Associated Baptist Press reports that a group of young CBFers are challenging Cecil Sherman for recounting the history of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.
While Sherman's analogy to the holocaust is surely over the top, his concern to recount the story of the fundamentalist takeover is not.
From the beginning of the CBF movement there have been pious voices telling us that we need to move on, forgive and forget, and be more positive and proactive in our spirituality. Every fundamentalist assault upon the integrity and well being of Baptist educators, administrators, missionaries, ministers and lay persons has been greeted with the same mantra to "move on," "get over it," and "face the future."
Unfortunately, most Baptists both within CBF and within the SBC took that advice. That was myopic. Nothing could stir Baptists from our pious apathy. Not the firing of educators, not the seizure, pilfering and mismanagement of Baptist institutions, not the formation of creeds and the administration of loyalty oaths, not the termination of scores of missionaries, and not the union of denomination and right-wing politics. No outrage has been sufficient to create a spine for sustained dissent within the Baptist body.
I'll always be convinced that Baptist apathy -- both within CBF and the SBC -- created a favorable climate for misguided foreign policies that the entire world will be facing for the foreseeable future.
While every mainline denomination in America opposed the doctrine of pre-emptive wars, SBC ethicist Richard Land was writing rationales for war with Iraq. While religious leaders around the world have been working to defuse tensions between religions, Southern Baptists have been leading cheers for a clash of civilizations. When all people of good will have been clamoring for an end to secret arrests, renditions, and torture, Southern Baptist leaders have been offering justications for tactics previously associated only with authoritarian regimes. While scores of scientists insist that we are running out of time to reduce greenhouse gases, Southern Baptists insist there's no grounds for concern.
The world will never know how different history might have been if more Baptists had the boldness, outspokenness, and dogged persistence in confronting injustice that characterizes Cecil Sherman.
4 comments:
While I agree with you, there has to be a balance. CBF has to be able to define itself as something more than a split-off of the SBC. It has to be something more than a protest movement. If we spend all of our time focusing on the past, we will not be able to discern the future God has for CBF. We cannot forget the past, but we must focus on the future.
Gil,
We never know where we are going without knowing where we are coming from. It's not either remember-the-past or face-the-future, it's both.
Why challenge Cecil Sherman? He's been retired for a decade. He doesn't set the agenda for CBF any more.
Although Cecil Sherman may not have an "official" role, he is still very influential in CBF life. The text of the letter was posted on the Big Daddy Weave blog, and I have copied it here.
Open Letter to Dr. Cecil Sherman
Tuesday, June 24, 2008
Dear Dr. Sherman,
For your work and ministry, we are sincerely grateful. You helped harness the energy of those who chose to leave the Southern Baptist Convention when certain leaders were ousted through manipulative and unethical means. You helped to create a new family of faith, a new movement now known as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. We are grateful for your risk-taking and your leadership.
After receiving recognition for your recently published book last Thursday at the CBF General Assembly in Memphis, Tennessee, you juxtaposed our relatively small amount of pain – where no one was injured or killed – to the six million killed in the Holocaust. In our opinion and the opinions of many others, your analogy was misguided. These words are old rhetoric that we will no longer accept in our midst. The SBC has chosen one path and the CBF another. We no longer have energy to focus on this separation, but rather turn our attention to a suffering world.
Though the wounds of the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC are nothing in comparison to the Holocaust, we recognize those wounds are real. They are also wounds that need healing, and for some the grieving process is not over yet. We respect that and want to allow a place for conversations about our past. Of course remembering what happened will help us avoid repeating mistakes. But we will no longer wish for this conversation to have center stage – nor be the focus of who we are and what we do.
Young Baptist leaders are ready to embrace new opportunities for ministry and discipleship. Remembering the past but not dwelling on it, many Baptist are excited and enthusiastic about ministering with the most neglected people around the world. Some of these most neglected include descendants of those people-groups who were targeted for extermination in the Holocaust.
So with deep respect for your work and sacrifice for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, we invite you to lay down the pain of the past and join us as we focus on a future, bright with possibility.
Respectfully submitted,
David Burroughs, President, Passport, Inc.
Rev. R. Scott Ford, Associate Coordinator for Missions, CBF of Georgia
Rev. Nikki Hardeman, Associate Coordinator for Congregational Life, CBF of Georgia
Jeremy Lewis, Together for Hope Manager, CBF
Rev. Brent McDougal, Coordinator of Alabama CBF
Rev. Christina Whitehouse-Suggs, Associate Coordinator for Congregational Life, CBF South Carolina
Mike Young, Associate Coordinator for Missions, Tennessee CBF
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I can tell you from personal experience that this is how many of us "young" CBFers feel, and have felt since long before this incident occurred.
A similar thing was present at the New Baptist Covenant meeting. In our meetings at the NBC, we were encouraged not to talk about the SBC. "This meeting is not about them," one of the leaders said. (Ths was a person who was profoundly affected by the takeover.) But, most of the CBF speakers found it necessary to mention the SBC at least once, and in doing so, they made the meeting, at least in part, about the SBC.
We are saying this because we want the CBF to survive. In order for this to happen, it has to be much more than a protest movement. If that is all CBF is, it will die with the leaders, like Cecil Sherman, who fought the battle.
Gil,
At the NBC sessions I attended, I don't remember the event quite like you. I remember John Grisham making an allusion to the SBC. John Grisham is not a CBF leader. I remember Bill Clinton talking about the SBC at length. But, his speech was quite positive.
I'm just curious how - in CBF life - the SBC has taken "center stage." When's the last time that Nash or Vestal said something critical of the SBC?
Seriously, this Open Letter was full of assertions and low on facts.
I'm curious but would you recommend that CBF partner organizations such as the ABP, Baptist Center for Ethics, and Baptists Today no longer mention the Southern Baptist Convention in their coverage? Are you saying that Bill Leonard and James Dunn should just shut up and never mention the SBC much less write about the SBC again? That seems to be what you and other "young" CBFers are advocating for.
The SBC is a reality. We folks here in states like Texas interact with Southern Baptists on a regular basis. But as far as the CBF goes - I don't think anyone can make the argument that the SBC is "center" stage. Right now, we're left with a bunch of assertions.
I do agree that we can not and definitely should never forget the past. We must indeed focus on the future. And frankly, I think the CBF has been doing that for quite some time now. To suggest otherwise is probably an insult to CBF leadership.
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