EDITORIAL: What's in a name? For Southern Baptists maybe quite a bit

The Southern Baptists, America’s largest protestant denomination, may be discovering that you can’t have it both ways.

The Baptists have taken some stern positions in the past on a variety of topics, and good for them if that matches their belief and conscience. But don’t expect everyone to like that, or to like you for doing it.

The realization that not everyone does was revealed in a recent poll commissioned by the Baptists themselves in which 40 percent of respondents had an unfavorable view of the group and 44 percent said the Southern Baptist label would be an impediment to joining the church. That poll, in turn, helped push a Southern Baptist Convention (the church’s ruling body) panel this week to recommend that the church adopt what’s being called an “add-on” description. If the convention as a whole approves, churches in the Southern Baptist Convention can call themselves “Great Commission Baptists,” instead of Southern Baptists. The name comes from the event, noted in the Gospel of Matthew (Matt. 28:16-20), where a post-resurrection Jesus instructs his disciples to “go and make disciples of all nations, baptizing them in the name of the Father and of the Son and of the Holy Spirit … .”

It’s hard to know just what to make of all this.

Part of us feels offended that the Southern Baptists would be so quick to chuck the “Southern” appellation, but another part understands that inclination perfectly. The denomination got its start in the Deep South – Augusta, Ga. – in 1845. It was a splinter group from the plain old Baptists, formed over the moral schism that also fractured the Methodist Church – slavery. The Baptist minister most credited with starting the new denomination was a slave owner himself, as were other Baptist preachers.

The church finally acknowledged, and apologized for, that outrageous stance in 1955, but, understandably, some still view it through racial eyes. Modern leaders of the SBC believe the regional association, and all it entails, not only prevents membership, but also stunts the church’s growth outside the South.

Whether a naming alternative will help remains to be seen. Among other things, it seems a little superficial, which is probably not what organized (or disorganized, for that matter) religion ought to be about.

We do give the Baptists credit for tackling this problem head on, although that should not come as much of a surprise. That is their normal approach.

The Southern Baptists take evangelism — i.e., the Great Commission — about as seriously as any Christians. So realizing that their mission was impaired by their name, that it may be a thorn in their side like the one that tormented the Apostle Paul, they were willing to do something about it. That is an altogether fitting act.

That it might not erase the vestiges of a 176-year-old legacy tomorrow is a given.

Then again, Rome wasn’t built – nor converted to Christianity – in a day either. It took centuries to do that and just look what happened there.

Rising gas prices

Gasoline prices are going up again. The potential demands of an improving economy, compiled with speculation over Iranian intentions in the Gulf of Hormuz have driven oil prices up. Gasoline is made from oil … well, you know all this.

We took a vote on this and it was unanimous: we all think rising gas prices are bad. What to do about it, other than moan loudly … we don’t know.

Unsigned editorials represent the views of this newspaper. Editorial board members are: Mark Blum (regional publisher); Tucker Mitchell (regional editor), Kimberly Ginfrida (content manager), John Sweeney (political writer), Rebecca Ducker (multimedia editor) and David Johnson (regional circulation director).