Time to agree

Thank you for your excellent, well-written editorial in the May 28, 2009, edition of The Alabama Baptist titled “The Call for a Great Commission Resurgence.” However, I disagree with your statement that “We believe the Baptist Faith and Message is a sufficient guide for building a theological consensus for partnership in the gospel.” This ill-conceived document has caused much dissension and division in our great denomination, as you well know.

While we as Baptists do not fully agree with much of the theology of our Catholic friends and neighbors, I have long believed that Southern Baptists might well consider one facet of Catholic procedures, specifically their method of selecting a pope. Simply described, their cardinals are locked in a Vatican building and told to come out when they have agreed on a new pope. Using this procedure, I firmly believe that if we took the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention and the leaders of groups who have separated in whole or in part from the convention, placed them in a comfortable building at our Ridgecrest assembly location and told them to start praying and talking to each other and not leave the building until all issues which divide us are removed, a modern Pentecost might result. It is just a thought, but God put it in my mind.

Melvin G. Cooper
Prattville, Ala.