Sometime after 1975, Southern Baptists turned their back on Rosalynn Carter and her husband Jimmy. They opted instead for Ronald Reagan and his famous (second) wife, Nancy. That move from Georgia farm boy and his hometown wife marked the beginning of the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rosalynn and Jimmy were, by all accounts, everything I was ever taught to be in my Baptist churches growing up. They attended Sunday School and even carried a Bible; they looked after the needy and less fortunate; they showed up for the preaching, as we called worship in those days; they tithed their income, testified to their love for Jesus, and embraced a humble disposition about all things great and small. They were what our pastors, teachers, and parents wanted us to be, growing up in a Baptist church in the South.
But Southern Baptists, beginning at the top, dumped Rosalynn and Jimmy. Their success in sending them packing (out of the White House) strengthened their resolve to do the same to their own denominational house. A few years later, they started the process of dumping thousands of scholars, pastors, missionaries, and administrators from their own payrolls. The year was 1979, and I was a ministerial student at one of their seminaries, writing a dissertation on the inerrancy of scripture.
Inerrancy was the public issue that galvanized them. Anything they disliked, like racial integration and female ordination, was castigated as a repudiation of Holy Scripture and thus a denial of its inerrancy. It was a smoke screen then and now, and most of us understood that from the start.
First, they seized control of the Southern Baptist Convention by annually electing presidents that would support their church politics. It took them 13 years of blood, sweat, and lies; but it worked. Along the way, some congregations pulled out and formed the Alliance of Baptists; that was 1987. Four years later, others left to form the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Both have remained small but vibrant; both were early signals of so much more than would be cut loose from the Convention as it careened further and further to the Right.
Once in control, these Carter-hating, Reagan-loving Baptists began to jettison one thing after another. In 1997, they shut down the Stewardship Commission, Historical Commission, and Education Commission. In 2003, they closed their American Television System and two years later did the same to their radio network.
In 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention pulled out of the Baptist World Alliance. And in 2006, a precipitous decline in membership began. Over the next 16 years, according to their own numbers, more than three million people departed the denomination: or 451 people every day for sixteen years!
In 2013, they sold the western conference center, called Glorieta. In 2015, they sold their fifteen-acre operational campus in downtown Nashville. In 2019, they closed all 170 of their bookstores, scattered around the country. In 2020, they sold the eastern conference center, called Ridgecrest, a place that played a central role in my spiritual and ministerial formation. In 2021, they sold their brand-new building, built on the outskirts of Nashville; with all the layoffs, there was simply no need for even the stripped-down administrative space the building provided.
This year, at their annual convention, they cut their ties with Saddleback Church in California. Why? The congregation had finally ordained three women who had served on the ministerial staff for decades. That church, and their famous pastor Rick Warren, was the most influential Baptist congregation in America (and perhaps the entire world). But their success was not enough to please the right-wing boys who are running the Southern Baptist Convention.
Along the way, the Convention has had to respond to a tsunami of testimonies of sexual abuse among their clergy. The #MeToo movement had its moment among the brethren, but that attention has ignited its own pushback, and now in courts state and federal Southern Baptists are pushing back against any responsibility for any bad thing that has ever happened to their women.
Right now, this very year, the Southern Baptist Convention is caught up in a bitter internal struggle for control, a replaying of the drama of my student days. Much of the energy for this feud is tied to the MAGA movement of Donald J. Trump.
Which brings me to this sad summary: the greatest mystery of my 73 years of life is how Southern Baptists gave up the service and spirituality of Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter in favor of the sin and selfishness of Donald J. Trump. But that is where they are, that is where they are going, and that is surely the sign of a sick and depraved religious system. No wonder people are fleeing by the millions!
The celebration of the life and influence of Rosalynn Smith Carter this week reminded me of why I left the Southern Baptist denomination and why I am so glad I did. At the same time, I recognize that there are thousands, perhaps millions of people still associated with the Southern Baptist Convention that are faithful followers of Jesus, even many who are embarrassed by the behavior of their leaders and the policies of their agencies. Nevertheless …
Sometime after 1975, Southern Baptists turned their back on Rosalynn Carter and her husband Jimmy. They opted instead for Ronald Reagan and his famous (second) wife, Nancy. That move from Georgia farm boy and his hometown wife marked the beginning of the transformation of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Rosalynn and Jimmy were, by all accounts, everything I was ever taught to be in my Baptist churches growing up. They attended Sunday School and even carried a Bible; they looked after the needy and less fortunate; they showed up for the preaching, as we called worship in those days; they tithed their income, testified to their love for Jesus, and embraced a humble disposition about all things great and small. They were what our pastors, teachers, and parents wanted us to be, growing up in a Baptist church in the South.
But Southern Baptists, beginning at the top, dumped Rosalynn and Jimmy. Their success in sending them packing (out of the White House) strengthened their resolve to do the same to their own denominational house. A few years later, they started the process of dumping thousands of scholars, pastors, missionaries, and administrators from their own payrolls. The year was 1979, and I was a ministerial student at one of their seminaries, writing a dissertation on the inerrancy of scripture.
Inerrancy was the public issue that galvanized them. Anything they disliked, like racial integration and female ordination, was castigated as a repudiation of Holy Scripture and thus a denial of its inerrancy. It was a smoke screen then and now, and most of us understood that from the start.
First, they seized control of the Southern Baptist Convention by annually electing presidents that would support their church politics. It took them 13 years of blood, sweat, and lies; but it worked. Along the way, some congregations pulled out and formed the Alliance of Baptists; that was 1987. Four years later, others left to form the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Both have remained small but vibrant; both were early signals of so much more than would be cut loose from the Convention as it careened further and further to the Right.
Once in control, these Carter-hating, Reagan-loving Baptists began to jettison one thing after another. In 1997, they shut down the Stewardship Commission, Historical Commission, and Education Commission. In 2003, they closed their American Television System and two years later did the same to their radio network.
In 2004, the Southern Baptist Convention pulled out of the Baptist World Alliance. And in 2006, a precipitous decline in membership began. Over the next 16 years, according to their own numbers, more than three million people departed the denomination: or 451 people every day for sixteen years!
In 2013, they sold the western conference center, called Glorieta. In 2015, they sold their fifteen-acre operational campus in downtown Nashville. In 2019, they closed all 170 of their bookstores, scattered around the country. In 2020, they sold the eastern conference center, called Ridgecrest, a place that played a central role in my spiritual and ministerial formation. In 2021, they sold their brand-new building, built on the outskirts of Nashville; with all the layoffs, there was simply no need for even the stripped-down administrative space the building provided.
This year, at their annual convention, they cut their ties with Saddleback Church in California. Why? The congregation had finally ordained three women who had served on the ministerial staff for decades. That church, and their famous pastor Rick Warren, was the most influential Baptist congregation in America (and perhaps the entire world). But their success was not enough to please the right-wing boys who are running the Southern Baptist Convention.
Along the way, the Convention has had to respond to a tsunami of testimonies of sexual abuse among their clergy. The #MeToo movement had its moment among the brethren, but that attention has ignited its own pushback, and now in courts state and federal Southern Baptists are pushing back against any responsibility for any bad thing that has ever happened to their women.
Right now, this very year, the Southern Baptist Convention is caught up in a bitter internal struggle for control, a replaying of the drama of my student days. Much of the energy for this feud is tied to the MAGA movement of Donald J. Trump.
Which brings me to this sad summary: the greatest mystery of my 73 years of life is how Southern Baptists gave up the service and spirituality of Rosalynn and Jimmy Carter in favor of the sin and selfishness of Donald J. Trump. But that is where they are, that is where they are going, and that is surely the sign of a sick and depraved religious system. No wonder people are fleeing by the millions!
The celebration of the life and influence of Rosalynn Smith Carter this week reminded me of why I left the Southern Baptist denomination and why I am so glad I did. At the same time, I recognize that there are thousands, perhaps millions of people still associated with the Southern Baptist Convention that are faithful followers of Jesus, even many who are embarrassed by the behavior of their leaders and the policies of their agencies. Nevertheless …
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