Living to Regret

    The Southern Baptist Convention may be analogous to a man preparing to take a dive into a dry swimming pool. He is preparing to jump without realizing the dive cannot be reversed in mid-air. He fails to realize the impossibility of returning to the jump position once the dive is executed and he is headed for a disastrous landing on the bottom of a dry concrete pool floor. He fails to recognize the disastrous consequences of such a dive. He fails to realize the potential disaster to his body. He fails to heed the warning of friends not to dive into a dry pool.

   The SBC is preparing to take a disastrous dive by severing itself from the Baptist World Alliance. While denominational leaders such as Paige Patterson, and the SBC Executive Committee, may not realize it now, they will soon live to regret losing some of the best Baptist friends they ever had. Baptist friends worldwide are warning the SBC of the disastrous consequences of taking the dive without thinking it through clearly.

    Gullible, closed minded followers of fundamentalist SBC leaders have been duped into thinking that all other Baptists are liberal to the point of possessing and/or teaching aberrant theology. They have been lured, by smooth-talking seminary presidents, into believing the lies perpetrated about the BWA. They thoughtlessly believe the SBC’s BWA study committee’s report that “positions contrary to the New Testament and Baptist doctrines” are being supported by the world of Baptist bodies. They ignorantly believe that the BWA exudes with “anti-American” sentiment and “criticism of the International Mission Board.” They foolishly believe Paige Patterson’s false report that a German Baptist theologian stated that he disbelieved the existence of the “Great Commission.” Despite these wrongheaded beliefs, there are no Baptist bodies outside the normal range of Baptist orthodoxy.

    A precious few SBC leaders may be regretting the future severance from the BWA but are simply too proud to admit the possibility that the dive will be a disaster. Who among the proud fundamentalist leaders would ever admit to making an erroneous decision? None that I can think of at that moment. Pride and arrogance have a way of preventing such persons from ever admitting a mistake. Baptist friends worldwide are valiantly warning the SBC of the consequences of the dive. They are prayerfully pleading with them not to take the dive.

    I believe the SBC, if it does execute the dive, will eventually live to sincerely regret taking the plunge. There are some, however, who are so hard-headed that they believe they can survive a head-long dive onto a hard surface of a waterless pool. Baptist bodies worldwide are already grieving the sad consequences of what the SBC is preparing to do. In the end, Southern Baptists will regret diving into the waterless pool of isolationism.

 

February 15, 2004 -  Written for BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums