Baptists and the prophetic voice.

Contemporary Baptists face a fork-in-the-road dilemma: They choose to be prophetic, or they don't.

Amos was prophetic: He pronounced the word of the Lord. Jesus was prophetic: He was the word of the Lord. Baptist Walter Rauschenbusch was prophetic: He preached that the gospel relates to social issues. Martin Luther King, Jr., was prophetic: He insisted that all persons possess basic civil rights. Jimmy Carter is prophetic: He urges world peace and human rights for all. Carolyn Blevins is prophetic: She tells women that God can call them and churches can ordain them. Brent Walker and James Dunn are prophetic: They demand church-state separation. Walter B. Shurden is prophetic: He advocates the freedom thrusts of Baptist heritage.

As a child and teenager, I learned in Vacation Bible School that the Old Testament contains several books called major and minor prophets. I remember lay teachers telling me that prophets did at least two things: they foretold and told forth. Biblical prophets tended to be good historians: they knew the history of Israel. They knew when Israel had kept God's covenant; they knew when Israel had broken it. In covenant-breaking times, the prophets both reminded God's people of what God had done for them and alerted them to the consequences of remaining covenant breakers.

All of this leads to a simple question: Why is authentic prophecy such a seemingly rare commodity in current Baptist life? Some Baptists will tolerate just about anything: raw secularism, non-existent admission policies into church membership, and extreme violations of historic Baptist principles--just to name a few. Many preachers routinely refuse to address these issues.

My particular interest relates to violations of historic Baptist principles. Many Baptists have distorted certain teachings of Christ, pivotal points of scripture, historic ideals emerging from the history and theology of the larger Christian church, and cherished values emerging from the doctrines and heritage of Baptists. Examples of sheer abuse of Baptist principles include the rise of CEO pastors in churches, the suppression of women in ministry, creedalistic applications of confessions of faith, and the insistence that all Baptists conform to uniform views of scripture.

Reasons for an absence of the prophetic word range far and wide. Two will suffice. First, some preachers, writers, and other Baptist leaders lack biblical courage; they remain silent on prophetic issues to defend their jobs or to promote peace and unity around inconsequential values. Question: What good are peace and unity if constructed around compromised ideals?

Second, the prophetic word is rare because today's potential prophets do not know the history of Israel--or the history of Baptists. That makes it impossible for them to identify covenant-breaking happenings in the Baptist pilgrimage. Or they know some of the history but choose, for various reasons, to rewrite it for personal advantage, to sabotage it for institutional gain, or to pretend that it does not exist in order to protect a pet cause. Oddly, even some Baptist historians have afflicted history in one or more of these ways.

I am willing to stake my reputation as a Baptist historian/society administrator on the claim that Baptists do indeed stand at a crossroad. We will choose to be principled Baptists who will study the teachings of Christ, absorb the content of the Bible, read the documents reflecting the origins of Baptist life in the early 1600s, and reflect on the lives of such people as Amos, Jesus, Rauschenbusch, King, Carter, Blevins, Walker, Dunn, and Shurden. Or we will not. Those Baptists who do the former will run a risk: They may discover that they need to give higher priority to the prophetic impulse. Those who do the latter will simply perpetuate hollow (not hallowed) peace and unity.

Perhaps the most urgent need in Baptist life today is for new prophets to pronounce the word of the Lord. Baptist principles are at stake; which fork in the road will you and I take?

Charles W. Deweese

Executive Director-Treasurer

Baptist History and Heritage Society