Robert Parham in his essay SBC Moves Right says, "Within fundamentalist circles, the pendulum of leadership succession always swings rightward. "
The pendulum metaphor has oft been applied to Baptist life. In the early 1980's many Baptist educators and administrators used the metaphor to discourage moderates from organizing politically to oppose the fundamentalists who were taking over the SBC. "The pendulum always swings back to the center," they counselled. Twenty-five years later, many Southern Baptists are still waiting for the pendulum to swing back.
Moderate Baptists decided long ago that the pendulum wasn't going to swing back. Some said the Baptist pendulum was broke. Others said it had been nailed to the wall. Actually, the leadership of the Convention moved to the right and Baptist people are still following their lead. If Parham is correct (and I think he is), that the leadership of the convention is moving further to the right, then where are Baptists headed?
Here's a link to a chart that I made to describe the changes in Baptist life over the last 25 years to college students. I made the chart to show why the pendulum wasn't swinging. It could give an indication of where Southern Baptists are headed when they move further to the right.
3 comments:
And the SBC leaders are wondering why the numbers are starting to lag as far as baptisms, etc. Hint: when they're pushing the envelope as far right as possible they're turning off many more seekers than they're attracting. This extremism will attract some folks who are already very conservative and somewhat authoritarian in their thinking. It's hard for a more liberal or even middle of the road average Joe to get past the right wing rhetoric of the SBC.
I agree with Amy, the pendulum would swing if there was some gravity pulling it back to the center, but they kicked out or pushed out anyone that would represent opposing viewpoints. Therefore no gravity, no growth.
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