Click for AUDIO; Click for PART 3, 1987-2004 at our church in Plano: A wish . . . and a prayer
1987-2004 at our church in Plano: Blank stares and deaf ears
For almost 17 years – from October 1987 to June 2004 – Joanna and I attended a church in Plano, where we lived, that was much more conservative than we were. Actually, we felt pretty comfortable when we first went there. However, over the years, we saw that church move ever more rightward – not just in terms of secular politics, but, most disturbingly, in terms of turning their backs on historic Baptist principles:
- Priesthood of all believers
- Soul competency/freedom
- Religious liberty for all people
- Separation of church and state
- Local church autonomy
Through those 17 years, I tried my best to educate people on those Baptist principles. In 1989, I taught a course on the 1963 Baptist Faith and Message. In Sunday School class discussions throughout those 17 years, when I felt the subject lent itself to it, I brought up those Baptist principles and their importance to our Christian witness, and how the Fundamentalist leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention were violating them.
Sadly, my comments continually fell on deaf ears, as evidenced by the blank stares I saw on people’s faces. They didn’t argue with me, they just ignored me and went on. Sunday School teachers would transition from my comment by either ignoring it and moving on, or – more typically – misinterpreting what I had just said, putting their own “spin” on it.
Through the 1990s, I followed the “Baptist battles” by reading the Texas Baptist Standard journal; Baptists Today, a newspaper published by moderate Baptists; Report from the Capital, published by the Baptist Joint Committee; Christian Ethics Today journal; Texas Baptists Committed Newsletter; and others. I followed and applauded the founding of Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) but didn’t get actively involved with it. I followed the battle for control of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) and attended one or two Texas Baptists Committed (TBC) events in my area, met David Currie, TBC executive director, once, but still didn’t get actively involved. Throughout that decade, I never attended the BGCT annual meeting or CBF general assembly.