Index editor Gerald Harris touted Welch as the SBC's "ambassador of goodwill to Baptist and evangelical bodies around the world." That's quite a task, considering that the SBC alienated itself from most of the world's Baptist bodies in 2004 by withdrawing from the Baptist World Alliance in a very public snit. When it became evident that the BWA's 200+ member bodies would not knuckle under to the SBC's demand that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship be refused membership in the global organization, the organization's biggest donor decided to take its cash and go home. Not willing to participate when it they could not dominate, SBC leaders persuaded convention messengers to approve a recommendation to withdraw from the global body, justifying their actions by charging the BWA with a "leftward drift," tolerance of homosexuality, and pronouncements of "anti-American" sentiment.
The charges were bogus then, and they're bogus now. Many BWA member bodies are very conservative -- some more fundamentalist than the SBC itself. Some have more moderate tendencies, and a very few border on liberal. BWA members recognize, however, that unity does not require uniformity. Attend one meeting of the BWA General Council and you'll hear lively debate, different opinions, and both yeas and nays when votes are taken. Attend a worship service, and you'll observe a great harmony of spirit, a commitment to a common Lord and a common mission.
Yet, Harris's feature continues to beat the dead horse of deceit: four of the first five paragraphs repeat the SBC's misbegotten justification of its decision to go it alone. By keeping alive the tired aspersions, though, Harris illustrates how badly the SBC needs an ambassador of goodwill. I know Baptists from many countries on several continents, and few of them feel kindly toward the SBC, whose top-down missions strategy is often at odds with the goals of local Baptists.
Bobby Welch is an extrovert's extrovert who, I believe, really wants to do good things. It's hard not to like him. What I fear, however, is that his goodwill efforts in promoting the SBC will be directed primarily toward those bodies or local leaders who are most in tune with the SBC's brand of theology, and that the end result will be to take the SBC's intra-family power struggle global.
We live in a world that needs all the good will it can get: we all would do well to be "goodwill ambassadors" to all we meet: a worthy goal for this year, and every year.
5 comments:
Another great post about the sad state of affairs in the SBC. I can remember when our missions and ministries served as our "goodwill". Just another in a long list of why this SBC is a brand I don't recognize or support.
Tony;
Although I have been priviledged to travel abroad and meet some amazing Baptist brothers and sisters in a number of other countries, I have not globe-trotted quite like you have...and seen --as you have--the wide array of good and godly Baptist co-laborers in all parts of the world.
But I thoroughly concur in your take on the excellent work of our BWA and the most unfortunate step the SBC has taken to cut itself off from this rich fellowship of Baptists world-wide.
My wife and I have already registered for the July BWA meeting in Honolulu and pray daily for our Baptist co-workers abraod.
Dr. Bill Greenwood, Kernersville, NC
Would be interesting for starters to get a reaction of Bobby Welch and his brand of leadership in the SBC to Ed.com of Parham and Vaughn's excellent www.differentbookscommonword.com hr long documentary shown on many ABC affiliates across the nation yesterday.
Muslim leader Sayyid's Gettysburg address like statement at Andover Newton from a conference last year was Grand.
Engage Welch and the SBC in that discussion, even have Welch get to a better ecumenical place the likes of Adrian Rogers's son David is getting to; just a lean by Welch in that direction framed for discussion starters in Parham's excellent documentary would go along way toward seeing if SBC's heart has changed in any substantive way; or as you say is just more used car sales packaging.
He gets the Washington Post subtly wrong. The Post's Alan Cooperman wrote: "The Southern Baptist Convention voted yesterday to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance, accusing the worldwide organization of a drift toward liberalism that included growing tolerance of homosexuality, support for women in the clergy and "anti-American" pronouncements."
The Post goes on:
"'What you have now is a solidification, a hardening of the arteries,' said the Rev. Walter B. Shurden, director of the Center for Baptist Studies at Mercer University in Macon, Ga."
Makes one of your points, seems to me.
Bobby Welch, quoted at the SBC Executive Committee, said he is happy to work on relationships with those "who see the world and the kingdom as we do."
http://www.biblicalrecorder.org/post/2008/09/25/Executive-Committee-denies-BWA-reaffiliation.aspx
To witdraw from the BWA, and then establish an office for international relationships among Baptists is the kind of move the rising tide of young leaders will wash to the sea.
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