Southern Baptist leaders do not restrict their conservative pronouncements to decisions about what should happen within their own religious organization. They also seek to have similar influence throughout society — both in the private sector (corporations) and the public sector (government).
The Disney Corporation received its share of hate and opposition during the 1998 Southern Baptist Convention. One focus of the Southern Baptists’ ire is the corporate practice of extending health insurance to homosexual partners of employees and of hosting homosexual and lesbian groups at amusement parks. Disney has denied that the boycott has had any effect. Baptist sometimes they claim that Michael Eisner’s lack of comments show that the boycott it taking its toll and other times claim that his negative reactions are show of the same thing.
On the political front, the Southern Baptist Convention has demanded that all politicians in the country, from the president down to local lawmakers who set speed limits, serve as “models of moral excellence and character.” The resolution also insists that public and government officials must “return to Biblical principles.” The “Biblical principles” here are, naturally, only those advocated and interpreted by the Southern Baptists.
Specific policy issues were also addressed as the 1998 convention. A resolution was passed calling upon President Clinton to rescind his executive order prohibiting discrimination against federal employees based on sexual orientation. Further, the resolution said that if Clinton did not act, then Congress should. Neither happened. Another resolution that called upon Clinton’s home church (he is a Southern Baptist) to discipline him narrowly failed — and those who supported it were incensed at this failure.
Other resolutions included a call to end training women in the military for combat and a call to end public financing of the Public Broadcasting System and the National Endowment for the Arts. Evidently, Southern Baptists are upset because of certain PBS programming — there was one about a woman who wanted to be ordained as a Baptist minister and which put the church in a negative light and also a Bill Moyers production which portrayed the leadership as “right-wing.” (Right: they’re actually quite liberal)
James Dobson, head of the arch-conservative evangelism empire Focus on the Family, addressed the 1998 convention on its final day even though he a member of the Nazarene denomination rather than a Baptist. Politics matters more than theology, it seems. He called upon them to “defend righteousness” in our culture — their righteousness, of course.
“We’ve hidden too long behind the idea that churches should not be political,“ he sated. Well, if they wish to retain their tax-exempt status, they should remain non-political. “We answer to a higher authority” he claimed, allowing us to see exactly why he has so little respect for the American Constitution and basic American values. He also claimed that, in the culture war, “unbelievers” are winning. As an unbeliever and apparent member of the winning team, I’d like to know why I hadn’t noticed this....
The First Amendment has always been and still remains a target of their efforts to transform society. Tom Elliff, outgoing president of the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, told the 1998 convention that “We refuse to be muzzled by a misinterpretation of the First Amendment while our nation needs a word from God.” The “misinterpretation” he refers to is the idea that church and state should remain separate in our society, with state maintaining neutrality in religious matters.
As far as these zealots are concerned, out government should validate their beliefs by imposing them upon the rest of us. They have no conception of others not wanting to believe as they do. Unfortunately, their propaganda has had measurable effects in society — most notably with the promotion of the myth that freedom of religion does not include freedom from religion. This is readily acceptable to those who belong, or think they belong, to a majority faith and who may have little to fear from religion becoming entrenched in law.
The ideas being promoted by the Southern Baptists will have consequences and it shouldn’t be such a shock if people fear those potential consequences. Rev. C. Welton Gaddy, a former Southern Baptist who was edged out during the group’s conservative revolution and who is currently executive director of The Interfaith Alliance in Washington, put it succinctly when commenting on Dobson’s appearance at the convention: “All of this may be more about politics than religion.”
« Converting Jews and Mormons | Baptists & Southern Baptists »
