Southern Baptists: more than just evangelicals

We live in the Evangelical Era. The recording industry has discovered evangelicals to be a lucrative market for Christian music. Mel Gibson made the same discovery with regard to film. Evangelical buyers propelled Rick Warren’s “The Purpose Driven Life” to the pinnacle of American hardback book sales. Even politicians have begun to market themselves to evangelicals since the 2004 elections. He who dismisses the staggering influence of evangelicalism in our nation does so at his own peril. Southern Baptists, too, must carefully assess our own relationship with American evangelicalism by answering three questions: Are Southern Baptists evangelicals? Are Southern Baptists merely evangelicals? What relationship should Southern Baptists have with other evangelicals?

Are Southern Baptists Evangelicals?
The question that heads this section is also the title of a book by James Leo Garrett, E. Glenn Hinson, and James E. Tull. Garrett concluded that Southern Baptists are evangelicals, Hinson determined that we are not, and Tull concluded not to conclude anything quite yet. The lack of consensus among the three revealed the two differences that plague us still today: different visions for who Southern Baptists ought to be, and different conceptions of who evangelicals are.

The standard academic definition of evangelicalism has invokes the “Bebbington quadrilateral”?British history professor David Bebbington’s assertion that evangelicalism is the nexus of:

• Biblicism: An emphasis upon the unique authority of the Bible.
  
• Crucicentrism: An emphasis upon the unique efficacy of the atonement Christ made on the cross.
  
• Conversionism: An emphasis upon the universal prerequisite of personal conversion for becoming a Christian.
  
• Activism: An emphasis upon the universal responsibility of all Christians to proclaim and live the gospel.

Joining the Evangelical Theological Society (ETS) simply requires affirmation of Trinitarianism and inerrancy, but this minimalist statement has caused problems for the society. In 2003 ETS refused to eject from its membership open theists Clark Pinnock and John Sanders. More recently, ETS President Francis Beckwith converted to Roman Catholicism, relinquishing his presidency voluntarily but hoping to retain his membership (he later resigned as a member). Considering this expansion of evangelicalism to include denials of God’s omniscience and relinquishment of basic Reformation principles, one wonders whether any plausible definition of evangelicalism can long endure these changing circumstances.

Although ETS has recently demonstrated how far one can wander from the Bible while claiming to affirm inerrancy, no definition of inerrancy can provide enough wiggle-room for some Southern Baptists. Denials that Southern Baptists are evangelicals have therefore typically come from those quarters of Southern Baptist life vehemently opposed to the Conservative Resurgence. The Resurgence, to the degree that it has cemented inerrancy as Southern Baptist dogma, has squarely placed Southern Baptists within the fold of evangelicalism.

Biblicism, crucicentrism, conversionism, activism, and inerrancy are good things. Southern Baptists have answered Garrett, Hinson, and Tull: We are happily evangelicals.

Are Southern Baptists Merely Evangelicals?
Several important doctrines connect Southern Baptists and evangelicals, but does anything substantial divide us? Some neighborhoods of the Southern Baptist community work to minimize the importance of any distinctive theological attributes of Southern Baptists. These items of Southern Baptist conviction constitute points of tension between the SBC and the wider stream of evangelicalism:

Religious Authority: Although affirmation of biblical authority is part-and-parcel to being evangelical, the market-driven nature of evangelicalism tends to elevate the role of personal experience as religious authority within evangelical groups. Southern Baptists historically have affirmed that personal experience must be regulated by biblical authority.

• Baptism: Resurgent Calvinism in the SBC has strengthened the ties between some Southern Baptists and some evangelical pedobaptists. Some other evangelical groups espouse theories of baptismal regeneration.
  
• Ecclesiology: Although many evangelicals practice a congregational polity similar to that of Southern Baptists, virtually every imaginable form of church order exists somewhere within evangelicalism.
  
• Spiritual Gifts: The Pentecostal movement and its daughter movements constitute a significant portion of the evangelical movement, while Southern Baptists have historically resisted the growing influence of these movements.
  
• Women: Many evangelical groups disregard New Testament gender roles.

Evangelical ecumenism requires the demotion of these items to facilitate expansive joint ventures with evangelical groups?even the use of Southern Baptist missions money to plant generically evangelical churches. In contrast, Southern Baptists have historically considered many of these items non-negotiable biblical precepts that we cannot sacrifice and remain obedient to God. Southern Baptists are indeed evangelicals, but we are more than evangelicals.

What Relationship Should Southern Baptists Have with Other Evangelicals?
If Southern Baptists are both connected to and distinct from evangelicals, what does that imply for the prospects of Southern Baptist partnerships with other evangelicals? The robust history of Southern Baptist cooperation with evangelicals ought to continue. From Billy Graham to Promise Keepers, we have cooperated with other evangelicals in evangelistic crusades, civic and moral advocacy, academic pursuits, discipleship programs, publication and recording, prayer, and mutual encouragement.

Nevertheless, Southern Baptists have historically recognized the prudence of limiting cooperation in church planting and other denominational endeavors to people who share our Southern Baptist convictions. This juxtaposition of connection and separation is complementary, not contradictory. By sticking with cooperation in those endeavors at which we agree, we avoid the inevitable internecine squabbles that have caused every serious ecumenical movement since the Reformation to result in the further fracture of the body of Christ into yet more schism.

Good fences (and clear definitions) do indeed make good neighbors.

Bart Barber is pastor of the First Baptist Church of Farme