To Urge Baptists Relent

O, wilderness John, with your matted mane,
Clothing of skins, fearless desert preaching;
What of the flock known today by your name,
Their voices raised in prayers beseeching,
To be free of legalists phony chains?
Do you weep to see baptizers reslaved?
In their nostrils the smell of death remains,
So lately from sin's wages they've been saved;
Now accepting fresh bondage with a will,
Their hearts given to new Pharisees' laws!
So soon they renounced freedom's joyous thrill,
Trading for legalism's hungry jaws!
John, you once called upon Judah to repent;
Would you were here to urge Baptists relent!

The Southern Baptist Convention is in a shambles, having recently emerged from a 40-year internal struggle for control between legalists and so-called moderates, whose uncensored backroom names are "liberals". The legalists won the war but lost the convention which is falling apart in their hands. Seeing their mistake, they have desperately tried to give it back, but, alas for the Kingdom of God, it is too late. They have watched the greatest foreign missions endeavor in Christian history, the Cooperative Program, rapidly disintegrate. The Convention itself is declining, splitting into smaller, new organizations of the independent-minded churches. With its once-proud name steadily losing respect, it is very likely that the "Southern" appelation will disappear completely in a few years.

It is hard enough in today's world to convince lost people to enter a church and begin spiritual journeys without their being dumped into the middle of internal warfare inside the church; their weak faith needs careful and peaceful nurturing, not being forced to see their appointed role models duking it out over politics of control. The recent battle in the Baptist denomination was early and derisively given the name "the preachers' war" by lay Baptists; what kind of reaction do you think Jesus Christ had to it?

Jesus told us to love one another as He loved us. He suffered the pain and humiliation of dying on the cross for our sins without one word of complaint. "Greater love hath no man than to lay down his life for another." I didn't see any Pharisees or Christian legalists plotting for control of who gets to die on the cross for the rest of us. The recent imbroglio of Baptists was nothing but a worldly struggle for power, using worldly non-Christ-like smoke-filled backroom techniques to win, and accomplishing nothing but hindrance for our Lord and Savior. So if after learning about our dirty linen, you would like to show us how it ought to be done, commit yourself to Jesus Christ and help us overcome our own sinfulness! Believe in Jesus Christ, not men.