Love Contradicted

In his book, The Classic Baptist Heritage of Personal Truth, Louis Mauldin quotes the 17th Century Baptist, Richard Claridge:

Holiness which is against Love, is a Contradiction . . .All Church Principles which are against Universal Love, are against God, and Holiness, and the Churche. . . .
‘Tis a manifest Argument we have lost our first Love, when we thus inveigh against those that dissent from us.
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I am a recovering Southern Baptist. As early as 1968, long before the so-called “Conservative Resurgence” crusade tore apart the fabric of the Southern Baptist Convention, I sat in the Southwayside Baptist Church in Fort Worth, Texas, and wrote out a personal declaration of independence. Among other things I would no longer be committed to, I declared my independence of the Southern Baptist Convention.

I continue to be a Baptist in the South, a Baptist in the historical sense, or, as Mauldin notes in his title, a Classic Baptist. This is not a Baptist blog–hasn’t been, isn’t going to be. But there are elements of recent Southern Baptist history that are worthy of consideration by any and all Christians. Even nonbelievers, ideally, would take note of today’s emphasis, in order to better understand what Christians are truly about.

Since 1979, the bitterness of the Baptist battles has made front-page news in the secular press. The leaders of the highly successful conservative takeover expressed their strong aversion to the “liberals” in vicious, foul, and intemperate language. The so-called liberals were called skunks and worse. The takeover leaders announced their intent to “go for the jugular.” They had neither read nor considered any ideas like those of Richard Claridge.

Although the “liberals,” who called themselves “moderates,” did not use such vile language, they made up for it with crude jokes and mockery. Many of us Baptists in the South were appalled by the vile, hostile, uncongenial, and aggressive language each side used against the other.

The war has been won by the “neo-conservatives,” but mop-up battles continue, as does the attendant language and attitudes.

Baptists and other battling “Christians” need to ponder the words of Richard Claridge, and think them over in the light of their Holy Scriptures, particularly that part called, The Four Gospels.

Mauldin’s book contains the antidote for the poison that has been, rapidly, debilitating the Baptist life and soiling the Baptist public image..