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Note: This essay first appeared in the
August 2006 Baptist Studies Bulletin
and was reprinted in
EthicsDaily.Com.
They both grew up in the South, and for much of
their lives both have been Southern Baptists. Both have studied the
Bible extensively, yet both preach a Gospel which is foreign to
today’s Southern Baptist leaders. One is well known within Baptist
academic circles, the other is one of the most recognizable world
figures of the late 20th and early 21st
centuries.
“Our faith does not require that we believe that God permits
no knowledge of God except through Jesus,” one says. “We should not
ever try to limit how God can speak. God acts creatively and
redemptively in the world. We should let God draw the boundaries of
creation, judgment and redemption …. God will never abandon …. God
will never close the door …. God’s love will prevail.”
“Those are decisions only the Lord will make,” echoes the
other, addressing the issue of whether heaven is closed to Jews,
Muslims, Buddhists, Hindus and other non-Christians. “It would be
foolish for me to speculate about all that. I believe the love of God
is absolute. He said he gave his son for the whole world, and I think
he loves everybody regardless of what label they have.”
Yet despite their shared view that salvation exists beyond
Christendom, one of the two is dismissed as a heretic by
fundamentalist Baptists, while the other is embraced as a hero. After
decades of opposing Kirby Godsey, fundamentalist leaders of the
Georgia Baptist Convention purified themselves from any association
with Godsey’s “liberal” beliefs by defunding Mercer University in the
fall of 2005. The same year, after decades of claiming evangelist
Billy Graham as one of their own, fundamentalist leaders of the
Southern Baptist Convention led their constituency to vote to
commission a huge statue in Graham’s honor. “There
is no better-known name in the entire world, when it comes to being a
person of faith, than Billy Graham,” SBC
president Bobby Welch proclaimed of the evangelist for which Southern
Baptist Theological Seminary
named a school.
It is seemingly bizarre that two well
known Baptists who publicly acknowledge salvation beyond Christendom
are treated so differently by fundamentalists. The story of how
Godsey (the author of the first quotation in this article, published
in his 1996 volume, When We Talk About God … Let’s Be Honest)
became a heretic and Graham (the author of the second quotation, in
the August 14, 2006 edition of Newsweek)
became a hero is a reflection of how a once dynamic and growing
denomination has been transformed into a declining, culturally-bound,
politically-captive and increasingly irrelevant body. In light of
decades of failed evangelistic and baptismal efforts, the Southern
Baptist Convention needs the name, if not the theology, of the world’s
greatest evangelist. When the statue of Graham was unveiled in June
2006 at the annual SBC meeting, Southern Baptist leaders applauded his
“evangelistic fervor,” “impassioned preaching style,” and “innovative
use” of media, but were noticeably silent regarding Graham’s
theology. In the Newsweek interview Graham expressed regret
for not pursuing graduate education. Yet if the world’s greatest
evangelist had pursued an academic career instead of holding revivals
in stadiums worldwide, he would not have been honored by a convention
which despises open scholarly inquiry and scoffs at honest reflection
upon the mysteries of God.
Billy Graham recognizes, now more than ever, the inclusive
nature of God’s love and the freedom that is the very heart of the
Gospel he has faithfully preached to hundreds of millions of persons
over six decades. Moderate Baptists would do well to learn from his
evangelistic fervor; fundamentalist Baptists would do well to learn
from his inclusive theology. |
