View in Flickr (see it LARGE)
I am not exactly thrilled with this photo, but I have not had the opportunity to get out and shoot much lately! Hopefully that will change soon. 🙂
Last summer, I wrote an article called “The Uneasy Conscience of a Modern Southern Baptist” – a play off of Carl Henry’s book The Uneasy Conscience of Modern Fundamentalism. Henry wrote that book in 1947. Sixty years later, I find myself writing about him and his uneasy conscience. As I mentioned earlier, I was wrestling over what topic I was going to write on, either a historical survey of the relationship of evangelism and social reform from 1880-1980 or analyze Henry’s uneasy conscience and call for social consciousness. Well, I have decided to go with Henry for many reasons, not the least of which, as a Southern Baptist, his voice needs to be heard today.
His voice needs to be heard today because his critique of fundamentalism sixty years ago is as relevant as ever, seeing how the Southern Baptist Convention is bearing so many marks of fundamentalism. Elevating nonessentials to a matter of orthodoxy, splintering factionism, cultural retreat, etc., show me that Henry’s conscience would be as troubled as ever were he to see his Southern Baptist Convention in its current state.
As a young Southern Baptist minister, I am troubled as well. There is very little I find the SBC doing right and so much of what is going wrong. The hard truth to swallow is that the Conservative Resurgence has not done what we had hoped. Evangelism is down. Factions are up. We won the battle for the Bible, yet in so many ways we treat it like it is insufficient. Church planting and missions are up, but the IMB and NAMB are facing challenges as never before. And while we should be trying to get our people to articulate and demonstrate the gospel, we are making resolutions, writing op ed pieces, and marginalizing some SBC’s finest over the issue of alcohol.
I encourage you to take a closer look at the fundamentalist movement. History has a lot to teach us. I just hope we are teachable.
Have a great weekend!
tnb
Nice picture Tim!