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The Attack
Georgia Editor is At It Again
In his June 24, 1999 editorial in the Christian Index, William Neal reflected on the Southern Baptist Convention’s annual meeting in Atlanta. He devoted the first half of the editorial to generalities and a wistful comment about how he hoped that some moderate Southern Baptist might be invited to speak someday. But it’s in the last half of the editorial that Bro. Neal let his animosity toward Calvinists show through.
In a rant on the subject of the re-study of the Baptist Faith and Message Statement. he revealed his true feelings.
Listen to some of his more revealing sentences and phrases.
"Baptist insiders greet that news with fear and trembling."
"What is the agenda here?"
"Are Baptist traditions and theology, as affirmed in the past, about to be changed?
"Frankly there is some fear of a more rigid Calvinist viewpoint being inserted…"
"It is reasonable to assume that this statement will be seen by many as supportive of Calvin’s doctrine of election."
"Our vast numbers, diversity, and independent spirit all contribute to further potential divisiveness…"
Well you get the idea.
The Defense
William Neal, editor of the Christian Index, the state paper of the Georgia Baptist Convention is at it again. In a recent editorial, June 24, 1999, he worries about the Baptist Faith and Message study approved by the 1999 Southern Baptist Convention opening the door for a more Calvinistic BF&M. "Frankly there is some fear of a more rigid Calvinist viewpoint being inserted into any new working of The Baptist Faith and Message Statement."
Editor Neal is showing his theological bias once again. With folks like him, the folks who fear Calvinism, it’s a matter of holding to the positions they learned in their educational process. Whatever their professors taught is what they believe regardless of whether it is historically correct or not. To deny the theological underpinings of the SBC as being Calvinistic is akin to the little boy at church camp who got a little confused theologically when his leader asked him the question – "What’s gray and furry and stores up nuts for the winter?" The little boy knowing he was at a church camp replied carefully – "It sounds like a squirrel but I know it must be Jesus."
How can thinking Southern Baptists look at the writings of the early leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention and say, "Well it sure looks and sounds like Calvinism but we know it really isn’t." ????
Wouldn’t that be a shame! Wouldn’t it be terrible if the SBC took a turn back toward the theological position of the founding fathers of the convention!
Personally I have no fears about the BF&M becoming more theologically Calvinistic. I’d much rather the BF&M reflected a theological position embraced by men such as James P. Boyce, Basil Manly, Sr., P.H. Mell, John A. Broadus, John L. Dagg and many others than hold to a position espoused by such characters as R. Kirby Godsey, the current president of Mercer University, a Georgia Baptist school. My soul! How can anybody take the Christian Index editor seriously when a Georgia Baptist school retains Godsey as president. I think the editor protests too loudly and too often about the "wolves" of Calvinism when the "foxes" of liberalism already have free run of the hen house.
For further proof that the foxes are already in the hen house and that John L. Dagg would turn over in his grave if he knew what had happened to his beloved Mercer University. Check it out for yourself.
When we talk about God, Let’s be Honest by R. Kirby Godsey
The SBC Calvinist