Chuck's Column - 03/16/08

In a recent column for Baptists Today, Executive Editor John Pierce discusses the misconception that has resulted among some Baptists who read reports of the closing address by former President Clinton at the New Baptist Covenant gathering in Atlanta. Clinton focused much of his talk on the division between fundamentalists and moderates in the Southern Baptist Convention over the last quarter - century.

Pierce points out that many recovering Southern Baptists have moved on, and have no intention of going back, finding new, more inclusive ways of belonging. He writes, "The purpose of the New Baptist Covenant was/is not about the impossible task of reconciling alienated former Southern Baptists with those who know not reconciliation, only dominance." How well we know that from our experience in the Franklin County Baptist Association (SBC), which simply reflected the SBC way of doing things. The SBC was not even present at the New Baptist Covenant. They couldn't control it, so they wanted no part of it.

Our only tie to the Southern Baptist Convention is our connection to the Kentucky Baptist Convention, which seems to me to be increasingly taking on the personality of the national SBC. That's my impression from glancing at the articles featured in the Western Recorder, which I have to admit, I rarely read, because of their SBC slant. We are in a very small minority of churches in the KBC that has curtailed all support to the SBC. Most all KBC churches support the SBC in some way. We, of course, do not, and no longer identify ourselves as an SBC church.

I say that to say this: We have moved on; our predominant affiliation is with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Kentucky Baptist Fellowship. There may come a time when the KBC will not want us affiliated with them, which will be okay, though I hope, if that time comes, they will be more gracious and Christian than was the Franklin County Baptist Association. There are Christian ways to sever ties and move on in a peaceful, friendly manner.

Servants together,
Chuck