Witness to the Truth: Book Review

Tuesday, I received Louis Moore’s book, Witness to the Truth. In reading this book, one thing stood out. You can’t pigeon hole Moore into any camp concerning the SBC controversy. When I hear some people say they are independent thinkers, I normally react with, “Riiiiiight.” But with this book, Moore lives up to the claim that, “My independent streak would never let me sell out thoroughly to a cause.” (pg. 219)

Moore tells of his experience at Southern Seminary during its liberal heyday. He recalled how he was told that the seminary was to, “take apart young seminarians’ faith and then at the end of the three year Master of Divinity degree program to put it all back together again in a more matured and study manner.” (pg. 57) I can’t tell you how much more I appreciated the conservative resurgence knowing that during my MDiv work at Southwestern, I never had to experience that philosophy of educating future pastors.

While not being hateful or vindictive, he reveals the blemishes in both the moderate and conservative camp of the SBC before, during, and after the time of the conservative resurgence. For example, he discusses some points on people like Dr. Richard Land but also sums up Dr. Land as an, “excellent boss and a good friend.” He also stated that during the resurgence, “The moderates had done a marvelous job of alienating and separating the academically bright from the academically pedestrian, the cultured from the primitive, the politically correct from the politically incorrect. Doing so, they had created a vast wasteland of disenfranchised people across the South.”

Moore also recalls how he was attacked by many in the moderate camp for going to work with Dr. Land. During the 1989 SBC meeting, he was accosted one evening at a Baylor University alumni get together with “20 progressively bitter conversations.” As the evening ended, Moore asked aloud, “Why, oh why, oh why are you people being so mean, so cruel, and so ugly?” Reading this and other incidences reminded me of Judge Pressler’s account of the meanness displayed by moderates during the eighties.

The big part that really opened my eyes concerning the IMB was Moore’s recollection of Rankin’s presidency. While positive about Rankin’s push into Russia after the Soviet Union collapsed, Moore was open and forthright about the renovation debacle that put Rankin at odds with some of the trustees. What was put forth as a less expensive option of renovating the current facilities (originally only a few million dollars) instead of relocating the IMB headquarters, ended up to be a total cost of forty million dollars. Plus there was nearly a million dollars of contracts signed by the administration without trustee approval.

Moore also cleared some air concerning Dr. Paige Patterson’s questioning of Rankin’s leadership with this statement, “Later, when Paige Patterson began to question Jerry’s leadership, moderates and some conservatives attributed to Paige some kind of evil motive. They never acknowledged when or how the issue really began.” (pg. 284) It seems that Dr. Patterson did not have evil motives as stated by some, but was concerned over how the leadership of the biggest missionary sending organization was not using the resources given to her wisely.

Another incident was the issue of IMB staff traveling for extended periods of time as mixed couples. In a meeting with Jerry Rankin, Don Kammerdiener, and Avery Willis, this issue was discussed and it was resolved that it was a time to get “tough” and a policy eliminating this activity was initiated. Afterwards, the department directors fought against this policy and instead of backing Moore, the other men in the meeting (Jerry, Don, and Avery) all allowed Moore to take the heat.

One final thing about the IMB as retold by Moore. I know from my personal experience that the administration and staff at Richmond are all hard workers dedicated to the cause of missions. Back when I worked at the World Mission Center at SWBTS, I had the opportunity to meet some of them and I was impressed by their dedication. I have wondered since that time why there was reported tension between the trustees and the IMB staff. Two things were mentioned about the reason this possibly is the case. First, I was really surprised at the fact that non-Southern Baptists occupied key positions in the IMB with even a Unitarian-Universalist on board who was, “quite antagonistic toward Southern Baptists.” (pg. 291) Those of other denominations do not understand, in many cases, why and how Baptists operate. When decisions come from the trustees that uphold Baptist Distinctives, then a situation is created that may cause tension. The other reason was that Dr. Rankin had his own style of private caucusing when he disagreed with the trustees on certain issues. According to Moore during the renovation fiasco:

“Instead of openness and transparency, Jerry turned to the age-old political tactic of circling the wagons and hunkering down for a fight. Trustees who questioned him were seen as challengers to his authority and as threats to peace. Such an attitude only made things worse.” (pg. 284)

With this attitude from Rankin concerning questions over the appropriation of millions of dollars, no wonder tension has existed between the IMB’s top man and the trustees who are charged to hold the president and organization accountable to the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention. Moore offers this evaluation of the overall situation:

“I firmly believe had Jerry offered a genuine, heartfelt apology, moved to tender his resignation, and refused to let his staff take any hits, trustees would have forgiven him, insisted that he remain in office, and pulled together to support his presidency. Instead his stubborn resistance gave way to almost a decade of internecine warfare that still flares up today.” (pg. 285)

Before you think this book was entirely an exposé on Jerry Rankin, Moore offers criticism about the bureaucracy that still exists under conservative leadership:

“During my years inside the SBC bureaucracy I saw clearly the answer to my question about whether the conservative Resurgence would end up like the pigs in Animal Farm. I saw conservatives lose their ideals about reducing the size and scope of the bureaucracy, about eliminating the bureaucracy’s lavish expenditures, and about making the local church the true ‘headquarters’ of the denomination. Once in power these conservatives found the large staffs, exciting expense accounts, and the controlling executive style of the denomination too tempting a prize to give up. I saw conservatives who once disdained the moderates’ love affair with statistics instead fall in love with and try to manipulate these numbers themselves. I saw conservatives who once lamented moderate control of the press and lack of transparency in the denomination turn and advocate more press control and more secretiveness than the moderates ever could have dreamed.” (pg. 323-24)

I believe Moore brought a valid point with this statement. Dr. Patterson has been open about his salary to the trustees at Southwestern by making his salary known to them. I believe this should occur (if it hasn’t already) with Morris Chapman, Jerry Rankin, Jeff Iorg, Danny Akin, Albert Mohler, Chuck Kelly, Geoff Hammonds, Tom Rainer and other entity heads. For any leader to keep his salary or staff salaries a secret leaves room for the mismanagement of Southern Baptist entity finances.

And yes, Moore does talk about the whole issue over tongues, baptism and Wade Burleson. I could go into it, but if I told you everything, you wouldn’t buy the book. :-) All together, the whole book was very interesting and gave me a greater background and understanding to the reasons behind the issues we are facing today. He details a lot of what happened in the resurgence from an outsiders perspective, and finally, an insiders perspective. I would highly recommend this book to anyone seeking answers of what happened over the last thirty years, but also to those who are wondering where we need to go.

One last point I would like to make concerning Moore’s book. I believe he was dead on in how people like Dr. Patterson and Judge Pressler have been unfairly treated by some in this generation. I will close with this one final quote from Moore that speaks for itself:

“The current generation that fought the war for the Conservative Resurgence now is either retiring and fading into the sunset or simply dying off. Most of the current denomination leaders have forgotten or have chosen to ignore how they got into their current posts. None would ever have been selected for denomination leadership by the previous moderate regime. Had early leaders such as Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson not led the charge, members of the current Convention leadership would still be pastors, evangelists, or missionaries looking in from the outside of the denomination. Yet a sizable number of denominational execs who rose to power because of this duo recoils at the mention of Pressler’s and Patterson’s names. (pg. 325)