Who Are the True ? The Conservative Resurgence and the Infl uence of Moderate Views of Baptist Identity1 Gregory A. Wills

Gregory A. Wills is Professor of In the inerrancy controversy that shook true Baptists did not exclude their fellow History and Director of the the Southern Baptist Convention begin- Baptists for divergent views of what the Center for the Study of the Southern ning in 1979, Southern Baptists divided Bible taught. The denomination should Baptist Convention at The Southern over what it meant to be a Baptist. When not require seminary professors to believe Baptist Theological Seminary. He is the Southern Baptist leaders polarized amid some prescribed set of dogmas in order to author of the highly acclaimed Demo- the conservative effort to make belief in serve the denomination, for that would cratic Religion: Freedom, Authority and inerrancy a condition of denominational infringe their freedom. When conserva- Church Discipline in the Baptist South, service, their posture toward the inerrancy tives argued that seminary professors 1785-1900 (Oxford University Press, initiative derived in large measure from must be committed to scripture truth, 1997). their understanding of Baptist identity. moderates effectively asked, “What is Conservatives believed that moderates truth?” Truth, they held, was a matter had departed from the Baptist tradition of individual interpretation. To exclude and moderates felt the same way about professors for divergent interpretations conservatives. Each party in the confl ict sincerely held would be un-Baptistic. The claimed to be true Baptists and claimed true Baptist tradition, moderates said, the imprimatur of Baptist tradition. upheld individual freedom as the central Conservatives believed that the true Baptist commitment. Baptist tradition consisted in maintaining Conservatives and moderates thus faith and practice. They responded differently to the question of felt that they were responsible therefore the legitimacy of liberal professors based to exclude false teaching. Those teachers on sharply different views of what it and denominational leaders who held meant to be a Baptist. But their views of liberal doctrines departed from New Baptist identity had broader ramifi cations. Testament faith and practice. By their It undergirded their responses to other departure from the Baptist tradition they issues of controversy in the denomina- betrayed the trust of the denomination tion, from the ordination of women as and relinquished their claim to their pastors to affiliation with the Baptist position. Sincere commitment to the tradi- World Alliance. It informed their views tional Baptist understanding of scriptural of the church, of the faith, and of denomi- teaching, conservatives insisted, should nationalism. be a condition of service in positions of Conservatives held that being Baptist denominational service. meant commitment to right doctrine and Moderates held, on the contrary, that scriptural church order as the basis of 18 denominational unity, Baptist identity, pointedly, conservatives insisted that pro- and cooperative endeavors. They held fessors in Baptist colleges and seminaries that adherence to scriptural faith and should believe and teach in accordance practice was a condition of fellowship and with the views of Bible truth held by the denominational leadership. Conservatives churches. Conservatives held that many held that this was at the center of Baptist professors held liberal or neo-orthodox identity. It served as a fundamental pre- views, starting from a rejection of iner- supposition of the conservative position. rancy and culminating in such errors Moderate leaders argued on the con- as the denial of the deity of Christ, the trary that the Baptist tradition consisted rejection of his substitutionary atonement, in individual freedom. They expressed or opposition to salvation exclusively it variously as commitment to soul com- through faith in Christ. petence, religious freedom, liberty of Moderates responded in two ways. conscience, the priesthood of the believer, They first denied that there were any regenerate church membership, and no liberals teaching in the seminaries. In creed but the Bible. But at the bottom of one of the most remarkable statements each of these expressions, as moderate by a moderate leader, Roy Honeycutt, leaders explained it, was commitment to the president of The Southern Baptist the sanctity of individual freedom. This Theological Seminary, stated in his 1984 was a legacy of liberalism or modernism. convocation address that “one would be at Modernism sought to adapt Christian- a loss to discover a classical liberal among ity to Darwinism and the naturalistic Southern Baptists, whether in the pulpit historical criticism of the Bible. Since or classroom, college or seminary.” The the adaptation would require substan- professors were committed to the church tial redefi nition of traditional Christian and held the Bible in esteem, moderates beliefs, modernists argued for a view of argued, and therefore were not liberals. true that included toleration Conservative leaders found the denials of divergent interpretations of scripture. implausible. Although most professors They placed the meaning of Christianity were careful to keep their errors hidden in some non-doctrinal essence and went from view, conservatives readily identi- about adjusting traditional doctrines to fied a number of liberals in the class- the new knowledge. Modernist Baptists rooms. And many rank-and-fi le Southern developed their view of Baptist identity Baptists did not fi nd Honeycutt’s denials as part of this development. credible either. Many Baptists had sat in During the inerrancy controversy, classrooms with these professors and had moderates bristled at the conservatives’ heard the liberal teaching fi rst hand.2 premise that authentic Baptist identity Moderates argued second that even included commitment to historic Baptist if there were liberal professors, it was orthodoxy. Conservatives promoted com- un-Baptistic to deprive them of their mitment to inerrancy and the utility of positions on account of their beliefs. confessions because they believed that Roy Honeycutt explained the moderate scriptural faith and practice formed the view of true Baptist identity in the 1984 basis for denominational cooperation convocation address in which he called and the boundaries of fellowship. Most moderates to wage “holy war” against the 19 conservatives. He explained that authen- naries, many Baptists voiced objections. tic Baptists would not exclude any person Even before the Second World War many of good will. (Since conservatives wanted Southern Baptist colleges experienced to exclude sincere Baptists based on controversy over professors suspected doctrine, they were not persons of good of modernism, some of whom they dis- will.) The Baptist tradition stood on one missed after pastors and lay members conviction above all others: the individual demanded their removal. W. L. Poteat, is free. And commitment to individual president of Wake Forest College and the freedom meant “commitment to authentic most prominent liberal among Southern pluralism.” Honeycutt concluded then Baptists, overcame two efforts to oust him. that “God calls us to exclude no one, but to Others similarly survived the campaigns include everyone” committed to coopera- against them. Baylor, Furman, William tive missions. This pluralism, he claimed, Jewell, Mercer, Limestone all dismissed was the basis of Baptist identity and “has professors, as did the New Orleans Bap- characterized our denomination during tist Bible Institute (now the New Orleans its entire history.”3 Baptist Theological Seminary).5 In fact, neither progressive nor tradi- The progressive trend continued after tional Baptists had ever practiced that the war. By the 1950s most Southern kind of inclusion. In the twentieth cen- Baptists were convinced of the spread of tury progressive Southern Baptist lead- liberalism in the colleges and seminar- ers aspired to wide inclusion, but even ies and became increasingly vocal when the most progressive denominational denominational leaders responded to seminaries and colleges operated within their demands for the expulsion of liberal their own theological boundaries. They professors with denials and temporiz- did not welcome inerrantists and at times ing. In 1960 Southern Baptist Convention dismissed progressives, however reluc- president Ramsey Pollard represented tantly. And before the twentieth century the views of most Baptists when from Southern Baptists generally maintained the platform of the annual meeting he defi nite boundaries of faith and practice insisted that the denomination’s colleges in their institutions at various levels of and seminaries should purge themselves denominational life. Baptist churches of all liberal professors. Herschel Hobbs, practiced a regular church discipline who succeeded Pollard as convention that expelled unrepentant members president, felt assured that the “vast who embraced fundamental doctrinal majority” of Southern Baptists supported errors. Baptist associations similarly Pollard’s demand. Hobbs spoke for them expelled from fellowship any churches when he stated that “any man who aspires that departed from scriptural faith and to teach either in our Christian colleges practice. This traditional commitment to or seminaries should either stay within truth endured in the twentieth century the ‘pasture’ of what Southern Baptist[s] as Southern Baptists opposed moderate believe and teach or else he should hire leaders who tolerated the spread of error his own hall. I am not for furnishing him in their denominational schools.4 a place to spout out his own views.”6 When progressive theology spread on Southern Baptists did everything they the faculties of Baptist colleges and semi- knew to do to persuade denominational 20 leaders to exclude such professors. Some- progressive Baptist leaders urged this times they succeeded. The trustees of view increasingly. Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary fi red Ralph Elliott from his position as Baptist Identity before the professor of Old Testament in 1962 after Twentieth Century Elliott’s Message of Genesis ignited one For most Baptists prior to the twen- of the most heated controversies in the tieth century, Baptist identity derived history of the Southern Baptist Conven- almost entirely from the shared belief tion. Other professors came under fi re and practice of their churches. Eighteenth in subsequent years and a few lost their and nineteenth century Baptists held positions.7 that their common theology and church Liberalism persisted nevertheless. polity made their churches Baptist. They Most Southern Baptists found the situ- expressed this in a number of ways. ation reprehensible and felt betrayed by In the first place, long before they denominational leaders who did not act formed any denomination-wide organi- to oppose liberalism except when the zations, Baptists recognized that their constituency compelled them. Rank-and- churches formed a single fellowship fi le Southern Baptists agreed with con- united by their commitment to a common servative leaders that orthodox faith and understanding of New Testament faith practice should be prerequisite to service and practice. John Asplund, who traveled as a denominational offi cer, missionary, the nation gathering Baptist statistics or professor. in the 1790s, wrote that in order to be Throughout their history Southern qualifi ed to administer a minister Baptists have insisted that scriptural faith “must have been baptized by a qualifi ed and practice formed the basis of their minister of our denomination” (italics unity and identity. The shared commit- mine). Thus before there was a Coopera- ment to that faith and practice also estab- tive Program, before there were mission lished boundaries of fellowship. Those boards, before there were any conventions who taught error departed from authentic at all, Baptists held that their churches Baptist identity and had no right to teach constituted one denomination.8 in the denomination’s schools or hold The chief institutional expression of positions of denominational service. their denominational unity was their In the twentieth century the moder- membership in the local association. The ate view of Baptist identity coexisted association required agreement in faith with this conservative view. Theological and practice as a condition of membership progressives dominated denominational and enforced denominational boundaries leadership in the twentieth century and based on that agreement. Associational they promoted the notion that being membership was an essential part of Baptist meant freedom. But the moderate Southern Baptist identity. version of Baptist tradition was essentially Indeed, long after Baptists in the South an invention of the twentieth century. organized the Southern Baptist Conven- Before the twentieth century, few Baptists tion, large numbers of churches did not urged that freedom was the essence of participate in the convention or contribute the Baptist tradition. But after about 1900, to convention agencies, but they were still 21 Southern Baptist churches. In 1882, for Presbyterians and Roman Catholics. But example, 55 percent of Virginia’s Southern the many , Leland said, Baptist churches gave nothing to any of were “united in their sentiments,” for they the denomination’s boards. But Virginia interpreted the New Testament the same was a picture of cooperative participa- way. This union of faith and practice was tion compared with much of the South. the basis for the “free correspondence and In 1903 the editor of Missouri’s Central communion” that circulated among them. Baptist estimated that less than one-third They were one denomination united by of Southern Baptist churches contributed their common faith and practice.10 to the mission boards. But they were T. P. Tustin, editor of South Carolina’s Southern Baptist churches nevertheless. Southern Baptist, argued similarly in 1856 They maintained the same faith and that orthodox Baptists had no fellowship practice, and expressed it in associational with other groups just because they had fellowship.9 a Baptist label. Although Primitive Bap- This sense of denominational identity tists, Advent Baptists, and Mennonites appeared in other ways. When Baptists practiced believer’s baptism, Tustin wrote, discussed religious groups, they identi- they embraced errors in other important fied them by their faith and practice. areas. Regular Baptists could not therefore Many groups were Baptist in the sense hold them in fellowship. There could be no of practicing believer’s baptism, but they denominational identity with them.11 did not all belong to the orthodox or But the and Regular regular Baptist denomination. The main Baptists in the South pursued a different body of Baptists in the United States did course. They relinquished their separate not recognize the , identities because they believed the same , Free Will Baptists, Tunk- things in all essential areas. And by 1801 ers, Mennonites, and Brethren, as having they declared their mutual fellowship authentic Baptist identity. They did not and identity throughout the South. When hold fellowship with them because they and Daniel Marshall began differed in signifi cant ways from the faith establishing Separate Baptist churches and practice of the regular Baptists. throughout the South in the eighteenth Thus John Leland, the revered Baptist century, they differed in some ways evangelist and defender of religious free- from the Regular Baptist churches that dom, declared in 1790 that the Tunkers already occupied the South. The Separates and Mennonites, although they practiced had withdrawn from the legally estab- believer’s baptism, were distinct sects lished churches of New England and from the Baptists. He held that the Ana- had become Baptists. Their heritage was baptists generally were not orthodox or distinct from that of the Regular Baptists. regular Baptists. The practice of immer- But when preachers of the two movements sion was one essential of Baptist identity. met, they recognized one another as hold- The Anabaptists practiced baptism by ing the same interpretation of New Testa- pouring. They differed at other impor- ment faith and practice. They were agreed tant points also. They were not Baptists. in all essentials and should constitute Leland concluded fi nally that Baptists one denomination. Separate Baptist John and Anabaptists were as different as Taylor, whose preaching ignited revival 22 in Kentucky, united in fellowship with among Baptists in the late nineteenth Regular Baptist preachers because, he century, most Baptists asserted that those said, “we found no difference as to doc- who embraced modernist beliefs were trinal opinions.” They worked out their no longer legitimate Baptists. When J. E. minor differences, dropped their different Roberts, pastor of Kansas City, Missouri, names, and formally declared their union First Baptist Church, for example, began based on a common confession of faith preaching modernist views in the 1880s, and practice.12 even Virginia’s Religious Herald, which Baptist churches expressed their com- at times gave progressive Baptists space mitment to unity of faith and practice in its columns, declared that he was as the source of Baptist identity also by no longer a Baptist. The editors spoke insisting that those who departed from for the denomination: “Baptists rather Baptist doctrine disqualifi ed themselves stoutly insist that those who wear the as Baptists and could no longer remain Baptist name shall maintain the Baptist members in their churches. Baptist doctrines.”15 churches sought to correct and reclaim In the twentieth century likewise, a those who strayed, but they excluded from majority of Baptists insisted repeatedly fellowship those who refused to repent. that the rejection of certain doctrines was Baptist churches excluded members a rejection of Baptist identity. James B. who embraced doctrinal or ecclesiastical Gambrell, who with E. Y. Mullins was the aberrations of all sorts: Deists, annihila- most infl uential leader of his era, taught tionists, universalists, unitarians, certain that Baptist identity derived from unity Arminians, open communionists, and the of faith and practice. Denominationalism, like. Persons excluded from the church he said, represented the fellowship that were no longer true Baptists.13 existed “among churches of the same faith The motto for Baptist identity came and order, leading to cooperation in build- from Amos 3:3: “Can two walk together ing up interests common to all.” As long except they be agreed?” Since Baptist as Baptists agreed on matters of faith and identity was rooted in believing and prac- practice, Missouri editor J. C. Armstrong ticing the same things, Baptist churches wrote in 1903, there was little danger of held that members who introduced false a division of fellowship. He held that doctrine divided the denomination and the denomination’s Baptist identity was relinquished any valid claim to being Bap- remarkably strong because “in the main, tist. Baptist churches expelled them from there is perfect uniformity in doctrine and membership as schismatics and errorists. practice among the churches.”16 Texas leader B. A. Copass summed up the Because Baptist identity derived from Baptist position: “To withdraw fellowship orthodox faith and practice, Baptist lead- from one who differs in matters of faith is ers argued that persons who departed not an attempt to stifl e freedom, but only from that faith and practice should have getting rid of one who does not belong to the integrity to seek fellowship with the that body. Why should the body tolerate in denomination with which they most its fellowship one who is teaching heresy? agreed. To the consternation and confu- Such a thing would be moral suicide.”14 sion of orthodox Baptists, liberal Baptists When modernism began to spread generally sought to remain in the South- 23 ern Baptist fellowship. The editors of the They embraced the historical idealism that Religious Herald tried to explain the behav- undergirded the thought of Hegel and ior of modernist Baptist preachers: German philosophy generally. Many Ger- man religious leaders embraced historical As soon as he found that he was not a Baptist, the thing for him to idealism as a way to rescue Christianity do was to hand in his credentials, from the assaults of scientific empiri- wish his brethren well and quietly cism. The new religion they constructed walk out of their ranks. . . . But not so. About the last thing that one became known as liberal Christianity. of these unhinged and noisy men The essence of Christianity, the liberals who have an attack of omniscient from F. D. E. Schleiermacher to Adolf von liberalism will do is to quit us. He holds on to his place, draws his Harnack argued, was not in its doctrines salary, and makes a brilliant effort and practices, but in its lived experience. to “reform” the Baptists. So long as he can fi nd a few shallow and Underneath its various historical forms blustering supporters, he will cling was an abiding essence which was the life to his position. He goes only when and experience of religion. Doctrines were it becomes impossible for him to stay. His staying may upheave and only temporary expressions of religious disrupt the church or school which experience. Doctrine was extrinsic. employed him under the mistaken Baptist progressives embraced the notion that he was a Baptist; but what cares he for that?17 liberals’ historical idealism and defi ned Baptist identity in terms of an abiding Liberal Baptists rejected this logic. essence or genius. This Baptist principle, They sought to remain in the denomina- they argued, was the source of all the tion because they developed a different various doctrines and practices of the view of Baptist identity. For them, being Baptists, but the doctrines and practices Baptist was not about doctrines. It was were temporary expressions suited to about commitment to a formal principle specifi c historical needs. Different his- inherent in religious experience, the prin- torical needs required the development ciple of individual freedom. In their new of different doctrines. The abiding essence understanding of Baptist identity, they could therefore adapt its faith and practice could reject the inerrancy of the Bible, to every age in order to be relevant. For the deity of Christ, the substitutionary Baptist progressives, this meant adapting atonement, and much more, and still be their traditional beliefs to accommodate authentic Baptists. the new learning represented by the new historical criticism of the Bible and espe- Baptist Identity in the cially by Darwinism. True Baptists, the Twentieth Century progressives said, altered their doctrine to This new understanding of Baptist keep up with the times. Thus Baptist mod- identity bloomed in the twentieth century ernists could modify their beliefs without as progressive leaders and cultural trends ever losing their Baptist identity. promoted the redefi nition. Progressive Progressive Baptist leaders discovered Baptists subordinated doctrine and prac- the essence of Baptist identity using tice to some spiritual principle or eternal liberalism’s idealist method. Schleierm- essence which they generally called the acher described the method: “The only “Baptist idea” or the “Baptist principle.” pertinent way of discovering the pecu- 24 liar essence of any particular faith and very essence of Baptist polity and life.” reducing it as far as possible to a formula Gardner acknowledged that Baptist is by showing the element that remains identity must entail some defi nite beliefs. constant throughout the most diverse “There clearly must be a limit beyond religious affections within this same com- which a man cannot go and retain any munion, while it is absent from analogous just claim to denominational fellowship,” affections within other communions.” Gardner claimed, though his principles When Baptist liberals sought the essence did not seem to support this contention. of Baptist identity this way, they discov- He in fact advocated preserving a “Baptist ered that it was individualism. Baptists, type or expression of Christianity which they said, had developed the truth of is easily felt,” but he insisted that “hard the sovereign individual. Individualism and fast lines can not be drawn” and no meant freedom from extrinsic author- one could “mark out the limits of our fel- ity in all matters of the heart and mind, lowship.”22 especially religion.18 The essence of the Baptist faith, as George A. Lofton, a prominent South- Baptist liberals viewed it, was not in its ern Baptist pastor in Atlanta, Memphis, doctrines, but in its life, its spirit. And and St. Louis, argued for example that that spirit, most progressive Baptists “the Baptist idea” was “personal free- felt, was individual freedom. The unique dom in all matters of religion.”19 A. J. S. mission of the Baptists is to inculcate Thomas, editor of South Carolina’s Baptist individualism, which, as Bailey put it, is paper, held similarly that freedom is “the the “very secret of all progress” and the very soul of the Baptist faith.” This was “great motive for the rise of the race.” This Baptists’ gift to the world. This was their meant that no person or institution had a genius. Commitment to this was what it right to encroach upon the conscientious meant to be Baptist.20 beliefs of any individual. Although Bailey Progressive Baptists recognized that held that each local church is perfectly the Baptist heritage was nevertheless thick sovereign, he held also that not even the with doctrine. But the theological heritage church could reproach an individual on posed little threat to their new approach account of doctrine.23 to Baptist identity, because theology Ironically Bailey held that Baptists was merely a historically conditioned should constrain any individual who by-product of religious experience. J. W. reproached another for erroneous beliefs. Bailey, editor of North Carolina’s Biblical He inconsistently called upon Baptists to Recorder, argued that although Baptists do be vigilant against the “slightest trench- have some defi nite beliefs, these beliefs ing” upon the Baptist principle of indi- are subordinate to the true Baptist idea. vidualism. There was no room among the “The Baptist Principle, is, therefore, in Baptists for persons who held that right its root—Individualism,” Bailey said. doctrine was essential to Baptist identity. “Their Principle, not their doctrine, marks The least encroachment of individual them.”21 freedom, he urged, should be “ended Charles S. Gardner, professor at The forthwith.”24 They were not true Baptists, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, in his view, if they insisted that a common argued similarly that “Liberty is of the faith and practice was essential to Baptist 25 identity. could be no authentic Baptist identity, no unity, no denomination. Participation The Emergence of created Baptist identity.25 Southern Baptist Ethnicity But Carver’s interpretation was histori- This new understanding of Baptist cally inaccurate. Mission boards added a identity fi t well with an additional source new dimension to Baptist denominational of identity that emerged largely after the identity, that of voluntary agreement to Second World War. Postwar Southern cooperate broadly to send preachers of Baptist leaders successfully enlisted the to the four corners of the earth. Southern Baptist churches to establish But Baptists conceived of themselves as and maintain uniform Baptist programs. a denomination before mission boards. The proliferation of these programs and They established their unity on the foun- the rapid growth of Southern Baptist dation of a common faith and practice and churches in the postwar period together maintained membership in the local asso- produced a powerful Baptist subculture ciation as the chief institutional expression in the South. The wide participation in of identity. But participation in a mission these programs coincided with efforts to board did not make them one denomi- subordinate doctrine to experience and nation. Mission boards were important fostered an ethnic or tribal source of iden- and as more churches recognized that tity. Participation made one Baptist. they could accomplish the Great Com- Participation in the cooperative endeav- mission more effectively through them, ors and programs of the Southern Baptist they joined the effort. But even the coop- Convention played an important role in eration with boards depended on their supporting the new approach to Baptist commitment to a stronger and older view identity that emerged in the twentieth of Baptist denominationalism, in which century. W. O. Carver, widely infl uen- Baptist unity and identity consisted in tial professor at The Southern Baptist their common faith and practice. Under Theological Seminary, connected Baptist the infl uence of liberalism and its histori- identity to participation in convention cal idealism, Carver abandoned the tradi- programs. He argued that cooperative tional basis of Baptist identity and sought missionary efforts created Baptist denom- to attach the principle of freedom to that inationalism and formed the foundation of participation in cooperative missions as of Baptist unity. “Before the beginning the sole bases of Baptist denominational of the missionary movement among us, identity. there were Baptist churches, but there Carver’s views found wide acceptance, was hardly a Baptist denomination.” especially among the denomination’s Participation in the Southern Baptist Con- progressive leadership. By attaching vention’s missionary program created the the principle of individual freedom to denomination’s identity. “It took missions cooperative missions, the progressive to give us a sense of oneness.” Missions view gained considerable infl uence. In also, Carver said, drove Baptist prog- the twentieth century, denominational ress in doctrine, education, culture, and leaders initiated a wide array of programs Christian piety. Without the cooperative in addition to cooperative missions to endeavors, Carver seemed to say, there bolster further this source of Baptist 26 identity. And for about two generations, nurtured in it: “We breathe Baptist air the approach seemed to work, as par- and drink Baptist water and eat Baptist ticipation in denominational programs chicken.” Nancy Sehested, a leading dominated local church experience and moderate pastor, recognized the ethnic forged a Southern Baptist identity based or tribal character of her Baptist identity: on participation and belonging. “I was born into the tribe of Baptists. . . . It worked in large part because in My siblings and I were all schooled in the postwar period Southern Baptist the tribal ways from the Texas branch of programs proliferated widely and estab- the house of Southern Baptists.” Moder- lished deep roots in most churches. These ate scholar and publisher Cecil Staton Jr. programs produced a powerful Southern summarized the experience of so many Baptist subculture that fostered tribal postwar Southern Baptists: “I am Baptist identity. Churches made Southern Bap- born and Baptist bred . . . it would be tists by careful nurture. They were born almost impossible for me to be anything into the group, nurtured in the rituals and other than a Baptist.”26 practices of the group, and completed the When postwar Baptists said that they certifi ed rites of passage. Belief became were “born” Southern Baptist, they meant subordinate to belonging and participa- that they were nurtured in a distinct tion. Southern Baptist vision of life, values, Many contemporary moderate leaders and society. The elements that shaped have refl ected on this source of Baptist this identity included such experiences as identity in recent years. Their experience walking the aisle and receiving baptism has been remarkably consistent. Cecil by immersion, attending Baptist youth Sherman, the founding executive offi cer camps, participating in the Baptist Young of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, the People’s Union or its successor, the Baptist moderates’ alternative denomination, said Training Union, attending a Baptist col- that he was Baptist because his parents lege or seminary, and receiving a weekly were. Donna Forrester, who refused to dose of ethnic indoctrination in Sunday leave Southern Baptists despite opposition School classes that taught the curricula to her ordination, considered her Baptist sent down from Nashville’s Baptist Sun- identity a birthright similar to nationality: day School Board. Perhaps more than any “I could no more be a Methodist than I other program, however, the Woman’s could be from Wisconsin.” She was born Missionary Union contributed to this Bap- a Baptist in the same way she was born an tist identity. The organization enrolled the American and a southerner. Molly Mar- youth of each church in such weekly train- shall, a prominent moderate theologian ing programs as the Girls-in-Action (for- and former professor at the The Southern merly the Girls’ Auxiliary) and the Royal Baptist Theological Seminary, said that Ambassadors. Here they trained children she had always been a Baptist, for it was in the Bible, discipleship, world missions, her heritage and was the same as being history, and culture. They required them alive. Gary Parker, former Coordinator to memorize the structure and workings of Baptist Principles at the Cooperative of the Southern Baptist Convention. Here Baptist Fellowship, concluded that many above all they created Baptists. are Baptists because they were born and The educational program of the Wom- 27 an’s Missionary Union was indispensable. atonement, but this probably represented Baptist girls advanced through the stages a deeper problem. I clearly believed that of the Girls-in-Action missions education commitment to traditional Baptist views program: maiden, lady-in-waiting, prin- of New Testament faith and practice cess, queen, queen-with-a-sceptre, and would qualify someone as a Baptist. I queen regent. Baptist boys did the same did not realize that I could never really in the Royal Ambassadors: page, squire, be Baptist. Although I had belonged to knight, ambassador, ambassador extraor- Southern Baptist churches for about six dinary, and ambassador plenipotentiary. years at the time, I was not ethnically The annual coronation ceremony traded Southern Baptist. I was not born Baptist. somewhat on the pageantry of the south- I was not nurtured in the ways of the ern cotillion, the queens and attendants tribe. When Baptist boys were attending appearing in formal fi nery. Conversion, Royal Ambassador meetings, I was tak- walking the aisle, saying the sinner’s ing ceramics class with liberal Method- prayer, receiving baptism, and believing a ists. When good Baptists matriculated few Baptist-like ideas, were important, but at Baptist colleges, I went to Methodist authentic Baptists had to advance through ones. Baptists who anticipated vocations the other Baptist rites of passage. Queens in the church went to one of Southern regent and ambassadors plenipotentiary Baptists’ six theological seminaries; after were as authentic as one could get. my conversion I went to a northern evan- Adult converts can scarcely achieve gelical seminary. I had learned about the Baptist identity in this sense. But those Cooperative Program and who had completed its rituals of con- through books instead of through the version and rites of passage achieved Woman’s Missionary Union’s educational authentic Baptist identity. And it was programs. Ethnicity is nurtured within hard to shake off. Those who joined the group. I came from outside the tribe other denominations could not avoid and my misguided belief that I could be taking their Southern Baptist ethnicity Baptist by joining a regular Baptist church with them. Former Southern Baptist Sam and agreeing with orthodox Baptist doc- Hill, noted historian of southern religion, trine corroborated my outsider status. recognized that although he had defected This tribal source of identity was from the Southern Baptist Convention, he not intrinsically harmful to theological had become a Southern Baptist Episcopa- sources of identity. Postwar conservatives lian. And those who went on to graduate advanced through the same programs and from a Baptist college or seminary and felt the same infl uences. But they drew on attained the highest levels in the tribe, the older tradition and kept commitment assumed the responsibility of protecting to New Testament truth at the center of the boundaries of Baptist identity.27 Baptist identity. But when progressives On my ordination council sat a man tied the programs to their vision of a Bap- who had served many years as a denomi- tist identity that substituted commitment national offi cial. He knew what it meant to individual freedom for commitment to be a Baptist and he doubted that I was to the same faith and practice, it caused one. He probably felt that I was too conser- harm. But it produced good as well. Many vative on inspiration and inerrancy and conservatives, who might otherwise have 28 left the denomination over the refusal of Baptist identity had more to do with belief its leaders to preserve orthodox faith and than with breeding, the South’s shortcom- practice, remained in the denomination in ings did not necessarily challenge their large measure because they too had been comfort with their Baptist identity. nurtured into the tribe. Many moderates, and especially the For much of the twentieth century this more progressive among them, felt that Southern Baptist ethnicity was the glue they had transcended the provincial that held the denomination together while aspect of the Baptist identity in which growing theological diversity pushed it the churches had nurtured them. When apart. Like the strong nuclear force that they left home for college they were fun- overcomes a molecule’s natural repul- damentalists who believed in inerrancy, sions, ethnicity held Southern Baptists dispensationalism, Landmarkism, and with divergent beliefs and identities the general superiority of Southern Bap- together. There were some defections. tists and southern society. In college or Some conservative churches withdrew seminary, or through other experiences, and became independent or identifi ed they learned to view many of their theo- with one or another fundamentalist logical and social beliefs as the outmoded movement. Some modernists withdrew dogmas of southern anti-intellectualism and joined the Episcopal church or some and cultural backwardness. There was a other denomination. But most remained. broader, nobler tradition of which Baptist Whether conservative or moderate, they fundamentalism was ignorant. It was the felt in their bones that they were authentic scholarship of Protestant and Catholic Southern Baptists and could not conceive liberalism.28 of any other identity. Their identity was They remained in Baptist churches not chosen, it was given. They were born but they adopted a cosmopolitanism that Baptist. identified with the broad mainstream The one besetting problem for many Protestant tradition of Western Europe progressive Southern Baptist leaders and the United States. They expressed this in the twentieth century was that this identifi cation by rejecting their region’s identity retained a thoroughly provin- cultural and theological orthodoxy. They cial cast. To be Southern Baptist meant generally sympathized with the civil being southern. Although some educated rights movement, the women’s liberation Baptists rejected their southern heritage movement, the Equal Rights Amendment, outright, most felt a strong ambivalence the Roe v. Wade decision, and the ordina- toward it. Their identity was southern at tion of women to pastoral offi ce. In politics its very center—they could not help it. But they rejected their region’s post-Carter they felt that the South’s provincial char- preference for the Republican party. In acter—its heritage of fundamentalism, theology they embraced evolution and racism, and social backwardness—was the historical criticism of the Bible that an embarrassment. allowed them to revere the Bible without Conservatives tended to be less embar- claiming its inerrancy or plenary inspi- rassed by these aspects of southern iden- ration, to revere Christ without having tity and felt less ambivalence about their to endorse a substitutionary atonement, attachment to the South. But since their God-ordained killing in the Old Testa- 29 ment, or fabulous legends. They empha- individual freedom above all.30 sized experience over doctrine and sought But they remained in the tribe. Indeed, closer connection with other religious the strong contribution of Southern traditions. Baptist ethnicity made the transition Moderates rejected the more-scrip- easier. They embedded the new version tural-than-thou boosterism in which of Baptist identity into their native Baptist they felt they had been raised. Their tribalism. cosmopolitan outlook meant that they This powerful strand of Southern viewed conservative Baptist identity as Baptist identity that developed in the a combination of parochialism (Baptists twentieth century was not therefore mere alone are faithful to the New Testament ethnicity. For moderates, the ethnicity and have the biggest of everything and had a meaning, a purpose. Being Baptist were the fi rst in everything) and anti- meant supporting and perpetuating the intellectualism (“Don’t let college ruin “Baptist idea” of individual freedom. you,” the conservative pastors warned Since progressive moderates held that their youth). Moderates had outgrown Baptist identity inhered primarily in this. The problem with conservative individual freedom, they concluded that Baptist identity, they felt, was that it was conservatives who placed doctrinal limits parochial in its Southern Baptist booster- on denominational service were “not true ism and anti-intellectual in its insistence Southern Baptists.”31 on inerrancy and its rejection of historical criticism. But being Baptist, moderates The Burden of Baptist Identity felt, had to be “more than arrogance and Although the progressives made ignorance.”29 extraordinary progress, they found The progressive redefi nition of Baptist it tough sledding. Most rank-and-file identity in the twentieth century afforded Baptists rejected the naturalistic histori- moderates with a way to remain Baptist cal criticism that seemed to deny much and to reject the southern provincialism that the Bible taught. They rejected in which they were raised, including Darwinism. And they did not embrace especially its theological fundamentalism. the rather subtle historical idealism by Since they taught that Baptist identity which progressives claimed to reconcile consisted in commitment to freedom, the Bible with the criticism and evolution. they could be Baptist without being fun- Progressive leaders generally recognized damentalist. Their progressive college that most Southern Baptists rejected the and seminary professors introduced them new progressive view of Baptist identity. to this tradition that established Baptist Liberal editor Josiah Bailey, for example, identity on freedom and tolerance, and concluded that “not one Baptist in a thou- they embraced it. They valued religious sand conceives the genius of the Baptist liberty, individual freedom, and church position.”32 autonomy as the essence of being Baptist. Conservative Southern Baptists came Walter Shurden summarized the moderate under many of the same powerful infl u- view: “The core value of the Baptist vision ences and were likewise nurtured into of Christianity is voluntarism. Freedom. Baptist ethnicity. They too read the books Choice.” Authentic Baptists privileged and heard the Sunday school lessons that 30 advanced commitment to freedom as the century progressed and conservatives highest Baptist ideal. But they felt that have not escaped its infl uence. being Baptist must also include commit- Conservatives have pitched their tent ment to certain fundamental doctrines on the ground of the traditional view of like the inerrancy of the Bible, substitu- what it means to be a Baptist, the view tionary atonement, and salvation only by that orthodox doctrine is central to Baptist personal faith in Christ. For conservatives, identity. But Southern Baptists still labor being Baptist was fi rst and foremost about under the burden of the moderate view faithfulness to Christ as revealed in his of Baptist identity. Insistence on the full inspired and inerrant word. And if neces- inspiration and inerrancy of the Bible, sary, conservatives were prepared to leave the deity of Christ, the necessity of the the tribe in order to remain Baptists. They new birth for salvation, and the reality of advanced commitment to New Testament miracles is essential, but if the resurgence faith and practice as the highest Baptist stops there, it is incomplete. Authentic ideal. Conservatives made it a fi ghting Baptist identity stands or falls on the com- point that neither tribal credentials nor mitment to maintain the faith and practice commitment to freedom could suffi ce for of the New Testament. Baptist identity. Perhaps the most obvious area in which The progressive trends of the denomi- the recovery is incomplete relates to the nation in the twentieth century neverthe- Bible’s teaching on the church. Baptists less shaped the identity of conservatives once insisted that to be a true Baptist in various ways. Moderates controlled one had to embrace the New Testament’s what was taught in the college and teachings about the governance and ordi- seminary classrooms and in the Sunday nances of the church. This is what they school. They wrote the books that told meant by the term “practice” in the phrase Baptists their history, their doctrine, and “New Testament faith and practice.” their identity. They taught Baptists how The extensive and enduring influence to function as churches, associations, and of the moderate view of Baptist identity conventions. Conservatives recognized appears clearly in this area of Southern readily the unscriptural character of some Baptist life. of that heritage, but much of that infl uence Our churches have in practice attenu- remains unrecognized. In some areas ated the New Testament standard of conservatives continue in the thoughts regenerate church membership. We are and ways that progressive leaders taught uncertain whether we should expect evi- them. dence of regeneration beyond consent to Moderate leadership received assis- be led in a prayer of faith. Baptists once tance from another source. Trends in mod- looked for the New Testament signs of ern western culture aided and abetted repentance, humility, and a changed life. moderate views of Baptist identity on the They judged in charity, but they accepted one hand, and constituted an independent the responsibility to judge. We tend to source of infl uence that eroded traditional think it uncharitable to look for such evi- sources of identity on the other. Ameri- dence. One result is that in our churches cans embraced a more expansive view there are many professed Christians who of individual freedom as the twentieth give no other evidence of regeneration. We 31 have diminished the standard of evidence of Baptist identity, many of our churches to repeating a prayer and expressing a have abandoned or want to distance wish to join the church. Our volume is themselves from increased but the value is reduced.33 On government. We have forgotten why Bap- average less than one-third of our mem- tists established congregational govern- bership gathers together for the Lord’s ment in the churches. Moderates taught Day worship service. And judging by us that we are congregational because it the decreasing ages at which we baptize is the natural church expression of our children, we seem to practice what we do commitment to individual freedom. Bap- not preach—we are making Baptists by tists once believed that congregationalism birth, not by faith. And our membership was scriptural and could readily point out rolls, with their extensive lists of inactive passages that supported it.34 members, testify against us in this area. And our churches have generally aban- On the last day we will give an accounting doned scriptural church discipline. We for many whose false hopes of salvation practice a thin discipline—church staff we endorsed and sustained. who sin are given paid leave, Christian In our administration of the Lord’s counseling, a generous severance pack- Supper we show how much we have age, and are declared cured. We then come under the infl uence of progressive commend them to another church where views of Baptist identity and modern they repeat the same crimes. This is an subjectivist views of morality. We are area where most conservative pastors are often disorderly in our administration aware of our disobedience as churches. of the ordinance and seem to reject the The infl uence of moderate views of Baptist scripture’s teaching regarding it. In the identity and of our individualist culture New Testament baptism is the fi rst com- has convinced us that scriptural church mand of Christian discipleship and is discipline ought not and can not be done. therefore prerequisite to participating in But Baptists once thought otherwise. They the Lord’s Supper. Those who count their believed that if Christ commanded it that infant sprinkling as baptism have not settled it. yet obeyed the Lord they profess. They In other ways we show that we still are ineligible. This is what our Baptist labor under progressive views of Bap- forbears held and what our confessions tist identity. We are uncertain about the teach. But in many churches we invite boundaries of our fellowship, because unbaptized professing believers to take in some ways we have embraced the and eat. In so doing we are endorsing their moderate belief that being Baptist means disobedience of Christ’s command and freedom. And so we continue to hold the we will share the guilt. Indeed, in some hands of Baptist churches that endorse churches, we invite all persons, making heresy and tolerate immorality. Baptist no distinction and uttering no warning to associations traditionally expelled mem- those who do not even profess regenera- ber churches that departed from the tion. In both of these circumstances, we beliefs and practices that the churches of invite persons to eat and drink judgment the association professed as the founda- on themselves (1 Cor 11:27-30). tion of their fellowship together. In recent Under the infl uence of moderate views years some Southern Baptist associations 32 have successfully moved to expel insist that the association is likewise ENDNOTES churches that departed from a New autonomous and is free to expel 1I want to thank Union University Testament belief or practice. But the from its membership any church that for inviting me to present an earlier offenses that attract attention are departs from New Testament faith draft of this article in April, 2004. limited. Associations have expelled and practice. 2Roy Honeycutt, “Roy Honeycutt’s churches that have endorsed homo- Let us say, once and for all, that ‘Holy War’ Convocation Address sexuality, ordained a woman to the true Baptist churches will not walk at Southern Seminary,” in Going for pastoral offi ce, embraced Pentecostal- together with churches that discount the Jugular: A Documentary History of ism, or admitted members without the authority of the Holy Scriptures or the SBC Holy War, ed. Walter Shur- believer’s baptism. In many cases deny the deity of Jesus Christ or give den and Randy Shepley (Macon: the expulsions overcame appeals to false hope of salvation apart from Mercer University Press, 1996), 130. freedom only with great diffi culty. faith in Christ or tolerate immorality. For some discussion of the spread In other instances, aberrant Let us insist on unity based on sound of liberal (and neo-orthodox) ideas churches have remained members denominational principles, that is, on among Southern Baptists, see David in good standing in their association. our commitment to the same faith Stricklin, Genealogy of Dissent: One Southern Baptist church has and practice. And let us determine Southern Baptist Protest in the Twen- tolerated in its membership persons that our faith and practice shall be tieth Century (Lexington: University who unashamedly and publicly based on scripture, not on modern Press of Kentucky, 1999); Wayne paraded their serial adultery. And sensibilities, not on misguided pro- Flynt, Alabama Baptists: Southern yet the church remains a member gressive interpretations of Baptist Baptists in the Heart of Dixie (Tusca- in good standing in its Southern tradition, not even on the beliefs and loosa: University of Alabama Press, Baptist association. To permit such practices of some ostensible golden 1998); Wayne Flynt, “A Pilgrim’s churches to remain in the association age of Baptist orthodoxy. Progress through Southern Chris- constitutes an endorsement of their Participation in denominational tianity,” in Autobiographical Refl ec- errors as consistent with orthodoxy. programs and cooperative endeavors tions on Southern Religious History The other member churches that should contribute to our denomi- (Athens: University of Georgia remain in fellowship with them thus national identity, but it should be Press, 2001), 73-88; Gregory A. participate in their sins. Most of the subordinate and complementary to Wills, “Progressive Theology and churches repudiate such errors, but the role of our common faith and Southern Baptist Controversies of have no heart for expelling churches practice. So let us stand on the tradi- the 1950s and 1960s,” The Southern that have embraced heresy, immoral- tional ground denominational unity Baptist Journal of Theology 7, no. 1 ity, or unscriptural forms of church and remember that “on fundamental (2003): 12-31. order. It seems churlish and unkind principles, agreement is necessary to 3Honeycutt, “Convocation Address,” because of modern sensibilities fellowship.”35 Let us recover authen- 131. that privilege civility as the highest tic Baptist identity in whole and not 4For a discussion of church discipline virtue. More important, even many merely in part. Let us recover, that and associational fellowship among conservatives, influenced by the is, a fully Biblical identity, for true nineteenth-century Southern Bap- moderate tradition that being Bap- Baptist principles are Bible principles. tists, see Gregory A. Wills, Demo- tist means freedom, fear that such And this is the only solid foundation cratic Religion: Freedom, Authority, action would violate the autonomy for faithful and effective cooperation and Church Discipline in the Baptist and independence of the churches. in the fulfi llment of the Great Com- South, 1785-1900 (New York: Oxford Associations that expel aberrant mission. University Press, 1997). congregations do not interfere with 5Shailer Mathews, New Faith for Old: that church’s autonomy. They only An Autobiography (New York: Mac- 33 millan, 1936), 80; Randall L. Hall, Capita Income,” Religious Herald, 16 J. S. Stewart (Philadelphia: Fortress William Louis Poteat, (Lexington: November 1882, 1; J. C. Armstrong, Press, 1976), 52. University Press of Kentucky, 2000), “Baptist Affairs in the South,” Cen- 19George A. Lofton, “Baptist Position 130-155; Barry Hankins, God’s Ras- tral Baptist, 21 May 1903, 1. Stated and Contrasted—The Purely cal: J. Frank Norris and the Beginnings 10John Leland, “Virginia Chronicle,” Personal Idea,” Christian Index, 20 of Southern Fundamentalism (Lexing- in The Writings of the Late Elder John August 1896, 2. ton: University Press of Kentucky, Leland, ed. L. F. Greene (New York: 20A. J. S. Thomas, “Are Baptists Cal- 1996), 28; James J. Thompson Jr., G. W. Wood, 1845), 121; Leland, vinists?” Baptist Courier, 16 Febru- Tried As by Fire: Southern Baptists and “Circular Letter of the Shaftsbury ary 1911, 4. the Religious Controversies of the 1920s Association, 1793,” ibid., 196. 21J. W. Bailey, “The Baptist Principle,” (Macon, Georgia: Mercer University 11T. P. Tustin, “Schismatics—Hard- Biblical Recorder, 12 November 1902, Press, 1982), 99, 79; unsigned, “The Shell Baptists,” Southern Baptist, 1 8. Action of the Board of Trustees,” July 1856, 2. 22Charles S. Gardner, “Southern Bap- Baptist Courier, 18 December 1902, 12John Taylor, A History of Ten Baptist tists and Theological Liberty,” Bibli- 4; Alfred S. Reid, Furman University: Churches, 2nd ed. (Bloomfi eld, Ken- cal Recorder, 18 February 1903, 2. Toward a New Identity, 1925-1975 tucky: W. H. Holmes, 1827), 30. 23Bailey was inconsistent on this (Durham, North Carolina: Duke 13Wills, Democratic Religion, 90-91. point. When arguing against the University Press, 1976), 95; Z. T. This is not to say that the standard right of the mission board to evalu- Cody, “Can It Be Justifi ed,” Baptist of discipline was Baptist identity, ate orthodoxy, he stated that “only Courier, 11 January 1923, 2-3; Trust- but rather that they held that Baptist the church can challenge a Baptist’s ees of Limestone College, “Resolu- faith and practice instantiated New faith” (“The Right of Challenge in tions Adopted by the Trustees of Testament principles. So departures Matters of Faith,” Biblical Recorder, Limestone College,” Baptist Courier, from Baptist identity were in fact 26 November 1902, 8), but elsewhere 5 July 1934, 2-3; Wayne Flynt, Ala- departures from Christian disciple- argued that the church could not bama Baptists, 386. ship. Those who rejected scripture challenge individual conscience: 6Herschel H. Hobbs, letter to Ramsey truth or morality sinned against “The ordinary Protestant concep- Pollard, 23 May 1960, box 21, f. 5, Christ, jeopardized their souls, and tion of Religious Liberty is freedom Herschel H. Hobbs Papers, South- endangered the church. of the church from interference by ern Baptist Historical Library and 14B. A. Copass, “Concerning Our the State. The Baptist conception Archives, Nashville, Tennessee; Confession or Declaration of Faith,” is freedom of the believer from Hobbs, letter to Ramsey Pollard, Baptist Standard, 4 June 1914, 2. interference by State or church or 6 June 1960, box 21, f. 5, Hobbs 15Unsigned, “One More of the Same,” anything else whatsoever touching Papers. Religious Herald, 27 November 1884, conscience.” (“The Baptist Princi- 7For a detailed narrative of the con- 1. ple,” 8.) To vary from , troversy, see Ralph H. Elliott, The 16James B. Gambrell, “The Growth Bailey conceded, was “to cease to be “Genesis Controversy” and Continuity of the Denominational Idea,” Bibli- a Baptist.” But only baptism is “the in Southern Baptist Chaos: A Eulogy cal Recorder, 15 April 1903, 2; J. C. creed of the Baptists.” And baptism for a Great Tradition (Macon: Mercer Arm strong, “Baptist Affairs in is just a form of individualism. “It University Press, 1992). the South,” Central Baptist, 21 May is in baptism that the Individual 8John Asplund, The Universal Reg- 1903, 1. and the Democracy meet and plight ister of the Baptist Denomination in 17Unsigned, “One More of the Same,” their faith.” (“The Creed of the Bap- North America (: John Folson, 1. tists,” Biblical Recorder, 10 December 1794), 5. 18F. D. E. Schleiermacher, The Christian 1902, 8.) 9A. Chiel, “Studies of the Minutes, Per Faith, trans. H. R. Mackintosh and 24J. W. Bailey, “Some Fruits of the 34 Baptist Principle,” Biblical Recorder, Periods of Transition,” Biblical 19 November 1902, 8. Recorder, 6 May 1903, 1. 25W. O. Carver, “Why Baptists Grow: 33See H. H. Tucker’s more extensive The Importance of Missions in Rela- comments on the decline of com- tion to Baptist Progress,” Baptist mitment to truth in “Has the Time Argus, 25 June 1903, 6. Come?,” Christian Index, 9 July 1885, 26Cecil Sherman, “Hard Times Make 8. for Hard Thinking,” in Why I Am a 34For an example of the moderate Baptist: Refl ections on Being Baptist approach, see, e.g., Robert C. Bal- in the 21st Century, ed. Cecil P. Sta- lance Jr., “Baptist Born, Baptist ton Jr. (Macon: Smyth and Helwys, Bred,” in Why I Am a Baptist, 10-11. 1999), 135; Donna Forrester quoted On traditional Baptist arguments in “Women Leave Baptists to Min- for congregationalism, as well as ister,” Spartanburg Herald-Journal, for other aspects of church govern- 21 October 2002; Molly Marshall, ment, see the documents collected “A Baptist by Conscience: A Baptist in Mark Dever, ed., Polity: Biblical in Hope,” in Why I Am a Baptist, 89; Arguments on How to Conduct Church Gary Parker, “The Four ‘C’s of Being Life, A Collection of Historic Baptist Baptist,” in ibid., 103; Nancy Seh- Documents (Washington, D.C.: Cen- ested, “This Is My Story, This Is My ter for Church Reform, 2001). Just a Song,” in ibid., 131; Cecil P. Staton, few of the verses teaching congre- Jr. “A Personal Journey to England gationalism are Matt 18:15-17; 1 Cor and Back Again,” in ibid., 157. 5:5, 12-13; and 2 Cor 2:6. 27Samuel S. Hill, “Southern Religion 35Jesse Mercer, “Address to the Bap- and the Southern Religious,” in tists of Georgia,” Christian Index, 15 Autobiographical Refl ections, 15. December 1836, 774. 28See, e.g., Staton, “A Personal Journey to England and Back Again,” 158- 160; Wayne Ward, “Wayne Ward,” in How I Have Changed My Mind: Essays by Retired Professors of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (Louisville: Review and Expositor, 1993), 88-96; J. Estill Jones, “J. Estill Jones,” ibid., 98-104. 29Staton, “A Personal Journey to Eng- land and Back Again,” 163. 30Walter Shurden, “Second Baptist Church, Greenville, Mississippi,” in Why I Am a Baptist, 150. 31Cecil Sherman, quoted in “Denomi- national Loyalists Meet,” Baptist Courier, 13 November 1980, 16. 32Josiah Bailey, “The Baptists and 35