By Gretchen Keiser

When tens of thousands of Southern Baptist “messengers” descend on Atlanta during the second week of June, confusion is expected to abound on the roads, in restaurants and on MARTA.

But there is likely to be even more confusion in the minds of Catholics trying to follow the goings-on at the annual session of the Southern Baptist Convention and to understand what relation, if any, this massive event has to their own denomination.

“Lay low, stay away from downtown and it’ll all be over in three days,” is the joking advice of Dr. Richard Harmon, whose primary work with the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board is as interfaith liaison with Roman Catholics.

More seriously, both he and his Catholic counterpart, Glenmary Father Robert Dalton, acknowledge that the struggle within the Southern Baptist Convention between conservative and moderate elements could eventually have a negative impact upon relations between the two denominations.

The two men, who walk in the footsteps of Dr. C.B. Hastings of the Southern Baptist Home Mission Board and Glenmary Father Joseph O’Donnell in forging relationships between Catholics and Southern Baptists, say that much that is positive has taken place in the last 20 years.

“On the national level and among scholars there has been a great deal of headway,” Dr. Harmon said, noting that the Scholars Dialogue, which involves regular, structured discussions between Baptist and Catholic scholars and theologians has been “marked by a real sense of growth together as Christian friends.”

However, “on the popular level” of local churches and ordinary people, the picture is “mixed,” he observed.

“There is still a great deal of prejudice I encounter among both groups,” he said.

“It’s due,” he added, emphasizing his reluctance to use the word, “to ignorance of one another.”

Father Dalton characterized the relationship between the denominations as “improving,” and said, “When you look back to 20 years ago we really had no relationship. We really ignored each other.”

Looking back, he said, “there’s no comparison to 20 years ago in the broad perspective of our contact with each other.” Looking ahead, “there’s a long way to go” in understanding and acceptance.

One possible area of confusion for Catholics, he noted, is in understanding the autonomy of local Southern Baptist churches. The messengers coming to Atlanta – up to 10 from each church depending upon size and other factors – are elected from their churches, but are not “delegates” speaking for their churches. “No Baptist speaks for another Baptist,” Father Dalton emphasized. Somewhere in excess of 50,000 messengers are expected for the June 10-12 meeting where a successor to the current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, Dr. Charles Stanley of Atlanta’s First Baptist Church, will be chosen.

Because of the Southern Baptist Convention’s unique structure, with local churches having complete autonomy, the Catholic Church relates to Southern Baptists in a way unlike any other interfaith relationship, Father Dalton said. His title, field representative for the Bishops Committee for Ecumenical and Interreligious Affairs, shows that unlike other denominations where there might be a relationship between church hierarchies or national church structures, with Southern Baptists the relationship is struck at the local level. “Each church is independent so we have to have the let work going on,” in the field, he said.

“Baptists are doing church out of a free church or congregational background,” Dr. Harmon said. “There is nothing like a bishops’ conference.”

The convention of Southern Baptist churches, representing over 14 million people, meets in session once a year, passes resolutions which represent the sense of the convention, but are not binding on local churches, and elects a president and other officers. The president’s influence comes not in the office itself, but in the appointment of committee members who, by further appointment, name trustees to the boards affecting Sunday Schools, seminaries and other areas. This is where the influence of the president, and where the dominance of the office since 1979 by the Southern Baptists’ more conservative members, has been felt, Dr. Harmon said.

“Since 1979 a kind of fundamentalist faction in the convention controls the presidency,” said Dr. Harmon, who lightly described himself as “probably the last liberal.”

Theologically the debate between conservatives and moderates has centered around the inerrancy of the Bible. In practice, Dr. Harmon said, the division is being reflected in the appointments made to boards and agencies.

Asked whether a continuing direction by the Southern Baptist Convention toward an emphasis upon strict interpretation of the Bible and more conservative leadership could affect the denomination’s relationship with the Catholic Church, Dr. Harmon said, “It could. I’m afraid it would be negatively.”

“I hope not,” he added. “I hope it would not be a negative effect.”

Father Dalton acknowledged that “for the most part” the more moderate groups “would be the people relating to me” as a Catholic interfaith representative. “From our perspective (as Catholics)” the more conservative groups “would be very literalist, fundamentalist in their interpretation of Scripture,” he said.

However, he said, “on some of the moral issues” particularly the issue of abortion and pro-life questions, Catholics would be in coalition with Southern Baptists from the more conservative group.

The breadth of opinion among Southern Baptists is one aspect that Catholics tend to misunderstand, Father Dalton said. “The common misunderstanding that Catholics have is that all Southern Baptists are fundamentalists and they’re not,” he said.

When Catholics and Southern Baptists talk about faith, they are often failing to communicate by using the same words in different senses, he said. When speaking about salvation, for example, “we might think we are communicating when actually we’re miscommunicating.”

While Catholics might be uncomfortable with being asked about salvation, their response might also be offensive to the Southern Baptist, Father Dalton said. The Southern Baptist experience of being saved is very sacred,” he observed. “If they shared that story and we treated it flippantly, it would be akin to a Baptist making fun of the Eucharist. Discussing a similar point, Dr. Harmon noted that there are many biblical metaphors for salvation, but said, “Baptists have really camped out in John 3,” where Nicodemus talks to Jesus and Jesus says a man must be “born from above” to see the kingdom of God.

In speaking to Southern Baptists about Catholics, he said, “I try to broaden their perspective to talk about other metaphors that Catholics use.” Among those he mentioned were Jesus’ command, “Follow me,” and the discussion in Matthew 25 of the Last Judgement where Jesus commends his disciples for having fed him, clothed him and visited him in prison.

Whether it be the metaphor in John 3 or in Matthew 25, “I see strengths and weaknesses in both approaches,” Dr. Harmon said.

Both men also observed a great “cultural difference” between the denominations. Father Dalton described his upstate New York parish life where at festivals “you gambled, sold beer, had bingo as well as ethnic foods.”

“As Catholics we use sight and sound, the senses and the body to pray – incense, feasts and fasts, the liturgical year, May crownings,” he said, “all of which are absent in Baptist life.”

“They have emphasized the Word – the sermon and the music,” Father Dalton said.

While Catholics may look upon themselves as “a celebrative people,” the Glenmary said, to Southern Baptists whose American heritage includes a frontier revivalism and prohibition against gambling, drinking, smoking and the like, Catholics may come across “as being a sinful, unChristian people.”

The converse would be the Pittsburgh Catholic bar owner who hung out a sign “Welcome, Southern Baptists,” Father Dalton said, and “never knew why he didn’t do any business.”

“When people have been separated, when they have not talked to each other, misconceptions are great,” Father Dalton said, using the story to illustrate how profound that failure of communication can be.

His work, since June 1982, has been to try to bridge the gap, both by being a Catholic presence among Southern Baptists, and by educating Catholics to better understand their neighbors’ beliefs. Together he and Dr. Harmon have made presentations to clergy; alone he has spoken to Southern Baptist and Catholic seminarians throughout the region and to men studying for the Catholic permanent diaconate. While he has most frequently talked about basic Catholic theology at the other extreme he has made presentations on the U.S. bishops’ pastoral on war and peace and on the economy to interested Southern Baptist churches in the southeast.

Dr. Harmon, on the other hand, was instrumental in the formation of a Bible study group between Baptist pastors and Catholic priests in New Jersey, after his meeting with the archbishop of Newark. Most recently he was an unofficial observer at the Extraordinary Synod of bishops in Rome on the implementation of Vatican II reforms in the Catholic Church worldwide.

Ecumenical work is slow and sensitive. Father Dalton observed that his “ideal would be getting people going on an ongoing basis” in joint efforts. “Sometimes I think that is easier with projects together rather than over theology,” he said, “that breaks down more walls.” Whether it be a soup kitchen or pro-life effort, “when you start working together, you’re in an atmosphere to start listening.”

When it comes to progress between Southern Baptist churches and Catholics, “it takes those two keys to open the door,” one on each side, he said. “So often I have one key” whether it be from one side of the other, “and not the two keys” needed to open the door.