Have Baptists Lost Touch

Have Baptists Lost Touch
by Joe E. Trull

"I am afraid that Baptists are losing touch with the common man?" Forty years ago I heard T. B. Maston utter these prophetic words to a graduate seminar. He added, "That is what has made us who we are-our churches and institutions primarily have been led by people who are common folk."

During the last half-century, that has all changed. Baptists have moved up the socio-economic ladder. Not only are we large and numerous, but also affluent and powerful. Among our ranks are notable people-two U. S. Presidents, numerous leaders in Congress, doctors, lawyers, educators, and CEOs of mega-corporations.

Is that necessarily bad? Certainly churches and Baptist institutions have benefited from our new affluence-magnificent buildings, increased budgets, and expanded ministries. But alongside our new affluence are many potential dangers.

As the largest Protestant denomination, Baptists are often in the news. Sometimes that is good, sometimes not so good. In the recent Enron and Worldcom scandals, each had a prominent executive who was a Baptist deacon. As the facts emerge, it is upsetting that their illegal activities were compounded by executive lifestyles that would rival the Rich Man in Jesus` parable (Lk. 16:19-31).

Was Maston accurate? Are our churches and institutions choosing leaders, trustees, and board members based upon their prestige rather than on spiritual maturity? A prominent pastor of a large Texas First Church told me recently, "If you don`t have a lot of money, Baptist schools are not interested in you."

If money, power, and influence are all that count, we are in serious trouble.

One of our regular contributors to this Journal informed me he no longer would be sending articles. Why? The main reason, I learned, was due to a piece he wrote two years ago about the Enron debacle. He asked if the prophet Amos might have a word for corporations who squander millions on homes in Aspen and yachts in Florida, while all the time cooking the books. When the corporation went under, he continued, who suffered? The employees not only lost their jobs, they lost their retirement funds and millions in worthless stock their "leader" had urged them to buy.

Our Journal writer was called on the carpet at this "moderate Baptist" institution for daring to criticize "the American free-market" system. He was told to cease and desist from writing any articles, if he wanted to keep his job.

And we criticize the SBC for muzzling critics-what hypocrisy!

Over the last 30 years we have derided the so-called "fundamentalist" for their politicking in taking over the SBC. Yet, I am increasingly alarmed about events in moderate Baptist life that seem to me to be strangely similar. A few concerns:

• Elitist attitudes. During my first sabbatical in 1991, I visited one of our new moderate seminaries. The reception was cold, arrogant, and snobbish. (I found greater warmth and openness across the street at the Presbyterian seminary.) Why do so many moderates project an image that says: "I am smarter, wiser, and more cultured than those dumb `fundamentalists`, and most everyone else I know"?
• Trustees. Survey the Board members at your favorite institutions. Is there an inordinate amount of elitists whose views are shaped more by their political and economic values than by the ethic of Jesus? Do pastors of big churches and wealthy laymen predominate on these Boards?
• Exorbitant salaries. Recent revelations of pastors and presidents making six-figure salaries with added perks that move the package closer to one-half million is disturbing. We excuse them by saying, "Their pay is in line with secular institutions." Is that our goal to keep up with the salaries of the secular world?
• Program personalities. Evaluate the persons who speak at our conferences and conventions. The Baptist "good-ole-boy" club, like many country-clubs, has unwritten membership requirements. Some are good speakers; but others are mediocre at best. If our choice of speakers reflected ability, rather than the size and influence of the minister`s church, our denominational programs would read somewhat differently.
• CEO pastors. A former student in Mississippi (working for their convention), bragged about his church-"We have no deacons, only elders. They and the pastor decide everything. Our church never votes." A growing trend among larger churches is to model the corporation and make the pastor the CEO, who with his "Board" (whatever their name) run the church. This is neither Baptist nor biblical.
  T. B. Maston was always slow to criticize, particularly the institution he loved and gave his life to serving. However, when the president of the seminary built a new student center, highlighted by an elaborate chandelier from Europe, Maston protested. (In today`s dollars, it would have cost hundreds of thousands of dollars.) To the ethics teacher, it mattered not that "cooperative program funds" did not pay for it-it was the image. This picture of extravagance and influence was not an appropriate icon for a Baptist seminary.

The God revealed in the Scriptures has a "preferential option" for the poor, the weak, the voiceless, and "the stranger in the land." And so should we. Isn`t that what Maston meant-that as long as we are in touch with average folks, we can continue to be God`s remnant in the world?

Now the rest of the story. Maston was forced to retire at age 65, even though he wanted to continue teaching. But God redeemed the time, and for the next twenty-three years his fluent pen authored some of his greatest books! JET

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