DownshoreDrift

By heritage, birth, and address, I am a Southerner. I have only lived 3 years of my life outside of the South. I went to college at an SEC school (Miss. St., but am a huge LSU fan) and totally get college football. I love Southern cooking, Southern history, and fell in love with a Southern girl. All of my children have Southern accents. I am a distant relative of Robert E. Lee (but, aren't all Southerners?) and a direct descendent of 5 brothers who rode with the 17th Mississippi Calvary in the Civil War. I get misty eyed when I hear "Dixie," still emotionally regret that we couldn't get the job done at Gettysburg, and think that Sherman was quite the jerk for burning up the South on his march to the Atlantic. I am a Republican and am quite conservative politically. I love Elvis, blues, and pork bbq. I am a Southern Baptist and have been raised on white-hot, revivalist religion my whole life and I love the way that there is a major focus on children and family in the South.

I'm saying all of this to say that I get the Southern thing. I get the culture, the people, the values, and the expectations. I understand that we have this inferiority complex because we are the only Americans to have ever been defeated in war and occupied and we still can't get over it. The whole Civil War thing is transferred to discussions about whether SEC football is better than Big Ten football and we all cheer when Alabama beats Notre Dame or Florida beats Ohio St or we happen to attract a foreign auto plant. We always seem to have something to prove to ourselves and everyone else and it comes out through bragging about our accomplishments and an "everyone's out to get us" and, "they just don't understand" attitude. 

I also get that we have lots of problems. We have a pretty miserable track record on the race issue, and it seems to be something that we just want to put behind us instead of dealing with it in constructive ways. After the Civil Rights movement of the 1950's - 1970's, an uneasy truce has been brokered and everyone just wants to move on. But, are we making progress? Sometimes yes, other times, absolutely not. We also lead the nation in divorce, alcoholism, crime, incarceration per capita, and many other negative social indicators. On most national lists regarding education, income, healthcare, state government, etc., the bottom of the rankings are predictably filled by Arkansas, Louisiana, Mississippi, and Alabama. A few years ago, there was a tax initiative in Alabama that was voted down. The purpose was to relieve the tax burden off the poor and bring more equity to the system, since there is little property or state income tax. The surplus was to go to state infrastructure and to education, both of which are woefully underfunded. The slogan of the opposition was "We're Taxed Enough!" Alabama is 50th in taxes paid by citizens in the U.S. Oh, and the opposition was led by the state's Christian Coalition on a "family values" platform.

Which leads me to my question: How is religion, particularly the Baptist faith, bringing change to the South? How is the South becoming more God fearing and righteous because of our presence? How are we making a difference? Have we become so enculturated that we are no longer able to bring change? It seems to me, from my experience here, that we are eaten up with materialism and a "live for the present" mentality. We have bought into the Suburban American Dream and we are lapping it up as quickly as possible. When I talk with most people about Jesus, they already claim to know Him or have prayed a prayer and are saved. But, their lives are no different and they don't see any need to connect with a church. Sunday's are spent at the lake with family. As long as people are "good" or "moral" we seem to have no problem with them, and we save our ire for liberals or Hollywood. I live in a state where 77% agreed with Roy Moore over the Ten Commandments, but only around 30% go to church. Why the disconnect?

I wonder if we have presented a gospel that is so based on personal experience and decision that we have led people away from a TRUE relationship with Jesus and into real danger? Have we inoculated people against the gospel by presenting them a "gospel" that so reinforces our culture that people see no real difference in us? And, I am not talking about the "sinful" Hollywood culture. I am just talking about the world system that we live in here in the South (make money, be happy, live a good life, have fun, protect yourself from "those kinds of people," be upwardly mobile, be independent, live for yourself, etc.). Are we capable of bringing about change in people's lives, in our communities, and in our region? What would revival really look like? What would happen if there was true racial reconciliation? What would happen if people who claimed to know God, but never gathered with His people, changed? What would happen if our churches started treating the epidemic of divorce in our communities as a real problem, instead of just glazing over it? What would happen if, instead of propping up much of Southern genteel society and culture, we actually began to confront some of our hypocrisies and inconsistencies?

I fear that we have lost our prophetic voice in our own land and it happened a long time ago. With a church on every corner, what would have happened if Southern Baptists had been convicted by Scripture and the Holy Spirit and had led the way on the race issue, instead of coming behind, kicking and screaming? Would the social rebellion of the 1960's have happened? Would we have lost our voice and had to have aligned ourselves with a political party to be listened to? Would be be trying to "take back America," or would we have ever lost it? There is a price to pay for being on the wrong side of history, especially on moral issues, and we are paying it now. Maybe the problem isn't with the news media, Hollywood, Gays, Democrats, or the Big Ten. Maybe the problem is with us. Maybe we have become so comfortable in our Southern, religious cocoon with our mega churches, conferences, Lifeway's, and Christian radio, that we have failed to realize that our influence for Christ has shrunk to negligible levels. Everyone thinks that they know Jesus, and when they look at us, they don't see a huge difference. So, why should they change? Why repent? We don't have a compelling answer, except that our theology is right and they had better believe it, or else.  It seems that the early church had a bit more going for them than that.

Maybe these are just some ramblings on a Friday afternoon. Admittedly, this is not a very well thought through essay, but more of a stream of consciousness type thing. But, as I continue to try to be a Christian and lead a church in the Deep South, I find that our cultural accomodation really hampers us from being the prophetic witness that God has called us to be. What will it take for revival to come? We desperately need it. Maybe we need to look at the cultural and spiritual rot in our own region before we wage Culture Wars against others.

What do you think? More later . . .   

Taharka Robinson of Brooklyn started a march from Montgomery to Selma today to help bring awareness of lost values among young black people in America as they are "falling prey to a culture of violence and obscenity."  He says, "We as a black community are making ourselves look like fools," and, "Enough is enough. It's time we worked as a community to clean up the radio, the music and our neighborhoods of a popular culture that disrespects women and morality and glorifies drugs and physical violence."

When asked why he was marching from Montgomery to Selma, he said, "I chose to start this march in Montgomery because this is where the light of freedom was lit for all blacks by the stand Rosa Parks, Rev. King, E.D. Nixon and others made from here. What better place to begin an effort to end a culture of disrespect and violence and help give our young people their souls back?"

This is a very positive step, in my opinion. It is great to see African American leaders speaking to their own young people about the destruction that they are bringing upon themselves. I also find it interesting that Montgomery-Selma is still seen as a place to begin movements to help liberate black people from the chains that bind them. May more movements start here that truly help set people free from social, economic, and most prominently spiritual bondage. May God use us to see it come to pass.

(Bad Cell Phone Picture) Yesterday, I went to the Fourth Annual Mayor's Prayer Breakfast in our city, Montgomery, AL.  It was a really special time of prayer for our city, worship, and praise to God for His blessings. It was started by Mayor Bobby Bright with the intention of bringing civic and religious leaders together in one place to seek God's blessing upon our city and guidance for the future. He is a Godly man who wants to see Montgomery reflect the character of Christ. I give Him major credit for that. Throughout the meeting, there were many references to Jesus being Lord over our city and remarks on how we should all be following Him. I agreed completely. There are over 300 individual churches in our city of 200,000 and many, many Christians, yet many in the Church of Montgomery is really trying to come together as one body. We have dozens of churches and ministries coming together to form a 24-7 House of Prayer and we are doing a Convoy of Hope in November with well over a hundred churches participating.  If we all prayed and acted out our faith, Montgomery could be a shining light in our nation. Many Christians are praying for just that and awesome things are happening in our city.

However, we still have lots of problems. We still have a lot of undercover racism from both blacks and whites. A better word to describe it is division and mistrust that often plays out moreso culturally than through anything official. Churches are leading the way in bringing about healing, however, and for that I praise God. There is still much work to be done, but we are beginning to see real movement. Our public school system is a mess, but groups like Partners in Education are working hard to build community involvement and address real issues. The major problems in our city have to do with cultures of crime, ignorance, carnality, and dependency. There can be real selfishness among people with means as well as without. The Church here is strong enough to make a major difference, but it is also fairly captive to the culture and is often not salt and light. It either goes along with the problems or retreats into isolation to live the "good life."

I am excited about what I see God doing, however. Things seem to be changing in this city that is so known for division (We are both the birthplace of the Confederacy and the Civil Rights movement). That division has continued until today, but intentional unity through the leadership of pastors like Jay Wolf of First Baptist and Kyle Searcy of Fresh Anointing International Church has broken down lots of barriers (See Baptist Press article on the work of these two pastors and churches in the One Montgomery movement). While a prayer breakfast hardly solves all the problems, it is a good step in getting people together for the right reasons. What are some positive things going on in your cities?