Baptist Press, the PR arm of the Southern Baptist Convention, has posted a story on the recent decision by the SBC’s Executive Committee to hold off on making a determination as to whether the historic Broadway Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas should be disfellowshipped for its toleration of gay members.
Read Bob Allen’s coverage over at Associated Baptist Press. My most recent blog post is here.
According to the Baptist Press article, three people from Broadway Baptist Church - interim pastor Charles Johnson, minister of congregation care Jorene Taylor Swift and denominational relations committee member Lyn Robins - met with members of the Executive Committee’s Bylaws Workgroup and Administration Subcommittee and asked that the EC not recommend that the SBC cut ties with Broadway. The article notes that much of the discussion during the meetings focused on a Jan. 27 letter that Broadway sent to the Executive Committee which stated that “Broadway has never taken any church action to affirm, approve, or endorse homosexual behavior. Broadway Baptist Church considers itself to be in friendly cooperation with the Southern Baptist Convention and has every intention of remaining so.” Some members of the Executive Committee noted that they would welcome a stronger statement from Broadway on homosexuality.
“The committee has asked us to sort of strengthen our statement on the matter of homosexuality,” Johnson, the interim pastor, told Baptist Press. “We receive that challenge … and we’re going to take it very seriously and prayerfully and go back to our congregation and follow the light and leadership of the spirit of God.”
Johnson said he was “very heartened” and “encouraged” by discussions with committee members throughout the day. The Bylaws Workgroup and Administrative Subcommittee meetings each went past their scheduled end times, with members asking Johnson and the other two church representatives pointed questions about the church’s position on homosexuality.
Johnson, who began serving in his role in July, told Baptist Press he came to the committee meeting in order to tell members the church does not endorse homosexuality and to urge them not to act while the church “is healing” from losing not only its pastor but some of its members following last year’s controversies.
“Everyone has been gracious to us. We have felt a sensitivity from the committee toward our congregational situation, and we’ve received the wisdom of the committee,” he said. “We feel that we’ve taken a step of constructive engagement with the denomination. This is our denominational family. Instead of a step away, we’ve kind of stepped toward each other.”
I find it sort of odd to read Charles Johnson speak of the Southern Baptist Convention as his “denominational family.” This is the same Charles Johnson who just a two years after 9/11 and less than a year after the invasion of Iraq referred to the Conservative Resurgence/Fundamentalist Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention as a “JIHAD.” Johnson was responding to the Southern Baptist Convention’s decision to withdraw from the Baptist World Alliance.
In the Jan 13. 2004 op-ed entitled “Baptist pastor calls on churches to stop funding the Southern Baptist Convention,” Johnson accused the Southern Baptist Convention of “provincialism” and referred to the SBC leadership as “religious zealots” who “cannot tolerate those who don’t conform to their totalitarian program of creedal conformity.”
Johnson called on “All freedom-loving Baptists of goodwill in Southern Baptist churches” to “hasten [the] ‘dissolution’ of the SBC by doing their own defunding.” Johnson declared that Southern Baptist churches “serve as collection agencies for the SBC thought police.”
Johnson concluded:
Church members should advocate in their congregations an immediate diversion of funds away from the Southern Baptist Convention and directly to the Baptist World Alliance. At the least, they should make sure not one penny of their own offerings go to the SBC.
Why should we continue to underwrite the demise of our own cherished Baptist values of religious freedom?
It’s time for the Southern Baptist faithful to remind the controlling oligarchy that real Baptist power is still located in the pew and the pulpit, not in the politburo now controlling the Southern Baptist Convention.
Not sure that a lot has changed in the Southern Baptist Convention between Jan. 2004 and Jan. 2009.
It’s just a little ironic to see a Baptist preacher call for the defunding of the Southern Baptist Convention and then a handful of years later that same Baptist preacher is pleading with the Southern Baptist Convention not to kick his current church out….
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- Broadway Baptist Ousted From SBC Just an hour or two ago, Southern Baptist messengers voted...
- Why Broadway? Who’s Next? I recently wrote about the decision of Southern Baptist messengers...
- Broadway & the SBC: The Church Attorney’s Perspective Lyn Robbins is a lawyer from Forth Worth, Texas. A...
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BDW,
History and press clippings can come back to haunt us at times. Concerning Dr. Johnson, since I was there with him I can speak to this a bit, but I would encourage you and others to speak to him personally.
Dr. Johnson was there on behalf of the people of Broadway. He is their interim and it was the church’s desire to stay in friendly fellowship with the SBC. He represented them well. The factors behind their desire may vary from member to member but the bottom line is Broadway wants to be in friendly fellowship and Dr. Johnson did his best to represent their cause before the Executive Committee.
On a personal note, it is my prayer that the stones that we have used to build walls between each other will now be used to build bridges over which we will work together to do Kingdom work. A new day may be dawning, and I pray we are seeing the first fruits of that new day.
David Lowrie
Well said, David. BDW, clearly Johnson can’t just represent his personal views in this case; he’s got to stand up for all of the congregation in a difficult balancing act.
Also, the SBC might not have changed between 2004-09, but perhaps the Johnson family has experienced many changes in that period, ones that might point a person of goodwill who’s able to forgive others towards a more conciliatory tone.
From all appearances, Johnson did a fine job of representing Broadway Baptist Church and their desire to remain in friendly cooperation with the SBC. Additionally, in light of the language used (the repeated use of “we” and “us”), Johnson portrayed himself as something more than a mere representative who was present to represent the best interests of his “client” so to speak. He included himself personally alongside the desires of Broadway for a friendly, cooperative relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention. That language and desire really does stand in stark contrast to the extremely harsh anti-fundamentalist rhetoric from a handful of years back.
I’ve not been one to shy away from the word fundamentalist. But I’ve never found it appropriate (nor accurate nor fair) to draw such close comparisons between Christian fundamentalism and Islamic fundamentalism.
As a young historian who enjoys analyzing Baptist life, needless to say, all this is interesting. Sandy’s observation on BaptistLife.com is also extremely interesting
I too hope that the Southern Baptist Convention will one day become a place of inclusion and not exclusion. And I hope that Broadway will find a friendly environment among their denominational family. Being informed by history, I won’t hold my breath though.
Nowadays though, former Southern Baptists such as myself now have a new “denominational family” to which we belong in this post-denominational world. There may be bridge building that can be done at the state level such as here in Texas. But nationally, many moderate and progressive Baptists have found a new home and are establishing a new identity distinct from the SBC. I see all that as positive.
If Broadway does not remain in “friendly cooperation” with the SBC it will loose its professional music staff because they all teach at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. And they need that staff to draw the large choir and maintain the professional music program with the magnificant organ donated by Van Cliburn, the most famous of their 20 or so gay members. To balance that combo is “a difficult balancing act.”
To me, that’s the surprise of this story–that SWBTS still has profs who are Broadway members.
I thought Paige Patterson and the administration were dictatorial, brutish fundamentalists, slicing and dicing all those not toeing their narrow line.
Maybe tenure has these music profs tethered on?
I find it sad that Broadway is more concerned about its relation with the SBC than in really standing up for its gay members and boldly saying, “YES, we welcome and affirm them!”
Michael,
I think your sadness says it all regarding your position. Welcoming all sinners is one thing, affirming sin is quite another.
Homosexual acts are clearly sinful. Why do you want a church to affirm them?
I was a music student at SWBTS a few years ago, and although there are still a few music profs that attend Broadway, the number is getting smaller nearly every year through retirements, resignations, and transfers to other church. I think in no more than 10 years Broadway will pull totally away from the SBC. By then they will be able to gain musicians from TCU, Fort Worth Symphony Orchestra, and other pagan music societies.