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Three famous Baptists Amos 5: 18 – 24 Rev. Peter R Green, Sunday morning, 23 Sep, 2007 |
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A PEOPLE without a keen sense of justice will never compensate for it by their religious ideas, whether they focus on sacrifice or whether they focus on judgment. Amos reminds us how important it is to be just people in order to keep close to God. He says, AM 5:24 But let justice roll on like a river, In the period from around the beginning of World War I until the 1970s, most Baptists fell into what has been called the Babylonian Captivity of Evangelicals, when, to all intents and purposes, we disappeared from the wider stage. People who had begun as changers of society let themselves be squeezed into the world’s mould, imagining that refraining from beer and make–up was the same as not conforming to the world and its ways. But some Baptists have always stood against the tide. They may have changed when change was needed but they never abandoned their Biblical and ethical roots. Today I wanted to talk about three famous Baptists, and it was hard to make a selection. I thought of John Bunyan, the Pastor of the Bedford Church in England, whose book, The Pilgrim’s Progress is still read around the world, over 450 years since it was written. I thought of a couple of US Presidents, but I realised that their work was not openly driven by their Baptist convictions. I thought of Martin Luther King, whose Baptist convictions drove him to oppose the entrenched racism in the US. And I thought of Clifford Hughes, the Australian heart surgeon who is now in charge of the clean up of the NSW medical system. There are so many I could have spoken of. Even Jimmy Carter, the US President who did wear his faith openly and did what he could for a fairer world. Carter and Clinton — another Baptist — were probably the most progressive Presidents the US had ever had. Carter was the more moral man, and certainly the more open about his faith, but they were both informed by their beliefs. There were also so many good women to consider. Kathryn Kuhlman was one, who did much to make the charismatic side of Christianity more mainstream. I am sorry I couldn’t have added more women. But I decided to settle on a representative and well–documented group: William Carey, the Father of modern Missions, Billy Graham, who liberated evangelicals to act on their social consciences, and Tim Costello, who has given Christianity a greater voice in Australia. Each was a committed evangelical, and each did something to change his world. WILLIAM CAREY Can you imagine spending six years, learning a foreign language, translating the entire Bible into it — and then discovering that your writing was so formal that no one could read it? So you have to start again... William Carey had just that experience. He was born in 1761 in Northamptonshire, England. He was apprenticed to a shoemaker at 14 and came to faith in Christ through the Methodist Revivals, but later linked with the Calvinistic Particular Baptists. He was not formally educated, but he was determined to learn. He was a keen reader and a gifted linguist, and even taught himself Latin as a child. While working as a shoemaker he learnt Greek from local villager, then taught himself Hebrew, Italian, Dutch and French. He also had a fair knowledge of botany. He eventually became a schoolmaster in the village of Moulton and the local Baptist pastor. At a Ministers’ Meeting he argued that Christians have a duty to take the good news to the unconverted around the world. An old minister, J. R Rylands, told him, “Sit down, young man! When God pleases to convert the heathen, he will do it without your aid or mine!” That is how Calvinism was among Baptists at the time. Carey was excited to read Captain Cook’s journals of his voyages of exploration in the South Pacific and discovery of Australia. But he was not keen just to know facts. New knowledge must have practical applications. So he wrote a paper An Enquiry into the Obligations of Christians to use Means for the Conversion of the Heathens. He took this paper to the Baptist Assembly. The result was the formation of a Society — which became the Baptist Missionary Society. Among its members were Carey, Andrew Fuller, John Ryland, and John Sutcliff. In 1793, Carey, his wife, Dorothy, and their son, together with a Dr Thomas, left for India to become the first Baptist Missionaries. For six years, Carey managed indigo plantations, taught himself Bengali, began translating the Bible into Bengali, and worked out the principles for mission work in India. In this time, his son, Peter, died of dysentry, and his wife suffered a nervous breakdown. She never recovered, and died in 1807. Then more missionaries arrived from England, and the Careys moved to Serampore in Danish territory, where they could work freely, because the British Government in India was hostile to missionaries. Meanwhile, Carey became Professor of Bengali at the newly–formed Fort William College, led the little Baptist church to refuse to give way to the Indian Caste system, campaigned against sati — the practice of burning the widow to death on her husband’s funeral pyre, wrote Bengali and Sanskrit dictionaries and grammars, translated Indian writings into English, and founded Serampore College which became the first degree-granting institution in Asia. It both trained local men for Christian ministry and also provided an education in arts and sciences for anyone able to do it, regardless of caste or religion. He also founded the Agri Horticultural Society of India, which is still a significant institution in Indian life. Carey died in 1834. If there was ever a person who followed his own advice to “Expect great things from God; attempt great things for God.” it was Carey. Everything Carey did had the aim of mission. Yet nothing he did was without deep social significance. He wanted Indian people to live the best lives possible, with the greatest opportunities, because that is what it means to live out the gospel and drive darkness away. Without Carey, we would not have the many Baptist missionary societies around the world, nor would most denominations have missionary societies, either. Carey and his friends broke through Calvinistic neglect, and revolutionised the work of Christian mission. BILLY GRAHAM We all know Billy Graham from his evangelistic crusades, especially the famous 1959 Crusade in Sydney, which has often been described as the closest we ever came to a general Revival in NSW. Can you imagine that Billy Graham’s first engagement ended because his fiancée said his Christian commitment was too slack? Graham was born in Charlotte, North Carolina, in 1918\. He was converted at a revival meeting in 1934, and graduated from Wheaton College in 1943 with a degree in Anthropology. He was also ordained as a Baptist minister and pastored a small church for a couple of years. In the mid 1940s he took over a failing radio program and made it a successful means of outreach. He later helped found Youth for Christ and travelled in Europe conducting evangelistic rallies. In 1949, he began a tent crusade in Los Angeles. It was to run for three weeks, but ran for eight. Billy Graham became a national figure. William Randolph Hearst, the publisher, told his newspapers, “Puff Graham!” The reporter, David Frost, led a campaign to have Billy Graham conduct his first crusade in England. In 1959, Graham came to Australia. Many of the older leaders in the churches today are still converts from the 1959 crusade. And people said it was all emotion, and wouldn’t last! When Oral Roberts came to Sydney a year or two earlier, he was bitterly attacked. With Billy Graham, the press came to mock and to deride, but the journalists often returned to their offices to write his praises. He was calm, reasoned and always charming. Even people like John Laws spoke glowingly of him. Billy Graham has preached to more people than anyone else in all history. He was also a great organiser and a confidante of world leaders. But he was also a man with a passion for justice. At a time when many evangelicals said, “Just get people converted, and social concerns will sort themselves out,” Billy Graham put his social concerns into action. He refused to speak to segregated auditoriums. Once he dramatically tore down ropes that organisers had erected to separate the audience. He said, “There is no scriptural basis for segregation... The ground at the foot of the cross is level, and it touches my heart when I see whites standing shoulder to shoulder with blacks at the cross.” Perhaps the most surprising of Billy Graham’s many achievements was the World Congress on Evangelism held in Berlin in 1966, followed by the congress at Lausanne a few years later. It was surprising because it set the ball rolling to oppose the common idea that Evangelicals should take no part in social issues. Billy Graham and his organisation brought evangelicalism back into the mainstream, set out policies and programs for reaching the world and began setting out and defining a renewed social concern among evangelical Christians. Without Billy Graham, millions worldwide would not have heard the gospel. And, without Billy Graham, there would not have been such a powerful evangelical voice in the 20th century for social action. TIM COSTELLO Perhaps in a way, Australia’s own Tim Costello benefitted from the path blazed by Billy Graham. He was born in 1955, and, after attending Carey Baptist Grammar School in Melbourne, graduated in law from Monash University in 1978. In 1981, 15 years after the Berlin Coingress, Tim and his wife, Merridie, travelled to Switzerland, to study theology at Rüshlikon College near Zürich. In 1987, after returning to Australia, Tim was ordained a Baptist Minister and led a team to rebuild the St Kilda Baptist Church. They opened a drop-in centre and provided legal aid for those for whom the law is normally inaccessible. Tim was elected Mayor of St Kilda Council in 1993, and became well known for championing the cause of local democracy. The Victorian Premier, Jeff Kennett, attacked Costello as being un-Victorian for speaking out against Victoria’s gambling obsession. He often called him “that leftist cleric”. Kennett eventually abolished the St Kilda Council and consolidated it with other local government areas. Costello went on to Collins Street Baptist Church between 1995 and 2003. He was also the Executive Director of Urban Seed, a Christian not-for-profit organisation working on problems of homelessness, drug abuse and the marginalisation of the city’s street people. In February 1998, Tim Costello was a delegate at the Australian Constitutional Convention in Canberra, and became President of the Baptist Union of Australia from 1999 to 2002. He has been Patron of Baptist World Aid, and a member of many committees and organisations concerned with gambling, alcoholism, drug abuse, poverty and many other social issues. Many of these organisations, though not all, were openly Christian. Tim Costello has been a popular and sought–after speaker and commentator on many social issues. In 2004, he was appointed CEO of World Vision Australia. He was awarded ‘Victorian of the Year 2004’ in July 2004, in recognition of his public and community service. He was made an Officer of the Order of Australia in June 2005. Tim Costello has amost single–handedly put Christian social concern back into the news in Australia. Many people who otherwise have no time for Christianity applaud him for what he does for the poor and the outcast.
These three Baptist leaders have had a profound impact on the world we live in today. Each of them had a passion for the gospel and a passion for getting a more just, more caring society. It was Tim Costello who declared that the major problem before Australia today is that we forget that we live in a society, and not just in an economy. In other words, we are created for other people, and not merely for making money. But each of them had different gifts and different ministries. I couldn’t see Carey leading a demonstration, but he knew exactly how to go to the Governor with all the facts and plead for change. I could see Tim Costello leading a demonstration, though. Probably not in exactly the way you and I might picture — he’s clever, and would do what needed to be done in a way that would make the point stick. Carey was a self–taught scholar in times when, if you didn’t belong to the Church of England, you didn’t get into University. Costello has a good Law degree and excellent theological qualifications. On the other hand, Billy Graham was an indifferent student, but had the passion to apply himself to the things he did well until he did them excellently. Carey didn’t have a clue about raising kids, and let them run riot while he worked into the night; Graham protected his kids so much from the press that they were hardly known until they were adults able to make their own choices. As I said, they were all different. But each reminds us of the prophets of ancient days who heard God saying, AMOS 5:21 “I hate, I despise your religious feasts; They heard it, and knew it was because God wants people committed to seeing ...justice roll on like a river, Let’s commit ourselves to using what gifts we have to transform lives and society through the power of Jesus and in the name of our God whose passion is for justice, righteousness and covenant love throughout our land! AMEN |
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© Peter R. Green 2007. Permission is granted for quotation in full for non-commercial purposes provided that authorship is acknowledged and this copyright notice is displayed with the text. Portions also copyright The Bible, NIV (Zondervan Ltd.) |
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