Will Campbell and the Baptist heritage

Will Campbell died June 3, 2013. His funeral was very large and since his death, most religious pundits and editors of religious magazines have been unable not to say a few words about his life.

Will Campbell is of my generation. He was three years my senior. As a minister, it was difficult not to be aware of Will Campbell. He was born in Mississippi to a family with apparent connections with the Klu Klux Klan. He was a white civil rights leader and was always ready to take on any perceived injustice. He wrote books. Some reached the top of bestseller lists. He was a Baptist and was ordained at the age of 17. He was a graduate of Yale Divinity School.

Will Campbell was truly an American iconoclast, but one thing never changed in his whole lifetime. He was a Baptist. He was a practicing Baptist. He knew and treasured the Baptist tradition of religious freedom. This column is not about Will Campbell. His death is an occasion to comment about the tradition of Baptist freedom.

Lena Zendron was a single lady who lived in Cottage Grove, Ore. She was raised in a Roman Catholic family. She was a religious cousin to Will Campbell. She found religious freedom at the First Baptist Church of Cottage Grove. She loved the Baptist tradition. She was very active in the church in general, but her favorite position was teacher of junior high girls. It was a job she did for many years. My wife, Darlene, was one of her many students. Darlene still cites Lena as the No. 1 force in shaping her spiritual and religious life. One of her messages to students was “do not allow anyone tell you what you have to believe. It is your responsibility to read the Bible for yourself. What you end up believing is between you and God.” It is the Baptist heritage well stated.

For people who have been reared in other Christian traditions, Baptists are difficult to understand. Baptists do not embrace any of the historic creeds of other Christian groups or churches. Baptists are quick to share what they believe, but they have no confession of faith that is binding on anyone. Baptists reject religious hierarchies. There are no Baptist bishops. The power to ordain ministers is held by local churches. While standards for ordination are common, a local church can ordain any person it chooses without regard to anyone’s standards. Will Campbell was ordained at age 17 and at the time had no college or seminary training. In Baptist churches, any member can conduct a communion service, baptize people, officiate at weddings and preach sermons. Baptist churches elect their own leadership and select their own ministers.

If someone wants to do research on Baptists, there is no shortage of material. However, the researcher discovers, as could be expected, a history of disagreement and even disagreements over the nature of the disagreements. Baptists are Christianity’s Libertarians.

Baptists were a tiny Christian separatist minority in England in the 17rh century. In America, the Baptist freethinkers found fertile soil. Today collectively, all the Baptist organizations and churches make up the largest Protestant group in America. Baptists in America number more than 40 million Christian believers. The largest of the Baptist groups is the Southern Baptist Convention with more than 16 million members. The diversity among Southern Baptists is so great that no one can honestly speak for them.

Baptists were in the forefront to establish religious freedom in America. When the First Amendment is violated or denied in any way, Baptists are there in force to insist on religious freedom for all Americans. When someone says, “I am a Baptist,” it does not tell what the person believes about God, Jesus or the Bible. A Baptist may be a hard-core Fundamentalist or a very freethinking questioner of everything religious. Whatever set of beliefs a Baptist expresses, it has first been freely chosen. It is not unusual to find significant differing opinions within a local congregation. It is Baptist life at its best.

With this level of freedom, it is not surprising to find chaos at almost every level of Baptist life. People leave Baptist churches with freedom. If there are 40 million Baptists in America today, I am certain there are at least 40 million former Baptists. Baptists are great recruiters. Some of the recruits love Baptist freedom and stay a Baptist for a lifetime. Other recruits leave to find a more ordered church life. Still others exercise freedom and leave Christian faith altogether.

Will Campbell was certainly an important religious figure for my generation. We honor him for the courageous life that he lived. His roots were Baptist; his ordination was Baptist; he never stopped being a Baptist. He read and interpreted the Bible for himself. His soul was free to relate to God without the help of a priest, bishop or creed. He is a great reminder of what the Baptist tradition of freedom is all about.

For me, Will Campbell is also a reminder of the Lena Zendrons. Their numbers are very large. There are tens of thousands of Lenas who are faithfully teaching new generations of religious freethinkers. They are the ones who make sure the Baptist tradition of religious freedom will never die.

The Rev. Howard Bess is a retired American Baptist minister, who lives in Palmer. His email address is hdbss@mtaonline.net.

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