Waugh and Peace
Vol. XIV, No. 9, October 2001
Introduction: Along with having served on the CBF Coordinating Council, David Waugh has served on the advisory committee of the pro-gay BPFNA. Waugh also has served on the board of directors for the pro-gay Alliance of Baptists, as has former CBF Coordinator Cecil Sherman. Attendees at the 1995 CBF General Assembly voted to amend the CBF's proposed mission statement to read: "Affirming our diversity as a gift of God, including but not limited to race, ethnicity and gender." The motion to amend in behalf of an undefined and open-ended diversity was made by Ron Serino of Metro Baptist Church in New York City, which is affiliated with the Alliance of Baptists and where Waugh is the pastor. The very first moderator of the CBF was John Hewett, who was also a member of the Alliance. Speaking at the 1992 annual convocation of the Alliance, Hewett said that the Alliance had been at the center of the CBF from the very beginning. Also in 1992, Alliance Executive Director Stan Hastey asserted that the Alliance had provided much of the leadership for the CBF. Hastey had served on the CBF Interim Steering Committee. Associated Baptist Press (the liberal counterpart of the SBC’s Baptist Press) recently described the CBF as a sister organization to the Alliance, though some have tried to downplay these familial ties. Note that this article was downloaded from the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship website: www.cbfonline.org. Keith Ninomiya]
Assembly 2001 Reflections
July 20, 2001
by David Waugh
Were we [CBF members], are we, so denominationalized that we remain little more than a continuation of the old SBC?
Attending the recent tenth birthday gathering of the CBF in Atlanta stirred lots of memories and emotions, especially in light of having just read “Ten Years Old: Cecil Sherman’s Reflections on the Genesis of CBF” (The Whitsitt Journal, Spring, 2001). In that article Sherman makes several telling observations which speak to both the celebrations and the tensions of this most recent meeting. While Sherman offered these observations (along with others) in a positive light, I believe their impact has for the most part been negative.
Running the risk of being charged with taking things out of context, I submit the following examples. "We were denominationalized.” "CBF is a continuation of the old SBC." "Getting out of a place you call home is psychologically and spiritually devastating." "We were against political fundamentalism SBC style. And that was the single thing we agreed on." "A minority has tried and continues to try to co-opt CBF." "Southerners are a traditional people. They are slow to break with the past."
This most recent gathering revealed that despite our language to the contrary we remain denominationalized in our way of thinking. We continue to compare ourselves in a positive light to a fantasy denomination before the takeover and a demonized one since what Sherman calls "the war." I see as one indicator of this the concerted effort to silence prophetic voices in the name of missions. This was as true before the "takeover" as it is now. Ironically, missions has always been a prophetic enterprise. We commission missionaries to be prophetic voices within other cultures, challenging their traditions. Yet, affirming that "Southerners are a traditional people" (we do have our parochial ethnic heritage) the prophetic voices within our movement are discredited with charges that we are seeking to "co-opt the CBF" for "their cause."
It is a good thing that we desire to continue to grow in number and strength in order to further the many worthy ministries which the CBF has undertaken. However, it is important that we do not silence the prophetic voices among us in our effort to become more palatable to those individuals and churches who to date have chosen not to be associated with this movement of Baptists.
These (often the Sherman-maligned Alliance of Baptists) voices were instrumental in leading the CBF to embrace many of the partners and values we now celebrate (the establishment of BTSR [Baptist Theological Seminary at Richmond], the call to support Ruschlikon [the liberal Baptist seminary in Europe], the insistence that God’s call is non-discriminatory with regard to gender or ordination, and the call for social justice and Christian ethics to permeate all that we say and do).
Were we, are we, so denominationalized that we remain little more than a continuation of the old SBC? I pray not, but even well meaning position statements which begin "Baptist Christians believe" rather than "recognizing that a majority of those who support CBF believe" sounds too much like the new SBC to some of us.
May all of us be willing to live through what may seem to be a phase of anarchy in order to reach our common goal. May we continue to be willing to listen to one another, not distrustful of honestly held contrary viewpoints nor fearful of threatened backlash from those who have refused to be identified with this Baptist movement. If it is God who has called us out and beckons us forward, then we have nothing to fear. If it has been voices attempting to re-create a mythical old SBC, then it’s not worthy of surviving anyway.
[David Waugh is pastor of Metro Baptist Church, New York City, and a former member of CBF’s Coordinating Council.] END OF DOWNLOAD. Along with having served on the CBF Coordinating Council, David Waugh has served on the advisory committee of the pro-gay BPFNA. Waugh also has served on the board of directors for the pro-gay Alliance of Baptists, as has former CBF Coordinator Cecil Sherman.
[Editorial Comment: Please note that David Waugh’s reflections above are presented verbatim from the CBF website. Here is a leader among the most liberal of these liberal groups expressing his concern over the very minimal guidelines on homosexuality adopted last June at the CBF General Assembly by a vote of 701 to 502. Even as CBF attempts to appeal to the SBC middle, its left wing has raised howls of protest, and one church, University Baptist in Austin, has separated from CBF over this policy guideline. Further, CBF has not grown in three years. Their own figures show that they have received contributions from 1,800 churches plus or minus one or two in each of the last three years. T. C. Pinckney, editor]