Finding Legitimacy (7/7/04)

One symptom of life in post-modernity is that few people get the respect they think they deserve. Rodney Dangerfield's comedy strikes a nerve deeper than many realize.

Unfortunately, not everyone can handle disrespect with a sense of humor. Baptist educators, some of whom have been the targets of covert operations to record unguarded statements for use in heresy complaints, have ample reason to take challenges to their authority seriously. Their skin is thin because it has been rubbed raw by contact with the Fundamentalism that pervades Baptist life.

Weary from incessant challenges to the legitimacy of their scholarship, some of our educators think all will be well if Baptists stop championing liberty of conscience and start creating a disciplined community (See the June 25, 1997 issue of Baptists Today).

Having once served a different community (the city of Albuquerque, NM) as an agent of discipline (police officer), I know by experience that all external authorities are poor substitutes for the internal guidance of the Holy Spirit.