A High-Five to the Southern Baptist Split and Why it Matters
/I woke up this morning to more news about the SBC and the saga which continues to unfold. I told my husband, “Well, the SBC is splitting, " he promptly gave me a high-five, then said, “I can guess, but why?” I told him simply, “The primary reasons are spiritual abuse, race and patriarchy,” to which he replied, “I thought so. Good.”
Most anyone who grew up in church has probably lived through a church split, well, if you were Baptist at least. I know I did. It was painful and confusing for me as a young teen. People I’d grown up respecting were suddenly gone or angry at one another. No one would tell us exactly what was going on, we were kids and didn’t need to be involved. While the core of my years were spent inside the Independent Fundamental Baptist realm, I did become a Southern Baptist, for a season, as part of my faith deconstruction journey. Southern Baptists seemed less legalistic and less conservative than what I had experienced growing up, in fact we could not associate with most Southern Baptists because they were too contemporary/liberal. But this was a long time ago, and much has changed in my understanding and journey with God
A denomination split is exactly what’s happening within the Southern Baptists and it’s a good thing, in my opinion. Why? This is all a public display of the what has been happening on the inside for decades. Those of us who were innocently inoculated to the freedom outside of legalism, shame and fundamentalist fear are grappling with just how this denomination split (there have been many before and will be many more to come) will matter in the scope of the American church. But finally, people can see, we’re not crazy. We’ve been telling the truth. Something has been terribly wrong inside the evangelical church, it’s not just past history, it’s present day.
A few more of my reasons include:
The veil is lifted, we will now know who stands with survivors and who will protect abusers.
We will now know who sees all humans as equals-no matter skin color or gender.
We will now discover who sees the white, American version of Christianity as the one true form.
Pastors who admit spiritual abuse exists and that patriarchy is not God’s plan must give up control, a control that historically has been wielded to manipulate and coerce, abuse and hold back.
Those who choose to stay inside of the “old” Southern Baptist denomination are showing they are afraid of losing their power and losing their absolute correctness, are not willing to change what they believe or do based on new information and are drawing a line which enables abuse and injustice on that side.
Hidden, buried and forgotten things are resurfacing and proving a pattern.
Survivors are being taken seriously.
Am I celebrating the fact that people have been hurt? Am I glad people are breaking fellowship with each other? No. But it’s about darn time people in the SBC-in fact, the American church as a whole-are forced to choose. Love vs. Hate. Truth vs. Lies. Freedom vs. Control.
Don’t let fancy jargon and polished preacher prose muddy the waters.
Thanks to bold writings from women like Beth Allison Barr and Kristin Du Mez and Beth Moore, who publicly left the SBC, the stage has been set. People are being educated. People are finally seeing that the stoic, immutable SBC doctrine is not correct, it has flaws. People are beginning to think for themselves instead of relying on a church, pastor or association to tell them what to believe.
It may be easy to forget the issues which cased this 2021 upheaval and things could go underground again. After all, that’s what usually happens until another denominational split takes place. It’s kinda like boycotts in the Christian world. Lots of noise, disgust and irateness over something…for a season…until it’s pretty much forgotten. You know, Christian cancel culture.
But I don’t see what’s happening right now, in the last couple of weeks with the SBC and the deconstruction movement, as a flash in the pan. American Christians have to wake up and make some decisions. Will they stick to regurgitated ideologies and interpretations of Scripture which make them feel safe, authoritative and superior while they keep preaching their “old time religion?” (What does that mean anyway? The real old time religion, like in Jesus’ day or a couple thousand years ago, looks and sounds next to nothing like what evangelical, fundamental pastors say today.) Or will they embrace the ugly truths being revealed from a generation of souls striving to heal from the wounds inflicted by dogmas of man and create a faith free of abuse, hypocrisy, shame and self-service.
We are making a difference. You, me, survivors, those of us who are telling our stories, raising awareness, speaking out in our religious communities and intentionally doing things differently-this is a sign that what we are doing collectively, it matters. It has started something. A spiritual awakening is on our doorstep. Let’s keep that momentum going strong.
High-five to you too, survivor.
