Some Thoughts on “Conservative” | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I am spurred to give another look at the term, "CONSERVATIVE."

    This is a decidedly Conservative publication. Stan, does some good stuff with "Conservative" at the core. In fact, about 90% of all the articles come from "Conservative" publications and thinkers. I am far more Conservative than Liberal, if I tried to define myself. Yet Stan is doing his best to paint me as a Liberal. He has changed my sobriquet from "from the middle" to the current one. Frankly, I defy definition many times!

    I was subjected at Emory to a mind expansion from my simple small town southern rearing at the little crossroad town of Clarkston. In the early 50's when my parents moved from Spartanburg, SC, to Clarkston it was due to my Baptist Preacher father being called to the Clarkston Baptist Church. At the time, Clarkston was almost identical to Bath = a caution light / all 12 grades under one roof / the school looked identical to Bath School! We had about the same population as Bath. Now Clarkston is a international conglomeration of thousands from all over the world. The same school which graduated 63 in 1963 with me among them now graduates some 400 each year. All my classmates were white. Now no whites appear to live in Clarkston and those who do are certainly not "from the South." Atlanta is a mega city / Beaufort County is still mostly rural. I now hate to go to Greenville due to traffic and crowds. Give me the good old county, folks!!! In the country common sense and civility still exist.

    H.L. Menken defined Conservatives as "my contemporary ancestors." That is as accurate a description as I have ever read! In its core meaning "Conservative" should mean "saving something of value." I am having trouble with such being present with most "conservatives" I observe these days.

    My exposure to "CONSERVATIVE" began in the 70's as the "Conservative Resurgence" began with Southern Baptists. The media titled is "The Battle for the Bible." It took place as a few mega church fundamentalist pastors decided to take over and change the largest Protestant Denomination in America. Only Roman Catholics in America had more members (because they baptize every infant into their flock). If you are born and baptized Roman Catholic, you are counted. The Baptists are best defined as "anything opposite of Roman Catholic." I was reared in a time of "Baptists hate Catholics." We often said they were "idol worshipers" because of their praying to the Virgin Mary. We ignored the fact that most Baptists worship their church building and make their group into a "glorified social club"---where they multiplied by dividing.

    Prior to the 70's Southern Baptists were composed of any church which gave money to Missions. The annual meeting was the true SBC. For a week Messengers would gather in some large city and conduct the business of the SBC. It was a big bunch of Baptists and, as a child; I went to Miami once for a memorable meeting. From a child's perspective it was all crowds and confusion as business was conducted using Roberts Rules of Order as the guide for it. For me it was a grand trip down the Tamiami Trail from Atlanta to Miami. We got to see an alligator farm run by Seminole Indians, Silver Springs and its glass bottom boats, Stephen Foster Tower, hot sand and the ocean I had never before experienced. My father was fully aware of all the Annual Meeting details and introduced me as a child to leaders of our Home and Foreign Mission Boards. Men I had heard with names became real. The sermons were astounding with huge PA sounds and a massive worship area which otherwise served as the site of big business of Southern Baptists.

    I became a Southern Baptist Minister ordained by the First Baptist Church of Decatur, GA, and educated at the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary at Wake Forest. Already there were assumptions that Southeastern was a "liberal" seminary and New Orleans was a "conservative" one with several others in the picture. Southern Seminary at Louisville, KY, was the oldest institution for preacher education. At the last minute I got my church to recommend me to Southeastern in addition to Southern. In a few months, with my father's guidance, I decided Southeastern was best for me. I began my sojourn in theological education in the fall of 1967.

    What I found FOR MYSELF was that Southeastern was hardly "liberal." It was middle-of-the-road. A buddy from Orangeburg had transferred from Southern to Southeastern saying they were just too far away and somewhat stuffed-shirt for him. The terms "liberal and conservative" had little meaning at that time in Southern Baptist reality. Good theological education involves expansion of the mind and experience in the same way Emory had challenged me to think in bigger terms than my southern / high school / traditional small town ways.

    What I am trying to say is we use the terms LIBERAL or CONSERVATIVE in far too lose a fashion, BUT average folks in the south worship CONSERVATIVE as we Baptists did our church buildings (and organs and size). Just because a politician or preacher claims to be CONSERVATIVE actually means very little!

    The takeover of the SBC was a fake religious thing.

    It had far more to do with control and friends than with any theology. Where we had majored on MISSIONS and minored on THEOLOGY, now the theological split caused a great chasm to open. The real problem was over mega church fundamentalist preachers wanting to rule a formerly most democratic group. Where, in the past, a President of the SBC was an honor for dedicated church giving to missions and serious service to the denomination as well as excellent theology and preaching---now the position was becoming a political tool of control to change our Southern Baptist ways. We had grown by leaps and bounds as people moved to the South. The open and local church control ideal had allowed divergent people---all the way from pew jumping snake handlers in the mountains to the formal robed clergy with much liturgy in their service on the coast---to all work TOGETHER as long as you gave to missionaries!

    Politics now invaded a religious group as never before. It has always been there, but was overcome by a willingness to ignore theological differences and those of church practice in favor of TOGETHERNESS in mission giving. That was the basis of Baptists getting together in the beginning. Southern Baptists owned slaves / Northern Baptists were opposed to such and that split happened with the Civil War as a background. Since then, Southern Baptists had gotten along and were mostly in the South. Northern Baptists have been accused of "not being evangelical" as us soul-saving Southern folks. However, the real distinction went back to slavery in the late 1800's about 100 years before the current 1970's split over a pretense theology of "liberal" vs. "conservative."

    Now step back a minute and look at the political sphere and our current "Conservative vs. Liberal" distinction ---

    · IS IT OVER PHILOSOPHY OR HATE???

    · IS IT OVER PROGRESSION OR REGRESSION???

    It seems to me there is more confusion than common sense these days as there was at the juncture of the Civil War. Our Founding Fathers saw this same thing in the Old World from whence they came. They had a dream that many people could get along IF we voted instead of having a bloody battle over "who is in charge." If we debated and discussed and then voted --- and THEN the majority ruled, no more bloodshed would be required. If those who lost the vote went somewhere else if they could not agree and cooperate, then progress could be made! Constant fussing and fighting was a wasted outlook / finding a way for all to have joy and peace was far more preferable. . .

    The basic split in human spirit had more to do with growing numbers / growing differences of opinion / a need to resolve some basic issues. Go back another 100 years and we founded a nation with rebellion over "taxation without representation" by England over her Colonies. In fact in different parts of America the Spaniards lost their grip, the French lost theirs along with England losing its control over Colonies established in the New World!

    Human history tells us every 100 years or so we reach a crisis point in society!

    The biggest thing, in my view, happening today is not politics, but human nature. We are at the 100 year crossroad of conflict that seems to be an innate part of humanity!

    It is time for a series to follow concerning Greed / Commercials dictating candidates / What kind of choices we have coming our way in 2016. I shall try to interest and inspire you to think --- not as I do --- but to think for yourself about the political situation of today. . .