Chapter 15  Tools of a Takeover: A Common Enemy

Certain aspects of modernity were singled out for attack, including television, cinema, secular voluntary associations, ideologies, and political parties, These have been seen as threats corrupting the your and estranging them from their religious belief
— Emile Sahliyeh, referring to Shi’ite, Sikh, and Palestinian Fundamentalist movements.[73]  

For the casual observer of the Southern Baptist Convention, the annual meeting of SBC may be best known for its 1996 boycott of Disney, which it recently called off after ten futile years. For those who watch the SBC more closely, the Disney boycott is one in a series of boycotts, negative resolutions, and other line-in-the-sand statements. For those who study extremist religious movements, these actions are more than quirky or misguided. They are indicative of a far more disturbing trend: extreme religious Fundamentalism.

For years, Americans have heard of the distant dangers of religious Fundamentalism: Suni-Shi’ite conflicts in Iraq , Protestant-Catholic fighting in Ireland , poison gas attacks by Hindu extremists in Japan . Or perhaps the dangers were closer to home: the 1979 Iran hostage crisis or David Koresh and the Branch Davidians in Waco , Texas . Most recently, the destruction of the World Trade Center towers and the Pentagon on September 11, 2001, brought the dangers of Fundamentalist religions to the forefront of the American consciousness.

Recent studies of Christianity, Judaism, Islam, Hinduism, Sikhism, Buddhism, and Confucianism have identified shared traits among Fundamentalist strains of each religion. In these studies, Fundamentalism is described as a “tendency of some members of traditional religious communities to separate from fellow believers and to redefine the sacred community in terms of its disciplined opposition to nonbelievers and ‘lukewarm’ believers alike.”[74]

Understood in the context of Fundamentalism, the Southern Baptist Convention’s focus on enemies — either external enemies (e.g., Masons) or internal enemies (e.g., seminary professors) — is no different from that displayed by other religions Fundamentalists. Emile Sahliyeh, associate professor of international relations and Middle East politics at the University of North Texas , for instance, identifies this characteristic in three forms of Shi’ite, Sikh, and Palestinian Fundamentalism: “The fixation with an identifiable enemy is another shared ideological property. Each of the three movements points to a specific foe as being the source of its troubles and hardships.”[75]

For Fundamentalist extremists — whether Christian, Hindu, or Muslim — identifying and attacking enemies is a way of defining themselves. According to Sahliyeh, “the presence of definable enemies” sustains Fundamentalist movements.[76] Often, the first enemy to be attacked is a former member of the group who has either chosen to leave or has fallen out of favor. Southern Baptist leaders have shown this same tendency in their persistent attacks against groups like the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Beyond self-definition, the targeting of an external enemy helps Fundamentalists make sense of complex world, In other words, Fundamentalism sees the world in black and white, with no shades of gray. Scholar Valerie Hoffman identifies this dualism in the psyche of Muslim Fundamentalists: “In their attacks on women’s liberation and other aspects of Western culture, the fundamentalists reveal a basic aspect of their mindset — a great fear of social chaos.”[77]

Identifying enemies in speeches and resolutions has been a main feature of Southern Baptist Convention sessions during the last twenty years of Fundamentalist control. Over the years, the SBC has targeted U.S. presidents, women, social groups, other religions, businesses, and others. Individually, these condemning words and actions may seem justified or merely misguided and futile. As a group, however, they give evidence of a dangerous Fundamentalist mindset.

Southern Baptist Convention Targets

One of the best ways to build unity in a group is to identify an enemy, and SBC Fundamentalist leaders have used this tactic with great effectiveness for many years. While dangers of this kind of Fundamentalist thinking are all too clear when referring to Islamic extremists, the influence of Fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist Convention has caused great damage as well.

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