A Genealogy of Dissent: Southern Baptist Protest in the Twentieth Century by David Stricklin (review)

Baptists began as dissenters, a witness that placed them outside of the mainstream of society and cost many of them their lives. A Genealogy of Dissent draws upon that tradition of protest and how it has been maintained by some twentieth-century Southern Baptists. Stricklin bases his work on two major assumptions about Southern Baptists. First, as a group, they have abandoned their heritage as dissenters in favor of becoming the status quo in southern society. Second, even accounting for a congregational polity that allows for individual and congregational freedom, Southern Baptists are something of a monolith. Thus, a Southern Baptist culture exists and can be labeled as politically and theologically conservative because it is more ~oncerned with saving souls for the life to come than with addressing the social problems faced by many in this world. A Genealogy of Dissent is a history of Southern Baptists who were interested in challenging the status quo and who did express a concern for issues of social justice such as racism, sexism, and peace making. Stricklin acknowledges that certain organizations within the structure of the Southern Baptist Convention have tried to speak about poverty and race relations. Dissenters from outside the formal power structure of the SBC, however, have led the real challenges-men and women like Walt Johnson, Martin England, Clarence Jordan, Will Campbell, Martha Gilmore, Carlyle Marney, and Addie Davis are easily counted among those ranks. Many of these names are not widely known, even in church history circles, but they represent to Stricklin people who tried to be faithful to the biblical call for justice and to the dissenting heritage of Baptists. This book is a valuable resource for those who want to begin to explore the diversity that exists within the Southern Baptist Convention. It lifts up and affirms the contributions of men and women who have in many ways been ignored or forgotten. But the text does have some inherent tensions that, while not fatal, raise some important questions. First, Stricklin seems to gloss over the congregational heritage in favor of the dissenting one, accepting a somewhat monolithic definition of Southern Baptists without giving enough consideration to the diversity that a congregational polity allows. While it is possible to read the story of Walt Johnson, among others, as being one of dissenters, it is equally plausible that they are proof that Southern Baptists simply cannot easily be labeled and defined. Second, even the idea of dissenters begins to unravel as Stricklin explores the fundamentalist takeover of the SBC in the 1980s. At one point he remarks that the fundamentalists are in fact dissenters themselves, just better organized to take control of the Convention. This raises the question of whether in reality all Southern Baptists are dissenters. If so, what makes Stricklin's group so different from the rest of their Southern Baptist sisters and brothers? This is an important work in helping to redefine an influential group of American Protestants. It challenges scholars to recognize that old assumptions about Southern Baptists may not be as accurate as we once thought. Stricklin has opened the door for others to explore the richness and diversity of Southern Baptists in the twentieth century. Let us hope that others will open it even further.