The Betrayal ... Of Southern Baptist Missionaries by Southern Baptist Leaders, 1979-2004.

The Betrayal ... Of Southern Baptist Missionaries by Southern Baptist Leaders, 1979-2004. By John W. Merritt. Published by the author, 2004, 215 pages.

John W. Merritt served as a Southern Baptist missionary for thirty-four years. His passion to serve and his commitment to Christ led him to write this disturbing book. The book is disturbing because it deals with one of the more unbelievable aspects of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention: the betrayal of its main focus, the missionaries.

The missionary enterprise has always been the SBC's cornerstone of operations. Merritt offered a brief overview of Southern Baptist history and missions to give context to his task. He stated that his main focus was "the rise of the fundamentalist movement in the SBC and the subsequent impact on Baptist mission work" (v). Merritt confessed his own naivete when he earlier had stated that he believed everyone elected to an office in the SBC had the Kingdom of God as their focus.

In subsequent chapters, Merritt discussed the impact of the takeover, the changes in Foreign and Home Mission Boards, the rise of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, and the (non) apology to the missionaries. Following these, Merritt's best chapter, "One Missionary's Journey," related his own story. He is the "everyman" missionary. Each missionary has a story and those stories deserve to be told, but, more, they should be heard. Lessons can be learned from such stories and experiences.

From there, Merritt moved to discussing his theology, as he understood it in relation to the mission field. And at this point, the book took a decidedly positive turn. Instead of wallowing in self-pity or crying in the wilderness, Merritt offered constructive ideas about how to move beyond the betrayal by the SBC to faith in God and how to continue the work of God despite the coercive use of power by some leaders.

Merritt's book is one missionary's story and is the vision of what could have been and might be. Missionaries make tremendous sacrifices and do work that most church members respect but would never contemplate doing, and, therefore, when they tell their stories, we should all take a moment and listen.--Reviewed by Marc A. Jolley, director, Mercer University Press, Macon, Georgia.

Editorial Note--John W. Merritt, general secretary emeritus of the International Baptist Convention, died on December 29, 2006.