Are We Predestined or Not?...

That is the Question

By Dale Short Along about 200 years ago, Southern Baptist churches became filled with a spirit of dissension. The dispute didn't climax in a fist-fight, but it came pretty close. The argument was straightforward: Predestination, or free will? In other words, does God control everything that happens in the world, or are we human beings left to our own fiendish devices to wing it and change things around at any given juncture? What brought the disagreement to a head was a series of evangelical revivals known as the Second Great Awakening, whose preachers said Baptists should send out missionaries all over the world to convert even ignorant heathens to Jesus. Churches that agreed formed a new denomination known as Missionary Baptists, and started training a special corps of evangelists to live and work in remote areas overseas. Wait just a minute, another group of churches said. Missionary-ism would be a total waste of money, because no less an authority than the great John Calvin had proven by the Scripture that every step of history is predestined from the beginning by God. And if God for some odd reason wants to save a heathen, He can do it Himself without any fancy globe-trotting preacher, thank you very much. Case closed. This forced a bitter split between the factions, with one group becoming the Primitive Baptist Church and the other becoming Missionary Baptistor sometimes Free Will Missionary Baptist, just in case somebody wasn't clear on the point. As my Free Will Missionary Baptist deacon grandfather explained it to me once, the Primitive Baptists believe that What's meant to happen is bound to happen, even if it never does happen. What raised the question in my mind this particular week, of course, was Elvis. Last Tuesday, on the 34th anniversary of Elvis's death, Oldies 101.5 FM scheduled a special day of programming with frequent Elvis songs, a one-hour replay of The King's historic comeback concert on NBC-TV from 1968, and airing a great interview that Jasper's own Charlie Watts recorded with Elvis at the Tupelo Fair when the young man's star was just rising on the national scene. At one point, DJs Woody Wilson and Johnny Elmore mentioned that most people seem to have a vivid memory of what they were doing when they first got

the news of Elvis's death. As for himself, Johnny said, he was listening to WSGN Radio in Birmingham as he made the turn from I-65 onto Arkadelphia Road. A revelation which made the hair on my neck stand up. I had just gotten off work at The Birmingham News that day, and was listening to WSGN as I made the turn from I-59 onto Arkadelphia Road bound for home. What were the chances, I wondered, of two Walker County folks unbeknownst to one another--being on exactly the same stretch of road the moment the whole world found out that Elvis had left this earthly building? Or that I would not have learned about this coincidence for another 34 years? Or that I would just have started a few weeks previously doing a weekly show for 101.5 FM about hometown people who make music? The implications of this news almost made me drop my bologna sandwich. It boggled my mind--though in fairness, these days I stay semi-boggled much of the time anyway. Had this all been part of some universal plan, foreseen from the beginning? Or just a blip on the universal radar as random as the day that Vox electronics engineer Brad Plunkett accidentally invented the wah-wah pedal, or the day that Milli and Vanilli discovered the vocals on their CDs sounded better if they didn't sing them? At that point, I had a vision. And it answered for me the great paradox that had set so many Baptists at angry cross-purposes two centuries ago. Life: Planned? Random? Both. Neither. And also a third thing, much more appropriate and grand in the big picture than it seems to us from this close to the material, as we go through the motions of getting through each workday. Unfortunately, the answer faded before I could jot it down, which is the only way I can remember even the most vital information these days. Maybe it'll come back. Maybe Elvis will, too. God only knows. Rock on, and stay tuned. # # #

(Dale Short is a native of Walker County. His columns, books, photos, and stories are available online at carrolldaleshort.com. His new radio program Music from Home airs Sundays at 6 pm on Oldies 101.5 FM. For details about his weekly creative-writing workshops in Sumiton, contact Woni's Bookshelf at 648-6161.)