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Editorial: Baptists: Agree to disagree

Jan. 29, 2008

It's been said there's nothing Baptists do better than bicker. Perhaps it's naïve to think the New Baptist Covenant can change that.

After all, creating new distinctions under the Baptist name has become a knee-jerk reaction to disagreements in the world of Baptistdom for generations.

Tonight, Baptists across 40 denominations will come together in Atlanta as one body of believers and attempt to prove the old stereotype wrong.

Naturally the covenant has suffered its own number of disagreements, including accusations of a latent leftist political agenda that led former Arkansas governor Mike Huckabee to withdraw from the event. With former Democratic presidents Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton and former vice president Al Gore attending, it's sometimes hard to believe the covenant will be all that "diverse."

But whatever its shortcomings, this undeniably represents the largest gathering of Baptists across lines of denomination and race, with one notable absence.

While the Southern Baptist Convention isn't an official sponsor, several individual members of the convention have expressed intent to attend the covenant without the support of their governing body.

Sadly, Southern Baptists as a whole are further today from unity with all Baptists than they ever have been. Even sadder still, they seem to swell with pride at that fact.

After a clean-out of moderates in the '80s, the SBC has recently taken things even further by ending a relationship with the Baptist World Alliance amid claims of accursed liberalism.

Progress has become a four-letter word in the SBC, with cries of godlessness following shortly behind.

Discussion on the role of women, the rights of immigrants and the care of the environment cause staunch Southern Baptists to flee organizations faster than a keg party.

Clinging to conservative interpretations of Scriptures, Southern Baptists are attempting to turn back the clock while the rest of the fragmented denomination takes steps toward the future.

Theological differences aside, Baptists as a whole share many core beliefs, namely Jesus Christ. That alone should engender a spirit of friendship and a commonality of purpose.

Theology has its place. We have the right as autonomous congregations in the priesthood of believers to search the Bible for ourselves. And no, we will not all find the same answer on every question.

We don't have to sacrifice civility in the name of theological diversity. It isn't an either/or equation.

As the apostle Paul said in the eighth chapter of Romans, "Neither height nor depth, nor anything else in all creation, will be able to separate us from the love of God that is in Christ Jesus our Lord."

While the theological conceits of Baptists may run the gamut, surely the love of Christ outweighs them.

Coming together wouldn't diminish our individual freedoms as self-governing congregations.

Can we not, as believers of the same God, come together in one place to work against poverty, injustice and oppression? Is any disagreement polarizing enough to trump the love of Christ?

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