Break in series (Continued): “More Midstream Musings”

Increasingly over the years, I have had more people tell me that they think that I am a visionary.  While I truly wish that was significantly true–and, from time to time, I even pray that the Lord would make me more visionary–I think that I am actually minimally visionary and much more a “big picture” thinker, who also happens to have some ability in connecting the two.

In that regard, I tend to absorb the details that everybody else is focusing on, then fairly naturally and quickly back away and consider what the event(s) currently in the white-hot glare of the spotlight mean against the wider backdrop of more or less related events.  Of course, that does not mean my putting together of the puzzle pieces is any more accurate than anybody else’s (though I have been fairly close to right a fair amount more often than not over the years, although most of what I was thinking in those situations was unpublished, just laid out to friends and colleagues).

Of course, let me tell you up front that I truly hope some of the things I am about to say are not true, or do not come to pass.  But, at the moment, the following are my considered, though “not a prophet or a son of one,”  takes in these areas.  See whether you agree or disagree with my reworked quotes and related thinking:

With every action, you are stirring up what will likely be an opposite and equal reaction- This, of course, is a rough application of Newton’s Third Law to wider life.  Allow me to muse a tad as to how it applies to the SBC here and now.

The last time the International Mission Board trustees pulled a major league bonehead stunt was in the Fall of 2005.  What they did not foresee happening was that the adding of the two “apocryphal” policies on baptism and private private prayer language was the arrogant over-the-top action that would bring about the strong reaction(s) of: 1) getting Frank Page elected president of the SBC in Greensboro over two candidates hand-picked by Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler respectively; and 2) the almost 58% majority passage of the Garner Motion on the BFM2000 in San Antonio.

Now, the IMB BoT has effectively “martyred” Wade Burleson.  Can they really be so short-sighted as to not realize that, in doing so, they may have cost Al Mohler the presidency of the Convention in Indianapolis?  What were they thinking?!  After all, this is a role Mohler desperately wants, so that he can be prez when the SBC is in Louisville the next year. 

Yes, “the natives (on the SBC reservation) are restless” and the IMB (and SWBTS, I might add) trustees have done absolutely nothing to soothe their unrest.  In fact, they have done exactly the opposite.  How can we explain that?

Power corrupts and absolute power blinds the powerful.  With all due respect to Lord Acton’s timeless quote, this is a rip-off that desperately needs to be chewed on in the SBC right now. 

Think about it: Leaders are strong-willed people.  Leaders who stay in power for very long, even if subconsciosuly, surround themselves with people who not only think like they do but, to keep their jobs and curry favor with the powerful one, morph into “yes men.”  As a result, before long, all the power broker hears is ego-stroking: how wonderful he is and how stupid or crazy anyone is who disagrees with the leader–even if they know down deep that it is the powerful one who is out of bounds on more and more issues (and that he can’t see it because he is blinded by his ego).

In other words, because power fans the flame of pride, and, over time, the possibility of anything humbling getting through to the power broker dies like the embers of a fire, there is a fairly certain outcome for those who stay in power without very close and constant accountability: power profoundly blinds the powerful.

Suffice it to say that the current situation in the SBC has more or less devolved into a “might makes right” landscape.  It’s like the parent whose only answer to every “Why?” question from the kids is “Because I say so,” which, by interpretation, means, “It doesn’t matter if I’m really right; you must live with it as ’right’ because I say so.”  And, because the parent is angry, perhaps even surly, when he or she says this, the kid clams up and loses all respect for the parent.

In the SBC, just about all the true power brokers have left is raw power.  Their repeated, often angry, abuse of power in situations when it was not right or warranted has lost the respect of all but their most blind unthinking followers. 

Now, this does not mean that there are not many, many who appreciate greatly and respect what these leaders accomplished two or three decades ago–myself included.  But, thinking people only respect those are truly respectable and trust those who are truly trustworthy.  Amd, frankly, those who demand the ascendancy of their own narrower viewpoints and courses of action in the face of what is clearly the view of the majority of Southern Baptists (e.g., the Lifeway survey on tongues/private prayer language) are not acting in ways that engender either respect or trust.  Like selfish little children, they want their way and, in their arrogant blindness, that is reason enough why.

All that is necessary for the triumph of fundamentalist encroachment in the SBC is for non-fundamentalists to not even care enough to stand up and be counted.  Edmund Burke may have rolled over in his grave on this one.  But, again, this is an application of his timeless words that must burn into our minds and hearts in the months ahead.

My friend, and fellow blogger, Bob Cleveland, has just laid out his thoughts on the SBC more and more painting itself into a “corner of irrelevance.”  While I completely agree with Bob that it is happening, I must say that I am most concerned because I think that is precisely the way the SBC power elite want all reform-minded Southern Baptists to think.  Why do I say that?

Well, the more you think of the SBC as irrelevant, the more you tend to remove yourself from involvement in the processes of who gets elected to what position, what motions get introduced–generally, what directions things are going to go in the future.  What happens then?  It just effectively hands things over to the high and mighty and their ever-narrowing perspective without opposition.  In other words, the more each of you ceases to care about what has been, and is currently being, crammed down your throat, the easier it is for them to cram the next issue down the throats of those left who do care.

Yes, I hate that Wade is having to endure this completely unjust pain–and, I have had some of a lesser nature inflicted on me.  But, all of what has happened does not add up to anywhere close to suffcient reason to pack your bags and walk away.  Do you not remember that the energizing of a relatively small number of messengers in Greensboro and San Antonio (given the 6 million plus in the SBC) made a huge difference?  And, the encouraging events in the state conventions in Missouri and Arkansas, and some other behind the scenes events, are making it begin to appear that the actual numbers of remaining hard-core Resurgence types are like the Wizard of Oz (i.e., sounding much bigger and stronger only because well-positioned and louder).

In conclusion, let me say that I think that there are a huge number of Southern Baptists whose consciences are pretty much exactly where I have tagged things in this post.  More and more of you have let me know that, in one way or another, over these past months.  However, a fair number of you need to trust the Lord to help you “grow a backbone.”

Be brutally honest with yourself: How much good does it do for you to agree with my analysis, or that of some other reform blogger, if you are not willing to do anything about it?  Your fear-frozen–or ceasing-to-care-anymore–inaction is effectively the same thing Edmund Burke rightly contends allows very bad things to happen.

Boys and girls, as I’ve said before, I am, in the flesh, a chicken–a 250-plus pound coward.  But, by faith, the Holy Spirit has given me a voice–and a backbone.  And, He will do the same for you too, if you ask Him to–and trust Him to do it.

Coming Friday: “Fridays are for Newspaper Articles”