Blurry Controversy

I feel a little behind the times in my post today. Since mid July, Baptists have been discussing…debating…responding to the New Baptist Covenant’s decision to exclude the Association of Welcoming and Affirming Baptists and the Baptist Peace Fellowship of North America from the Covenant’s invitation list due to the fact that these organizations are not a part of the North American Baptist Fellowship.

See http://www.abpnews.com/2675.article

Since this decision came to light, and since this article was written in July, other Baptists have responded, choosing and/or blurring sides. Blogger Theofragen aptly addressed some of these issues in his “Old Wine in New Wineskins Makes a Mess” blog in July. See http://theofragen.com/?m=200707

Even the Washington Post, with comments from GTU’s own Jay Johnson, wrote an article that, though it does not mention the New Baptist Covenant, touches on these divisive and deep-rooted issues. See http://www.washingtonpost.com/wp-dyn/content/article/2007/08/18/AR2007081801167_pf.html

As an ordained minister who serves in an American Baptist congregation that finds ourselves more in line with AWAB and BPFNA than any other organization, I must say that the entire situation has thrown me in a bit of a tizzy. So, I’ve spent the past few months marinating on these issues, acknowledging the possibility that New Baptist Covenant leaders were in a bit of loose-loose situation, while at the same time knowing that such a Baptist event has a responsibility to include ALL people at the table. In these months I have spent considerable time talking about these very controversies with congregants and friends who are part of the African American community and/or part of the LGBTQ community. So, I’ve pushed aside my feminist desire to write about the absurdities that surround Southwestern Seminary’s launch of a homemaking degree that puts women in our “proper and biblical place” (I know, I know…more old news). And, instead, I’ve embraced my feminist desire that demands equality and justice for all people and attempted to address the myriad of issues touched upon in the above articles.

And after all of that, I still find myself in a tizzy. In my experience thus far, I have found that the New Baptist Covenant is something exciting that I want to be a part of. But exclusion is not something that interests me. While I can say that I don’t think “exclusion” was the intention, I can certainly see how excluding it may feel for churches affiliated with AWAB and BPFNA. So, I ramble on and on without any kind of conclusion or solution.

Throughout these past three months, however, the words that emerged in the forefront of my mind are the words from the Day of Silence in April 2007. One of my students at church participated in this movement. As a response I blogged about it; my blog became a newsletter article at our church and I have decided to recount it again below:

Impressed: Katy’s Day of Silence (April 18, 2007)

It takes a lot to impress me. Overall I would describe myself as skeptically optimistic. I always question why people do things the way they do. This can often spill over into my viewing heart-felt emotions as mushy-gushy emotionalism, which probably isn’t really too fair of me. I’m a doubter, a skeptic, a cynic.

So, I was somewhat surprised at my reaction to the protest imbued in one of my fourteen year-old students today. While I enjoy my jobs, I often listen to the words of young students with an ear of jaded skepticism, knowing that their young feelings ebb and flow like the Bay Area weather, changing with each day and moment. This is not to say that I don’t think they’re sincere. I simply acknowledge that they are probably also fickle, just as I was at their age.

Today, however, I was struck by the words—or silence, rather—of one of my students.

She walked in and handed me a folded piece of notebook paper. I asked her what it was and she simply nodded, indicating that I should read it. I honestly thought that she had laryngitis and was unable to talk. Perhaps I should preface her folded notebook paper by saying that she’s a talker, quite a talker. In fact, Katy may possibly talk more than any teen I’ve ever met. She’s constantly in good cheer: laughing, talking, and telling stories. So, her silence was out of character, jarring even.

I unfolded her notebook paper and written on it, in bubbly teenage handwriting, were these words:

Day of Silence

I am participating in the day of silence, a youth movement protesting the silence faced by lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender people and their allies. My silence echoes that silence, which is caused by harassment, prejudice, and discrimination. I believe that silence is the first step toward fighting these injustices. Think about the voices you aren’t hearing today.

I told Katy that I would honor her silence, that I was proud of her for standing up for what she believes in, and that I think it takes a strong and bold person to do something like this in a middle school or youth group, particularly when I know how much she likes to talk. She nodded, smiled, folded her notebook paper back up, and placed the paper in her pocket. Throughout the evening she handed several people that sheet of notebook paper, including the pastor of our Baptist church. Like me, our pastor and the rest of our staff, agree with Katy’s silent sentiments, as we seek to affirm, welcome, and stand in solidarity with persons in the LGBT community.

Perhaps my student was simply doing what everyone else at school was doing. Perhaps I misunderstood peer pressure for heart-felt conviction. Or perhaps the fourteen year-old Katy reminded me that jaded skepticism is sometimes incorrect.

Al Mohler and Pat Robertson may mar the historical Baptist name. But it is people like Katy Duran who are reclaiming it, reminding us that Baptist and fundamentalist don’t have to mean the same thing. Rather, what it means for every person to be a priest is that every person has a right to stand for what he or she believes is true and just. Every person, no matter their age, sexual preference, gender orientation, or nationality, has the right to have access to the divine, however they see divinity made manifest. Today divinity was made manifest for me in the silent handwriting of a fourteen year-old middle school student named Katy.