Brian Ammons’ got his chapter banned from the Baptimergent book & here it is for you and your friends for FREE!! Here’s the story….
Smyth & Helwys, the press whose primary market is the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, published the first book of a hyphenated emergent collection - Baptimergent. It was an excellent book with all types of Baptists collected together including Southern, American, Alliance, Cooperative, Liberal, Conservative, Dudes, Ladies, Black, White, Democrats, Republicans, and even Hauerwasians!!! For some reason Smyth & Helwys thought it would be ok for them to have a chapter calling out most Baptist churches as having an idolatrous love of our country or economic blinders to the message of justice in scripture and other such seemingly controversial issues BUT should an ordained gay baptist minister tell his story without obligating the reader to agree with him it gets cut for being ‘Too Gay.’
That banned chapter was written by Brian Ammons whose Big Tent legend continues to grow! When those of us who also contributed chapters found out his chapter wasn’t going to be published we were very disappointed and considered dropping the project all together. That said I guess we weren’t surprised. Being a very proud Baptist, one of the things that continuously embarrasses me is NOT our fundamentalist cousins in the SBC but the uber-wussy “moderate” Baptists who basically pretend to be radically different than their SBC friends because they ordain women (and hire very few of them). I have long hoped for a Baptist community that is a big enough fellowship to permit every disciple of Jesus to be present, honest, and then encouraged to take the next step in their faith. When issues intimately connected to the heart of faith for us more progressive baptists comes up we are usually told by leaders two things….1)we agree with you! 2)don’t speak so loud… I get how this is pragmatic if you want to keep a bunch of people in your churches, denominational fellowship, giving money, supporting ministries, and such. I just find this pragmatic muzzle burdensome and only an expectation of us more progressive types. I don’t see Jesus using a muzzle to get a bigger audience, John the BAPTIST (lol) didn’t, Clarence Jordan sure didn’t, Walter Rauschenbusch didn’t…..any way.
I hope you download THIS ARTICLE, read it, enjoy it, discuss it, and share it! Of course it would be awesome if you got the Baptimergent book too but I can’t say I wouldn’t be thrilled to think even more people got the banned article and enjoyed it.
Previous Brian Ammons posts…. Big Tent Sexuality with Richard Rohr & Reframing Sexuality
This is what happens when people are more concerned with keeping folks in the pews than in doing the right thing. And, giving EVERYONE a voice is the right thing, even if it means I have to listen to those fundamentalists that make my skin crawl. Being a Methodist, I wish I could say we hold the high ground. But, we don’t. While the Book of Discipline condemns discrimination against anyone on the basis of sexual preference, we still won’t ordain LGBT brothers and sisters and, recently, the Judicial Council affirmed the right of pastors to exclude people from membership if they saw fit. If the Church (big C) doesn’t open the doors to everyone, they’re not really open to anyone.
Wow Brian! That was amazing or should I say that was “too blazing sweet.”
Thanks for sharing the chapter with us. I bought the book and really enjoyed it but this would have been a superb addition.
First, let me say, that this is a brilliantly written article – full of integrity. It reflects the hard work of self-reflection, scholarship, and theological rigor that appears to come together as deceptively effortless. That said, I’m not surprised at all that it didn’t make it in the book (although I wish it had). I don’t think it’s because it is too gay but because it is too sexual. It’s the entire point that Brian raises — we are so much more comfortable finding labels for sexuality that compartmentalize and make us feel safe but do nothing in helping us make connections between who we are as sexual beings and how that connects to our very essence as beings made in God’s image. The chapter is quite simply “Too Much Talk of Sex”.
I hope you will keep exploring this, Brian, and help us, the Church, figure out how to have the conversation you describe. Keep helping us ask the questions you are asking. And thank you.
If you liked Brian’s chapter, and are looking to connect with Baptists who embrace progressive theology, check out the Alliance of Baptists (http://www.allianceofbaptists.org/). The upcoming Alliance Convocation in Louisville will include — amongst a host of great speakers and events — both Walter Brueggemann and Philip Gulley, author of the recent book, “If the Church Were Christian.”
I appreciate Tripp calling out moderate Baptists as uber-wussy. That’s my favorite line.
The most difficult aspect of getting our Baptimergent stories published was having to move forward with the book without Brian. Brian was most gracious in encouraging us to move forward so that the voices included could be heard. I am glad Brian’s chapter is getting circulation. It was one of my favorite chapters in the book when I did the editing and piecing together.
My experience has taught me this much; the church as I know it is only focused on protecting its interests. Particularly those that will afford its leaders to remain employed and living comfortably. The term “moderate” among Baptists means “moderately engaged,” i.e. “we won’t do anything that could offend the sensibilities of our giving body.”
Faith & sexuality is a vital conversation because the church has lost the battle of self-understanding…of which sexuality is a significant part. The continuous dismissal of conversations like this further exposes the church’s dehumanizing theology and practice. I’ll give a shit about church when the church gives a shit about humanity. As for now, I can do without. There is so much community elsewhere, and consequently so much of God elsewhere.
I had the pleasure of listening to Brian and getting to meet him at Big Tent, so I am thrilled to see this chapter posted. And if you resonate with Brian’s assertion that “for the most part Christians in recent years have bought into reducing a conversations about sexuality to a debate about “sexual orientation,”" then you might be interested in hearing what Jenell Paris talks about in her new book The End of Sexual Identity (I know I am!
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