I have read in the Baptist Press that you are “troubled” about the pope’s speech to the Congress, and now I am troubled.
I speak as a retired Southern Baptist missionary. My husband and I were under appointment to the Middle East for 32 years. He was instrumental in the establishment of the Amman Baptist School, and for 24 years I was director of the Baptist publishing program for the Arab world with offices in Lebanon. A few months ago Baptist Press published a fine review of my memoir, In Borrowed Houses, a true story of love and faith amidst war in Lebanon. During those years overseas we learned and grew and changed, while the Southern Baptist Convention also changed but in another direction. Though we are often sad for what we lost in that process, we no longer worship with Southern Baptists. We remain grateful for the past and the Foreign Mission Board’s continued faithfulness to the retirement commitments made to us in 1963.
I would like to address the matter of the pope and his message to the Congress. I am somewhat astonished by the difference between what you heard and what I heard.
Though you admit that the pope “talked about the dignity of human life, whether the unborn, the elderly or the immigrants, as well as the importance of the family in a free and flourishing society,” you find his words “fuzzy and evasive” and feel that he “missed the opportunity to address a moral issue with more clarity.”
I, on the other hand, had the impression that the pope was painting a picture in broad brush strokes. What else can one do with such an occasion in one hour or one morning, unless he has a favorite issue that steals all the space in his mind? Pope Francis pointed out the big problems. He challenged, he warned, he encouraged. Of course his picture was not black and white. Perhaps that’s why you thought it was unclear.
The pope spoke of the need to defend human life at every stage of development. I liked that, because it meant to me that the 20-year-old whom we are sending into battle is just as important to us as a fetus in a womb. It meant that we should be able to love and nurture any child we bring into the world. It meant that a child should not be homeless on the street or wandering the world with refugee parents. He also warned us that greed and self-centeredness are on the verge of destroying our planet and with it the human species. That sounds to me like something highly relevant to the rights of the unborn. You apparently feel that in calling our attention to a huge, many-faceted issue, he neglected the one or two aspects of your own focus. Is it possible that you are more Catholic than the pope?
Some of you are disturbed by the pope’s statement that the big bang theory does not conflict with the Bible. The American public, reading this, understands that you are walking in the shoes of those who murdered Galileo. I attest that you are NOT upholding the faith of the Southern Baptists who nurtured me in my youth. So clearly I remember a particular Sunday School lesson that I taught to a class of young women, when I was still a seminary student. Using the official material of our Baptist Sunday School Board, I led a lively discussion on the book of Genesis as a spiritual book, not a science book. I suspect that like me, none of those women, wherever they are, now worship with Southern Baptists.
Some of you feel that the pope’s invitation to address the Congress was not appropriate. Because the Vatican is not a state. Because no evangelical pastor was ever invited. I am embarrassed in your behalf, because I find your objection petty and smelling of jealousy.
On Friday of the pope’s visit I watched on television as the pope-mobile made its way slowly through the streets of N.Y., past throngs of people, to whom he raised his arms in blessing. I heard a city policeman, choking with emotion, say it gave him hope of seeing God. The whole thing was the clearest evidence I have seen in a long time that the American people are a spiritual people. They want God. They want to believe. That should bring rejoicing to the heart of every Christian. There should be no room in our hearts for jealousy. We are not being discriminated against. We evangelicals simply have no one whose presence seems to represent God.
In the mass in Central Park and in the wonderful interfaith worship service at ground zero in Manhattan, the pope did not seem to speak for Catholics but for Christians, even for all who seek God. He was tender, a little bit vulnerable. His voice was soft and humble. He gave and received love.
I am not a Catholic; I object strongly to some of their doctrine and to a great deal of their history. But I congratulate the Catholic Church for producing and choosing such a leader. I feel that he has blessed all of us who would accept the blessing.
It all brings to mind a profound truth from the New Testament. God has not entrusted his treasures to institutions, whether the temple, or the Catholic Church or the Southern Baptist Convention, but to living souls.