given a modicum of courage, they would have voted against it along with me. I believe they were afraid of loosing favor with Jordan if they voted against his resolution. One of those men is now no longer a DOM but is now a pastor of one the strong fundamentalist churches in one of the larger cities in Oklahoma. I know a former member of the church where the man went and am told that Jordan was instrumental in helping him secure the position. Power politics is still the name of the game in Oklahoma.

Within a year after I voted against the resolution, I lost my job as DOM of Grady Baptist Association. My negative vote and subsequent critical comments on BaptistLife.Com obviously influenced the  chain of events that caused me to lose the position. If it can be called courage to stand firm on my convictions, I would be pleased.  I much prefer being called courageous than to be called cowardly.  I believe there are many cowardly Southern Baptists who have surrendered their convictions in order to save their jobs and be considered loyal by power-mongering denominational leaders. They may save their jobs and hang on to their reputations with these leaders, but I don't know how they sleep at night while compromising and bowing down to those who desire to completely control their minds and souls. I don't know how they live by being accountable to someone other than God and their personal convictions.

 I would be foolish to compare myself to the great dissenters against oppression in church history. I have received emails from people who ridicule me for comparing myself to Martin Luther. I can't compare myself to him. I'm but a pesky gnat in the grand scheme of  church history. But I will always admire the courage he had when he stood before the Diet at Worms and offered as part of his closing comments, "...Here I stand, I cannot do otherwise, God help me. Amen."

I can sleep at night...

 ____________________

[1] Robert A. Baker, A Summary of Christian History, (Nashville Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1959), pp. 176-185

[2] William R. Estep, The Anabaptist Story, (Nashville Tennessee: Broadman Press, 1963), pp. 7-16

[3] Estep, pp. 48-66

[4] Estep, pp. 210-219

[5] Ralph H. Elliott, The Genesis Controversy and Continuity in Southern Baptist Chaos - A Eulogy for a Great Tradition, (Macon Georgia: Mercer University Press, 1992)  (In this book, Elliott delineates the struggle and persecution he faced when Southern Baptists fired him from the Midwestern Seminary faculty, banned his book, and excluded him from fellowship in the denomination.)

[6] Unpublished Personal Journal,  June 14, 1979: On the evening of June 12, 1979, while preparing to retire, I recorded this entry in my personal journal:   Today the issue of political activity in the skyboxes arose at the convention and there were sharp exchanges on the floor of the convention. Dr. Wayne Dehoney “let it fly” at the people in the skyboxes who were politicking.  It got very hot there for a few minutes. It wasn’t until later that I learned who was in the skyboxes.  I learned that Paul Pressler, Paige Patterson, Adrian Rogers and other notable fundamentalists were up there. Dr. Dehoney pointed his finger skyward and chastised those in the exclusive elevated rooms. There was no doubt about the anger in Dehoney’s little speech. 

[7] SBCNet was closed on December 31, 1999. I do not know the reason  why the  SBC closed it down. I suspect the reason may have been because  people at the Sunday School Board were uncomfortable with the growing criticism of the direction which the convention was headed. I was not the only regular participant who was critical of Southern Baptist denominational politics. Ed Pettibone was participating on SBCNet and was the first person, as I best can remember, who openly declared himself to be  "moderate Southern Baptist."  At the time, it was very unpopular to openly declare oneself to be a moderate. Bruce Gourley also was actively participating on SBCNet. He published his book, The Godmakers, in 1996. He sent me a copy of the book and I read it before it went on sale.

[8] Click here to read an original copy of the Oklahoma DOM's resolution

[9] "bootlicker" - someone who humbles himself as a sign of respect; who behaves as if he has no self-respect - a person who tries to please someone in order to gain a personal advantage. (Source: TheFreeDictionary.Com)

[10]  Click here to read a copy of the minutes of the meeting. The minutes record that I was the only DOM to raise a question. The minutes also reflect that only one dissenting vote was cast, but they do not reflect that I was that dissenter.

(This article was written for  BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums - November 17, 2003)