What Happens when Obsessive Conservatives Win? | Eastern North Carolina Now

    I gave you a description of the Conservative Takeover of the largest and most democratic religious group in America--- the Southern Baptist Convention. That process coincided with the Reagan Administration. It was accompanied by Pat Robertson and Jerry Falwell forming the Moral Majority. It was the first formal co-mingling of politics and religion in my history.

    The Southern Baptist Convention was a coalition of Baptist churches bound together by only one real thing: GIVING TO MISSIONS. Even in their slave ownership aspect of formation, they gladly sent missionaries to darkest Africa to share the Gospel. China was another big focus as well as South America. It mattered not the color or previous affiliation, Southern Baptists wanted desperately to share the Gospel with every person on earth!

    The main scripture for such was Matthew 28: 19-20 (KJV). It states: "19 Go ye therefore, and teach all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father, and of the Son, and of the Holy Ghost: 20 Teaching them to observe all things whatsoever I have commanded you: and, lo, I am with you always, even unto the end of the world. Amen."

    I know and use Greek so here it is Nestle Text style:

    28:19 πορευθέντες "having-been-traversed-of" οὖν "accordingly" μαθητεύσατε "ye-should-have-learnered-of" πάντα "to-all" τὰ "to-the-ones" ἔθνη, "to-nations," βαπτίζοντες "immersing-to" αὐτοὺς "to-them" εἰς "into" τὸ "to-the-one" ὄνομα "to-a-name" τοῦ "of-the-one" πατρὸς "of-a-Father" καὶ "and" τοῦ "of-the-one" υἱοῦ "of-a-Son" καὶ "and" τοῦ "of-the-one" ἁγίου "of-hallow-belonged" πνευματος, "of-a-currenting-to,"

    28:20 διδάσκοντες "teaching" αὐτοὺς "to-them" τηρεῖν "to-keep-unto" πάντα "to-all" ὅσα "to-which-a-which" ἐνετειλάμην "I-finished-in" ὑμῖν: "unto-ye;" καὶ "and" ἰδοὺ "thou-should-have-had-seen," ἐγὼ "I" μεθ' "with" ὑμῶν "of-ye" εἰμὶ "I-be" πάσας "to-all" τὰς "to-the-ones" ἡμέρας "to-days" ἕως "unto-if-which" τῆς "of-the-one" συντελείας "of-a-finishing-together-of" τοῦ "of-the-one" αἰῶνος. "of-an-age."

    A "good old country boy" from Americus, GA, Clarence Jordan, was a Greek expert from Southern Seminary (Louisville, KY) who went back home to his native state. Had he been from Beaufort County he would have done it the same in the "Cotton Patch Gospel:"

    "As you travel, then make students of all races and initiate them into the family of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit. Teach them to live by all that I outlined for you, and you know I am right in there with you----all the time---until the last inning."

    As a Baptist Preacher's kid I always wondered about the "New Translations." The first major one was Revised Standard Version (RSV). In the late 50's we started to see Today's English Version (TEV). It is, in my view the best American English translation. On top of that were the Paraphrases like "The Living Bible. (TLB)" To the average pew-sitter in any church, most have no real clue as to the interesting story of how we got our Bible for today. They don't know the difference between "original manuscript / Nestle Text / Dead Sea Scrolls / translation / paraphrase --- and the many other special terms you discover while earning a Master of Divinity degree 1967-70 at Southeastern Seminary. The average curious person can watch great programs on the Discovery/Learning Channel to catch up and go deeper into translation.

    Into this confusion the Conservatives offered a "magic solution." They said: "The Bible must be Inerrant." That is the same as the Pope is "inerrant" for Roman Catholics or Mohamed or Osama ben Laden, or Ronald Reagan. Whether you use the term, your obedience and worship tells me who you think is "always right."

    Herein lays the problem of mid-1900's America. Education was far outpacing the ability of so many to take in the change. Add on top of that forced Integration and War on Poverty AND YOU HAVE A BIG CONFUSING MESS FOR MOST!

    Into this general confusion and an obsessive desire to know TRUTH, came great big Baptist Churches around the South. One of these had Dr. W. A. Criswell as pastor. He had followed Dr. George Truett, a real statesman and gentlemen. One of George Truett's strong points always was Separation of Church and State.

    According to Wally Amos Criswell, "God spoke to me in a dream that I should the successor of George Truett. Truett had been the President of the Baptist World Alliance, as only one of many positions. Criswell used all his energies to build a gigantic church in Dallas and could care less about anything else. His ego, in other words, knew no bounds.

    He was the "guru of big" along with a few others. When I graduated in 1970 from Southeastern Seminary in Wake Forest, he had put together "The School of the Prophets" at Dallas. For a fee you could go for a week and find out how he did it! Many of the ego-driven young ministers of my era went with a passion, sucked down every cup of Conservative water, did as told, and were growing big churches in growing southern towns.

    George Truett was fully schooled in Missions and Southern Baptists / Criswell was fully schooled in Wally Amos Criswell ruling his church with an iron fist and making sure bunches of people walked the aisle each Sunday. In fact, at the Friday Staff meeting each of the many staffers were required to have a report of how many from their ministry was going to walk. If you did not have your quota, you had 2 choices: Find another place to go come Monday / get your numbers up quickly! There was no mercy from Dr. Criswell or his equally pushy wife.

    The steps taken over 20 years I showed in my previous article bear repeating:

         1. Convince the naïve folks in Texas by going all over saying, "Baptist Seminary/college professors are corrupting students with "liberal teaching."

         2. Work like dogs for some 10 years prior to the takeover to change the faith statement of Southern Baptists from "All scripture is reliable "to "All scripture is Inerrant."

         3. Three main characters were at the core: Dr. W. A. Criswell, pastor of the largest church in the SBC at Dallas, TX / Paige Patterson, the underling who was President of Criswell Bible College / Paul Pressler, an Appellate Judge who was a prominent church member of the Mega Church. Patterson became President of Southeastern as but one of his prizes after a previous graduate, Dr. Randall Lolley was forced out.

         Private planning meetings at various US airports where some dozen Mega Church ultra-conservative Pastors met to formulate a serious and effective plan for the takeover.

         At the Presidential election time in Houston, TX --- where I was present to observe the plan in action --- some 20 minutes before the vote, church buses pulled up to the door and disgorged hundreds of people NOT dressed like the normal Messengers. They rushed through the registration lines and got ballots. Previously on that day, there was a total state of trust that Baptist churches would never violate the 10-messenger per church rule for voting in any convention. It happened so fast no one raised a single question! They left tossing unused ballot packets on the floor through the main exit in front of me. Hindsight is 20/20 ---a sneak attack was totally unanticipated that day.

         Adrian Rogers, a TENNESSEE mega church pastor, won by the vote between a mainline, mission-supporting large SBC church Pastor he ran against! He was always a member of the airport meeting gang.

         7. The President appoints the Committee on Committees which then submits those who serve on all the Boards and Agencies leading the SBC. They rotated every 3 years so it took 2 consecutive skewed-vote Presidential Elections to bring it off --- AND THEY DID IT --- to the most democratic organization in America of a religious nature!

    I repeat it as this article ends. It is more than important for any democratic process that people know the difference between Understanding and Manipulation. The Nazi Propaganda folks learned this secret and brought Germany into a demon of the early 1900's. They had no conscience as they took over Poland, France, Romania, and other places. Their war machine of the latest technology overran the Maginot Line and they marched straight to Paris. Soon people were playing Nazi to please the conquerors.

    The French Underground was another matter. They found out what was happening to Jews, Gypsies, mentally impaired, and gay citizens. They did not meet the Arian profile and were shot on the spot or sent to Work Camps to be starved and then cremated after being gassed to death.

    Next up: The Changes Conservatives made in the SBC
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