Deleting Jesus

Now, Religion in the News, a report and comment on religious trends and events being covered by the media. This week’s item is from the Lexington Herald Leader, July 16, 2005, with the headline, “Jesus Deleted from Group’s Constitution. Grapevine, Texas. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an alliance of 1,800 congregations that oppose conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention, removed mention of Jesus Christ from its constitution at an annual meeting, Baptist media reported. Previously, the fellowship’s stated purpose was to bring Baptists together so ‘the gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the great commission,’ referring to Jesus’ call to win disciples. The new language says the purpose is ‘to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.’ The 2,300 voters defeated two bids from the floor to refer the change to a committee. Southern Baptist Convention leaders criticized the rival group for making the change. The Reverend Russell Moore, a dean at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, said, ‘This represents the eclipse of Christ.’ But the Reverend Bob Setzer of Macon, Georgia, moderator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, said, ‘Jesus is present in all we think, do and say in CBF, and anybody who reads that statement otherwise is not being fair to Jesus or us.’”

Tom: Dave, this is a bit confusing. “The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an alliance of 1,800 congregations that oppose conservative leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention remove the mention of Jesus Christ from its constitution at an annual meeting.” Now, what’s the difference between conservative and liberal? I would think a conservative - I mean, people that are conservative, or those that go by the Bible, want to do what the Scriptures say, that’s usually the implication, although many conservatives don’t even go that far. But when you’re liberal, you’re kind of open to lots of other things, lots of ideas, some things in Scripture, but certainly lots of things outside. And the purpose of removing or referring to Jesus Christ in their constitution - I don’t get it. Why would you not want to mention the name of Jesus?

Dave: Well, instead of saying, “The gospel of Jesus Christ will be spread throughout the world in glad obedience to the great commission,” they have changed it to say, “Our purpose is to serve Christians and churches as they discover and fulfill their God-given mission.” So I guess that kind of leaves it open, what is our God-given mission. Well, you can define that any way you want and you are not tied down to preaching the gospel of Jesus Christ. Maybe they consider that’s too narrow-minded and dogmatic. They don’t want to have to do that, plus there’s a lot of other interesting things to talk about from the pulpit. I don’t know, Tom, it seems rather strange. Why would they take Jesus Christ out?

Tom: That’s what he said: “Jesus is present in all we think, do, and say in CBF, and anybody who reads the statement otherwise is not being fair to Jesus or us.” I don’t get this, Dave, although I do get the idea, as we’re seeing that mission and purpose - you know, we’ve sort of moved into a kind of social activism based on the Bible. We’re going to solve people’s problems, get out and do these kinds of things, but as the guy from the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary says, “This is an eclipse, a blocking out of Christ,” and I have to agree with him.

Dave: Well, but of course they would say, “Well, we still preach Christ.” Well, then why did you take it out of the constitution? Seems a bit odd - the gospel of Jesus Christ. Then of course, you’ve got all kinds of Christs out there, so I don’t know that that would even tie them down. Gospel of Jesus Christ - they could define that as they want.

Tom: Which many do.

Dave: There must have been a reason why they have changed this. Are they afraid of offending someone with the name of Jesus Christ?

Tom: Are they trying to make it more acceptable to a wider range of people? But that runs into all kinds of problems. 

Dave: So our God-given mission - well, what God do you believe in? And you don’t have to believe in Jesus anymore; you’ve got a God-given mission and something we are supposed to accomplish for God. See, when you begin to talk about God in general and you leave Jesus Christ out, then you have problems.

Tom: Well, you don’t have the solution to mankind’s problems.

Dave: That’s right. A lot of people will talk about God - some higher power, “we want to do God’s will,” you know. What does God want for us? But when you talk about Jesus Christ - well, wait a minute! Now, that ties it down. Jesus said, “I am the way, the truth, the life; no man comes to the Father but by me.” Well, if you don’t want to go along with that, then you’re going to have to change definitions so that we can talk about God instead of Jesus Christ.

Tom: They will not put up with sound doctrine in the last days. I think that’s what we are seeing here.

Dave: It seems to be what they’re up to, Tom.