My Last Week as a Southern Baptist?

I might not consider myself a Southern Baptist after this week’s convention in Houston.  I really don’t like having a denominational title anyway, but this week might be the proverbial straw that breaks the camel’s back. 

You might presume that I am sick and tired of the hyper-Calvinists who are running the SBC.  Nope.  I stand with both feet on the Reformed side of that argument.  (Except I won’t argue.  Just like I won’t argue about how the Trinity works.  Some things are for me to “see through a glass dimly” now and to look forward to full knowledge when I sit at the Lord’s feet for eternity. )  My issue is with the leadership of the SBC who have misused their pulpits.  One even called for all parents to “pull their children out of Boys Scouts.” (Ernest Easley, in Baptist Press.) 

Let me first say this:  I wholeheartedly opposed the Boy Scouts of America’s change in their membership policy.  I was praying that the vote would go the other way.  But it didn’t.  However, as soon as the results were announced, I began to see the issue in a completely different light.  Not because the Boy Scouts changed, but because the Church did.  God’s people were going crazy…knee-jerk reactions with all sorts of predictions about what will happen in the future…doom and gloom about the moral decline of our nation because one group said that "membership could not be denied on the basis of sexual orientation alone."

Do we really have that little faith in the sovereign God of the universe?  Do we really think that He is not in control of these things?  Nothing that the Boy Scouts of America does will cause the demise of the Church.  Christ said that “the gates of hell shall not prevail against it.” (Matthew 16:18)  Do we believe our Savior or not?  (See, I told you I was reformed.)

In his message from the pulpit, Easley, chairman of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee & senior pastor of Roswell Street Baptist Church, said that his church is "…not going to put our arms around organizations that openly oppose the moral guidelines taught in God's Word."  First of all, that isn’t what the membership policy does.  The BSA is not advocating the rightness or wrongness of homosexuality.  The membership policy specifically states that “Any sexual conduct, whether homosexual or heterosexual, by youth of Scouting age is contrary to the virtues of Scouting.”  (Click here for specifics of membership policy.) You have scouting.  You have sexuality.  Those two things are not overlapping.  At all.  Keep them separate.  While involved in BSA actitivies, there should be no discussion of a sexual nature.  None.  This isn’t the time to discuss the “hotness” of your girlfriend.  Take up the cell phones, scoutmasters.  If anything, I believe this will make the adult leaders in our area more vigilant about developing character and leadership qualities in boys and keeping the inappropriate topics out.

Secondly, does the pastor instruct the parents in his congregation to keep their children out of team sports?  Does he instruct them to “pull their children out” of all public and private schools?  Does he stand at the door of the youth group at his church and ask each and every child about their sexual orientation?  Surely not.  As Christians, we cannot live in our segregated Christian bubble.  We are then just weird to the world and ineffective for the Kingdom.  We are to be the hands and feet of Christ.  Not because He needs us, but because he has put us here “for such a time as this.” 

As to the SBC leaders’ arguments about protecting our children…I have watched the BSA training video about recognizing abuse.  I assure you that the church would be better off if adult leaders were required to undergo similar training.  I have had family members involved in three different Boy Scout troops with no charges of sexual abuse.  I have been a member of four different Southern Baptist Churches in my life…three of which have had staff members embroiled in sexual scandals.  Please, please, please do not embarrass our convention any further by going around the country using this as an argument to disassociate from the BSA, especially with all of the current SGM controversy. 

Furthermore, the Boy Scouts of America develops character and leadership qualities.  End of discussion.  Scouts are leaders…astronauts, congressmen, governors…after all, 16.3% of West Point Cadets are Eagle Scouts with over 50% involved in scouting to some degree!  SBC Executive Committee President Frank Page said that “To claim that the Boys Scouts is the nation's foremost youth program of character development and values-based leadership training suddenly rings hollow."  Why??  61% of the voting delegates said that all boys are better off involved scouts than not.  Young men who are homosexual are not necessarily lacking in leadership qualities or in character.  Give me a break.  Even my fundamental, Southern Baptist upbringing recognizes the flaws in that line of thinking. 

Lastly, let me speak to my fellow parents:  if you think that you can shelter your child from the knowledge of homosexuality, you are living in a fairy tale.  And it is a dangerous one.  If you are upset because scouting was the “last bastion of wholesomeness”, then you should be ashamed.  There is nothing righteous outside of Christ.  It is our responsibility to train our children in the truth of Scripture.  We cannot abdicate that responsibility…not to the church, not to schools, not to scouts, not to sports.  We are to use all of these venues to bring us to teachable moments with our children where we open Scripture, pray and communicate with them.  Truth hasn’t changed.  But times have changed.  We do not have the luxury of keeping our children “innocent”.  I assure you that if we think we do, then we will look back in horror and wish we had addressed hard issues with them earlier. 

I do agree with Pastor Easley when he said, “for us not to do everything we can to protect [our children], shame on us."  Unfortunately, he was referring to isolating them from the Boy Scouts of America, as if the scouts were the enemy.  However, our battle is not with flesh and blood, with institutions of this world or of this nation.  My job is to teach my children to "be self-controlled and alert” (1 Peter 5:8a) so that they can fight the real fight against their real enemy.  I pray that this week the leaders of the Southern Baptist Convention will fight the real fight.  Be a Great Commission people.  Be Gospel-minded, Christ-centered, Cross-focused.  Don't lose the fight because you are focusing on the enemy.  Focus on the King who is leading you into battle.