The Southern Baptist church of my childhood taught me many fundamentals about following Christ. I learned in Sunday school, Vacation Bible School, missions’ activities, and Training Union. Sunday morning, Sunday night, and often during a two-week revival—hymn lyrics, sermons, Bible readings, testimonies, and special offerings all played their part in teaching me how to live a Christ-like life, both in the church community and outside of it.
I also learned what it meant to be Baptist. Though the book by Walter Shurden was not published until 1993, I learned—in the ways I listed above—about the “Four Fragile Freedoms while I was still a child. And it is those four tenets of being Baptist that I have been pondering since the recent SBC ruckus: Bible freedom, Soul Freedom, Church Freedom, and Religious Freedom. I would not argue that religious freedom is bound up in the women in ministry question, but the other three? In my opinion, those are becoming more fragile with each SBC convention.
BIBLE FREEDOM: Know the Bible—especially the sections in red.
As little Baptists, we learned to read the Bible for ourselves, not to let someone else tell us what it said. So, we read it. Many of us had read the entire Bible before we were out of grade school. We couldn’t make sense of every word of it, but we read it.
During my childhood in the early 70s, all the cool kids had a red-letter Bible in which the words of Jesus are printed in red. We Baptists learned that the red letters were the most important words in the Bible. Don’t misunderstand—you still needed to find Haggai or Jude in a Bible Sword Drill. It’s not like lesser books were unimportant. It’s just that if you needed guidance on how to live your life, the red letters were where it was at.
The story of Mary and Martha
For example, in the Gospel of Luke, you’ll find the story of Mary and Martha, two sisters who were dear friends of Jesus (their brother was the original dead man walking, Lazarus). Here’s the entirety of the story from the King James Version, red letter edition: Luke 10:38-42.
Now it came to pass, as they went, that he [Jesus] entered into a certain village: and a certain woman named Martha received him into her house. And she had a sister called Mary, which also sat at Jesus’ feet, and heard his word. But Martha was cumbered about much serving, and came to him, and said, Lord, dost thou not care that my sister hath left me to serve alone? bid her therefore that she help me. And Jesus answered and said unto her,
Martha, Martha, thou art careful and troubled about many things: But one thing is needful: and Mary hath chosen that good part, which shall not be taken away from her.
Now here’s the story in 21st century English. Jesus went to visit his friends Martha and Mary. Martha busied herself preparing food and other comforts for their guests. Mary set at the feet of Christ like a student (or disciple). Martha told Jesus she needed help with the domestic chores and asked him to tell Mary to do her part. Jesus refused, telling Martha that Mary was doing the more important thing—sitting at his feet, learning from him. Fascinating little story, isn’t it?
Despite these red letters, the SBC would have us believe that women should only be serving in more domesticated ways, not sitting with the men and learning alongside them. Jesus clearly had a different take on the issue.
SOUL FREEDOM: Accept Jesus as your PERSONAL savior
Growing up Southern Baptist meant that at some point, folks would expect you to accept Jesus into your heart as your personal savior. In my experience, you told your parents who scheduled a meeting with the preacher. For me, parent and pastor were one, so I skipped a step. Having talked it over with adults, you “walked the aisle,” confessed your sin to the pastor (even if you were 7 as I was), and asked Jesus into your heart. Sometime later, you would be baptized. During that ceremony, the pastor would ask you, “Do you accept Jesus Christ as your personal savior?” You would answer “Yes,” and then the pastor would say, “Then I baptized you my sister/brother, in the name of the Father, the Son, and the Holy Spirit.” The pastor would dip you under, raise you up, and proclaim God’s delight in you.
This is why Baptists technically do not baptize babies—because we believe that following Christ should be a personal decision. I say technically because some Baptist churches baptize children not yet out of preschool. That looks a lot like infant baptism to me, but whatever works to keep the little imps out of hell, I suppose.
Personal relationship–but with limitations
If you were raised in the SBC, you heard over and over again that your relationship with Jesus is personal—between you and God. No one else can make this decision for you. It is yours and yours alone. Once this decision was made, you and Jesus could converse within your own heart. This is how I know I was called to preach: I have a personal relationship with Jesus.
But, even though Baptists have taught this theology since . . . well, since God knows when (literally), the SBC would now explain that there is a limit to this personal relationship. “You can be responsible to a point, little ladies, but you’ll need to run your calling by a man so he can tell you if Jesus really said what you say Jesus said.”
Priesthood of the Believer—a component of SOUL FREEDOM
By the time I was in grade school, I had heard the phrase “priesthood of the believer.” This is the idea that once you have established that personal relationship with Jesus, you would be a part of the priesthood of believers. In the churches I attended, the weekly bulletin and newsletter both boasted, “every member a minister.”
The pastor may have been the one who preached every Sunday, but every member of the church was responsible for ministering to each other and to the community. That, our teachers taught us, is because no one needs an intercessor—someone to connect them to God. That was the catholic way. Baptists? We could approach the throne of Grace with immunity because, according to our faith, we are all priests.
Unless, of course, you are a woman. In that case, you may need God’s words mansplained to you, bless your heart.
AUTONOMY OF THE LOCAL CHURCH: Congregation over Convention.
The Southern Baptist Convention has always believed in the autonomy of the local church. That means that individual congregations make decisions for their church that work in their context. The connection to the Southern Baptist Convention should be one of affiliation, not indoctrination. Sure, affiliated churches are mostly like-minded, but at one time there was a spectrum within the SBC.
The diversity of the old SBC
Back then, there were churches with radically different thoughts on things like women in ministry that fellowshipped with each other without judgment. The churches connected to SBC differed widely. For example, some had Vacation Bible School for two weeks using curriculum they designed themselves. Others took the Lifeway (SBC) literature and tweaked it to match their needs. Some separated Sunday school classes by gender, some by age, some by church membership. And, there were SBC churches who had women leaders, deacons, and pastors, and some that would not have considered such madness even if the Holy Spirit huffed and puffed and blew those women right into their roles.
That diversity is gone now. No more does the SBC trust its member churches to make their own choices on major issues, including whether or not a woman’s personal relationship with Jesus has gotten a little out of hand.
The Sad Truth
Look, it’s true that the SBC diverged from these four principles a long time ago. Still, it breaks my heart that they have drifted so far from what they used to proclaim not just in word, but more importantly in practice. Plus, it’s just wrong. How dare you, SBC, tell me you know my calling better than I do? You don’t even know me. And more and more, I don’t know you either.
