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The Wittenburg Door Interview: Bob Flynn
...WITTENBURG DOOR: What's it mean to be a "sullen Baptist"?

ROBERT FLYNN: I want to believe that Baptists know the same kind of joy that other Christians know and many do, but some Baptists pride themselves on being uncooperative, resentful of the spiritual fulfillment and enlightenment of non-Baptists, greedy for power and prestige.

Christians have been no more successful at transcending the culture of their country than other religions. American Christians have been no better than Irish or Italian or French Christians at transcending nationalism. Many Baptists are Americans first, Baptists second and Christians third, and they'll go to war on that basis. I have been one of those Baptists. Most of the people who have expressed admiration for Sullen Baptist have told me they were once Baptist and it was the exclusiveness, the factionalism, suspicion and intrigue that drove them to other churches.

Much of that sullenness comes from fear of change, fear of the future, fear that God is not the creator and not in control of the universe. We don't have a crisis of courage, we have a crisis of faith. If you believe in God the creator, what difference does it make how God chose to do it? The world has always been a frightening place and humans have created gods to give them some power over their fear. The future has always been frightening and humans have resisted change. Humans now have the power to destroy life as we know it. We have the power through cloning to re-invent ourselves. So we make a god of some imagined peaceful and perfect past. The world needs leaders who believe the future is in God's hands to guide invention and information in positive ways. God gave us the power of creation and destruction and God's people cannot be in the rear leading a retreat to some imagined idyllic past where the church controlled truth and men controlled women. We cannot make a god of the future or of the past....

...Muslims believe the Ten Commandments as fervently as Baptists and come closer to our interpretation of those commandments than Catholics do. They have a stern morality in areas they control, much like Baptists do, and much of that morality comes from the Old Testament. The strictest Muslims follow Old Testament precepts such as polygamy and stoning homosexuals and disobedient daughters. Muslims also believe that Jesus was born of a virgin and will come again. They don't forbid alcohol because they think it is bad but because they are required to pray five times a day and alcohol would interfere with that devotion.

Islam has its version of KKK, Christian Identity, white supremacy and other hate groups. They no more represent Islam than the KKK represents Christianity. It was the Christians who organized pogroms against the Jews, Christians who put Hitler in power, Christians who looked the other way during the Holocaust. Southern Baptist leaders had good things to say about Hitler because he extolled family values and claimed he was on a mission from God to destroy evil. He identified evil as the Jews, homosexuals, liberals, the mentally and physically handicapped. Exchange Muslims for Jews and you have the current Christian hit list. The present difficulty between Jews and Muslim began when largely Christian powers decided to recompense the Jews for Christian persecution by giving them a homeland in territory that had been inhabited by Arabs far longer than by Jews....

...It took me a long time to accept that God loves Saddam Hussein as much as he loves me, Osama bin Laden as much as he loves George Bush. God help my unbelief.

I have far less faith that violence can save the world or improve it—although the temptation is still there. I still revere military heroes who fight to the death for what they believe, but I revere spiritual heroes more. And I believe moral and spiritual heroism takes more courage. Dietrick Bonhoeffer, Martin Luther King, Jr. and Will Campbell have replaced Audie Murphy. Also the families of the Marines who died in the battle for Falluja who have donated $600,000 to the refugees from that city. I see Christ in their lives whether they are Christian or not.