Cybercolumn by Jeanie Miley: Baptist definitions

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Posted: 7/28/06

CYBER COLUMN:
Baptist definitions

By Jeanie Miley

“Don’t let anyone crowd you,” my father told me when I was an adolescent. And “Watch extremes!”

What he told me “took,” especially when it comes to being backed into the corner of a religious, denominational or political label!

Labeling diminishes and dishonors human beings, and yet we seem to live in a culture that is fraught with those who love to label and polarize, divide and conquer us.

Jeanie Miley

Recently, I awoke to the reality that even if I don’t like being labeled, definitions are a part of life, and perceptions matter. I needed to do a little deeper thinking about just what kind of Baptist I am.

As it often happens, my awakening came through a challenge from somebody much younger than I, someone who backed me into a corner.

“Don’t assume that I know what you mean when you say you are a _______ Baptist,” the young person said to me, and I realized that, indeed, definitions evolve over time. What he understood about Baptist life was not necessarily what I understood.

“You need to step out there and be clear,” he said, and he was right.

My young teacher told me a term may mean one thing in one part of the country and something else in another! Nuances, projections and interpretations get layered on to all of our definitions of what it means to be Baptist.

Thinking through what it means to be a Christian in this contemporary culture, and what it means to be a Baptist, I’ve pondered what it means to view religion as a means of keeping people in line or religion as a means of setting them free. It makes a difference if you believe the Bible is a book of rules or that it is the account of God’s relationship with his people, guiding us into a relationship with him and with each other.

It makes a difference if you believe the church exists to indoctrinate people or to educate them, to promote a political agenda or to nurture a community of faith. It makes a difference if you believe God is Love or God is Judge and Jury, or maybe both.

It makes a difference in how you carry out your church life if you believe the pastor is a shepherd, the authority, a teacher or a CEO. It makes a difference if you believe in the priesthood of every believer or if you believe some people have privileged access to God. Hierarchical structures and independent and autonomous structures both reveal and shape how people carry out their lives of faith, and the differences are big.

It makes a difference if you start your theology with the original creation of human beings, made in the very image of God, or if you start with the Fall. It makes a difference if you start your theology with the teachings of Paul, or if you are begin with and are committed to the centrality of Christ.

You can fill in the blank with any number of adjectives that narrow the definition of what it means to be a Baptist, but you can’t be sure anyone else will have a clue what that means—or care. And yet, for others, once you use any one of the adjectives we have come to use to define ourselves in our religious lives, you are locked in to the definition someone else has of you.

The truth is that what kind of Baptist you are opens some peoples’ hearts to you, and sometimes, it closes them, and a lot of that is outside your control!

Jeanie Miley is an author and columnist and a retreat and workshop leader. She is married to Martus Miley, pastor of River Oaks Baptist Church in Houston, and they have three adult daughters. Got feedback? Write her at Writer2530@aol.com.


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