Click for AUDIO; Click for PART 4, 2000 at our church in Plano: Out of my comfort zone and into the fire
Link in this post: April 2005 update of Brent Walker’s 1995 “A Critique of David Barton’s Views on Church and State”
1987-2004 at our church in Plano: A wish . . . and a prayer
I remember sitting in that church, particularly in those Sunday School classes, where Joanna and I felt so out-of-sync with our friends and fellow classmates, and wishing that some of the moderate Baptist leaders I had been reading about, whom I had come to deeply respect, knew that I had something to contribute to the cause.
It wasn’t that I wanted renown; it was, rather, that I wanted to be involved, to have opportunities to DO SOMETHING with people I really respected for their commitment to Baptist principles and their integrity and courage in fighting for them. I wanted the opportunity to take part in the fight and help accomplish our good purposes.
All I remember is wishing that, over and over and over. I don’t remember specifically asking God for it. It was just a wish – one that felt far-fetched, far from ever being fulfilled. Through the years, however, it’s become obvious to me that God heard my wish as a prayer and granted it to me many times over, far beyond anything I could have ever imagined or wished. But I’ll get to that a little later.
Over the years at our church in Plano, several things occurred that signaled to me that it was on the road to fundamentalism. My sin was pride. I actually believed I could turn it around. There were numerous reasons Joanna and I stayed as long as we did. One, our kids were growing up there. Parents are reluctant to take their kids away from their friends. Two, I was very involved in the music ministry, singing in the choir and – beginning in 1995 – directing, AND singing in, a mixed choral ensemble that I had formed in collaboration with a friend. Three, Joanna and I had friends there whom we didn’t want to leave. Four, we weren’t aware that there were any churches in the area where we would feel more comfortable. We simply didn’t know of any “moderate” Baptist churches in the area. So we stayed.
In the spring of 1989, there was an organized movement against the pastor. It was, to quote Yogi Berra, deja vu all over again. We had been through this kind of thing at our church in Littleton, CO, in 1986. In both instances, Joanna and I supported the pastor and opposed the movement organized to oust him. There was a called church meeting – as there had been at our church in Littleton – at which people had the opportunity to air their grievances. Just as we had experienced in Littleton 3 years earlier, all of the grievances were petty ones, not rising to the level – in our opinion – that would justify removal of the pastor. Following the meeting, a vote was taken. I don’t remember the exact percentages, but a majority backed the pastor. However, it wasn’t an overwhelming majority by any means, and the pastor – unlike our pastor in Littleton, who decided to stay – chose to resign. I felt honored when he called on me to pray during his final Sunday morning worship service.
In November, a prospective pastor visited in view of call. A Q&A session was held in Fellowship Hall. Keep in mind that there was still an annual battle for the SBC presidency, though June 1990 would turn out to be the last battle in that war, as fundamentalists declared victory and moderates prepared to leave the SBC. In November 1989, however, the war was still raging. The first question posed to the prospective pastor was, “What is your position on the SBC controversy?” His response was encouraging to Joanna and me: “I consider myself theologically conservative. However, I usually vote for the moderate candidate for SBC president, because moderate pastors tend to be better convention men, leading their churches to give more to the Cooperative Program.” I thought, hmmm, this guy’s all right, and I voted to call him. I assume that Joanna did, too.
Then came the red flags presaging a turn toward fundamentalism:
- 1992
- The elder George Bush was running for reelection against Bill Clinton and Ross Perot. In a Sunday morning sermon, the pastor shared that he had recently received a phone call. When his secretary told him that Adrian Rogers was holding for him, he told her, “Oh, put him on!” He was practically drooling as he related this little tidbit. BIG RED FLAG! In 1979, Adrian Rogers had been the first SBC president elected from the fundamentalist faction. It turned out that he wasn’t alone. This was a conference call that included some of the biggest names of that same faction – Paige Patterson, Jimmy Draper, Charles Stanley, and others. The pastor excitedly told the congregation that this group had called to ask him to help arrange a campaign appearance, in Dallas, by George Bush. His response? He was only too happy to comply. What had he just done? He had endorsed a partisan political candidate from the pulpit during a Sunday morning “sermon.” He had seen the way the wind was blowing at that church and decided to join the parade. On that Sunday morning, God’s house had become Bush’s house.
- 1995
- A Sunday evening worship service consisted of only a video, titled “America’s Godly Heritage,” in which a Baptist preacher named David Barton, self-proclaimed “historian” and leader of a group called “Wallbuilders,” presented his version of America’s founding. He claimed that the Founding Fathers had intended that (1) America be a “Christian nation”; (2) biblical Christian principles rule our government; and (3) only Christians be in leadership positions. One after another, he made claims that I knew to be false, historical references that I knew to be either false or twisted beyond any relation to the truth. Afterwards, I walked out so angry that I couldn’t even talk to anyone, walked straight to my car and drove home. Joanna, blessedly, had stayed home that evening. There was no need in both of us raising our blood pressure! Sad to say, most people in that church loved that video and swallowed Barton’s lies whole.
- The next day, I called the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (now the Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty, or BJC) in Washington, DC, to ask whether they had a response to Barton’s video. Sure enough, they had already prepared a point-by-point critique in which they refuted every claim Barton made, and they mailed it to me. However, I don’t recall making it available at the church. By then I had a pretty clear notion that no one would pay attention to it; it wouldn’t do any good. About 10 years later, I met Brent Walker, by then executive director of BJC, when he spoke at a TBC meeting. I told him about this situation and my call to BJC. He told me that, as BJC general counsel at the time, he had written the critique of Barton’s video.
- Around this time, I called my sister’s husband, Palmer McCown. Palmer was Baptist Student Minister at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and was well-connected in Texas Baptist life – knew churches and pastors throughout Texas. I asked Palmer whether he knew of any moderate Baptist churches in the Dallas area. He suggested I call his friend, Phil Strickland, director of the Christian Life Commission of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and ask him that question. So I did. Phil told me about his home church, Wilshire Baptist in Dallas. I should have checked it out. Was God acting through Palmer and Phil, handing me an opportunity for Joanna and me to go to a church where our stagnant faith could start growing again? I have to wonder. I guess, though, that I was still holding onto the same excuses that had kept us at that church for eight years at that point. After all, with two growing kids, it would have been hard to drive a half-hour or more to Dallas every Sunday for church. Nevertheless, it will always be one of my great regrets that I didn’t at least talk it over with Joanna and give Wilshire a “look-see” at that time.