Pulpit and Politics: Clergy in American Politics at the Advent of the Millennium

2. American Baptist Convention

19 The American Baptist Convention is an association of churches that highly values individual religious freedom and local church autonomy. In light of this emphasis, American Baptist clergy seek to guide their congregations toward responsible civic behavior and attitudes within the context of individual and church freedom. These fundamental values shape the social organization, theology, and political engagement of Baptist clergy and laity alike. American Baptist clergy tend to be theologically and politically conservative ; these two tendencies are strongly related. In part, this conservatism stems from seminary education, which for the majority occurs in evangelical, rather than mainline, seminaries. Clerical conservatism also stems from congregational autonomy, as a conservative laity has considerable influence when it comes to pastoral selection. HISTORICAL BACKGROUND Baptists are a diverse, if not contradictory, group of Christians. Even Baptists often have difficulty defining who they are. As Goodwin so aptly put it, Chapter 2 American Baptist Convention Sherrie Steiner and Donald Gray 20 American Baptist Convention Jesse Jackson is a Baptist. So is Jesse Helms. Baptists are right, left, and center on almost every issue, and if there are other positions, Baptists are there too. We are high church and low church, liberal, conservative, fundamental , open, closed, restrictive, inclusive—and always in process. We love constitutions and ignore them at every opportunity. We love the Bible and believe its every word to be from God, but there has never been a Baptist who did not feel entitled to edit some of its rougher parts and interpret (authoritatively) some of its more confusing texts. But somehow we are bound together in ways not even our most heated controversies can fully disconnect. Invite us to sing a favorite hymn, remind us of a Baptist witness, call us to a prophetic task, challenge us to an urgent mission, and we will, by the miraculous grace of God, respond in unity and joy. (1997, 1) This diversity is the challenging side of Baptists’ greatest gift to American culture: the high value they place on freedom of the soul. Whether it be freedom from oppression, freedom from confusion, or freedom for full religious expression, Baptists have consistently emphasized the importance of protecting integrity of both mission and individual belief. Consequently, they have consistently refused to organize around patriarchs, ecclesiological plans, theological frameworks, or institutional structures. Baptist culture is “deeply suspicious of institutions and leaders”—a value that promotes traditional diversity of organization and belief (Goodwin 1997). Baptists are keenly aware that even contexts of toleration can promote religious persecution (Brackney 2000). This diversity should not be mistaken for lack of denominational identity and cohesion. Baptists share at least five unshakable commitments (Goodwin 1997; Ohlmann 2000): 1. Preservation of individual spiritual freedom 2. Preservation of local congregational autonomy 3. Primacy of mission over institutional preservation 4. Power of the Holy Spirit to conform Baptists and Baptist purposes to the will and work of God 5. The supreme authority of Scripture Although various Baptist groups may apply or adhere to these convictions differently, the general principles of freedom and decentralized polity are defining Baptist characteristics (Ohlmann 2000). Baptists want more than to be left alone—they want to believe freely and exercise that belief publicly. Baptists tend to favor religious free expression as an inalienable right rather than as a protected civic obligation . This places religious expression beyond the reach of politics— Sherrie Steiner and Donald Gray 21 whether derived from government or religion. While politics may inevitably influence Baptist life, religious expression is not subject to the political realm (Novak as quoted in Flowers 2000, 304–5): If this way of looking at our tradition is correct, the operational meaning of a phrase like “In God We Trust” is: Don’t trust anyone with too much power, on the one hand, and, on the other hand, open the spiritual way for ordinary Americans of any and every background. In a word, keep the shrine of transcendence empty. People with different conceptions of God will fill that place as each sees fit. And others, in place of the symbol of God, will fill it with something like the courage to doubt, an insistence on free inquiry, or a capacity to question any institution and any arrangement whatever. A constitution by which the state does not insist upon filling that shrine, but keeps it empty so as to injure the consciences of none, is an operationally sound fulfillment of “In God We...