A Baptist Benediction
Nathan Humphrey
April 1, 2000
When I was eighteen years old, I was a sophomore at a quirky little school in Annapolis, Maryland, that studied the "great books." I came to St. John's as the son of a former minister in the Independent Fundamental Churches of America, closest in doctrine and polity to the Southern Baptists, but best described as a non-denominational denomination. Let's just say the ifca put the fun in fundamentalist. My father had been seminary classmates and close friends with Josh McDowell, author of Evidence That Demands a Verdict and creator of the ever-popular "Why Wait?" campaign urging teenagers to practice abstinence before marriage. (But if it weren't for Josh McDowell and sex, I wouldn't be here: he introduced my mom to my dad.) So I had solid evangelical credentials—credentials I was fast trying to live down. Although I remained a committed Christian, I had begun to question many of the assumptions American evangelical fundamentalism holds dear. So in my freshman year, I studiously avoided the campus InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, despite being friends with its leadership. But in the summer between my first and second years in college, I'd begun to yearn for a sense of Christian community. Since the only Christian group at St. John's was Inter Varsity, I resigned myself to attending the group's often fractious meetings. Little did I suspect that at the end of the year, I would be asked to take over the reins. I didn't want the job. But I had an Achilles' heel. Every Sophomore at St. John's reads the Bible, the three big A's (Augustine, Anselm, and Aquinas), and a bit of Luther to boot. The effects of this heavy dose of theology hadn't yet worn off; in particular, I was profoundly moved by St. Augustine's Confessions. So, ...
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