Know Your Roots

Just prior to heading to Greensboro, NC for the SBC, I picked up two books dealing with Southern Baptist history, Dr. Tom Nettles - A Foundation for the Future and Dr. R. Stanton Norman - More Than Just a Name. Each year before the convention, I become read up on Southern Baptist history and heritage. Last year I read Paul Presslor's A Hill Worth Dying For, which details a layman's perspective of the conservative resurgence or for those who like to term the shift beginning in 1979 as "The Takeover". This book details the grass roots movement of people in Southern Baptist churches that saw the direction of the denomination moving far from the Gospel and biblical authority. I thoroughly enjoyed reading the account and recommend it to every Southern Baptist and to anyone interested in denominational history of the 20th century.
I am thankful to have been born in Western Kentucky into a Southern Baptist family. Although my sociological landing is not the sole reason I am a Baptist. I know why I am a Baptist, and I know the roots of my denomination. In short, Baptist proclaim the Bible as the sole authority of life and the church. Baptists have churned out their theology and practice based on the Bible and carry out the life of the church based on the Great Commission (Matt. 28:18-20). In short, Baptists were a missional group thanks to the urging and going of William Carey, Adorium Judson, and Luther Rice. There were associations amongst churches throughout the North and South whose sole existance was to send missionaries "to the ends of the earth."
The downfall of Baptist unity and emergence of Southern Baptist identity came in the 19th century. The General Missionary Convention of the United States of America for Freign Missions denied slaveholders the right to be missionaries. The Constitution stated, "Such persons only as are in full communion with some church of our denomination, and furnish satisfactory evidence of genuine piety, good talents, and fervent zeal for the Redeemer's cause, are to be employed as missionaries and are not slaveholders." The South diverged from the Convention at this point - slavery. Those in the South desired to send missionaries but could not abolish slavery immediately and thus, formed the Southern Baptist Convention. Nettles comments,

In the words of Jams B. Taylor, a Virgina Baptist, the action had the effect of "forbidding us to go to the Gentiles." This was a condition that the Baptists of the South could not tolerate. Going into all the world, a Christian duty so recently rediscovered, could not so soon be forsaken. The only option was to form a new convention. The mixture of good and bad, grace and nature, Spirit and flesh is quite remarkable in these events. That a sinful racism penetrated much of the thinking and motivation of Baptists in the South cannot be denied. It appeared in many differrent modifications and in some was only slight and greatly softened by gracious kindness. Along with this, a genuine fervor for gospel preaching in the whole world branded the consciousness of Baptists. Inspite of the cloud that dulled their consciences concerning the "peculiar institution," they were guilelessly committted to that which is infinitely excellent - missions. A missionary plant grew from missionary soil.

While this division was not new to me, one still has to admit the difficulty in the SBC's history. As I was reminded of America's and Baptist's past, I was present during one notable speaker at the 149th Southern Baptist Convention. Dr. Mohler drew attention to our history and the significance of Secretary of State, Condoleeza Rice addressing the Convention. She identified herself as a woman of faith and prayer, and said that she literally grew up in the back of a church her father pastored. Dr. Mohler highlighted the continual applause to her address on the issues of foreign policy, and most notably to Rice's denunciation of human trading still present in the world. The Convention body continued to align themselves with Rice as she stated the United States's goal to abolish human trafficking.
The Southern Baptist Convention was born with a desire to carry the Gospel to the ends of the earth at a time when great ethical concern and moral havoc was present throughout the South. It is very refreshing to know the SBC has remedied the fault of it's origin yet continues to carry out the church's mission - "Go therefore and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit, teaching them to observe all that I have commanded you. And behold, I am with you always, to the end of the age."