Barrett Duke: Southern Baptists' man in Washington

Washington, D.C., the nation’s capital, is the most powerful city in the world, or as Pentagon officials helpfully pointed out after 9/11, a “target-rich environment.” This beautiful city located on the Potomac River symbolizes our nation’s democracy and freedom.

The District of Columbia is an exciting urban center that combines neoclassical government buildings, monuments, memorials, and museums as well as the National Mall. The city’s people, history, and culture express the American experience – from John Phillip Sousa to Duke Ellington and from the Civil War to civil rights.

The Capitol Building beautifully dominates the Washington landscape and remains as the nerve center of the city and the nation. It is not unusual to see United States senators dashing in and out of their offices in the Russell, Hart, or Dirksen buildings near the Capitol or U.S. Congressmen entering or exiting the Cannon, Longworth, or Rayburn buildings nearby.

It is in this environment that Southern Baptists have a significant presence through the ministry of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Richard Land, president of the ERLC, visits Washington often from his primary office in Nashville and is wielding an ever-increasing influence in his efforts to make the will of Christ supreme in public affairs.

 

New discipline

However, in order to maintain a full-time presence in Washington Land has assigned Barrett Duke the responsibility of directing the ERLC’s work in the nation’s capital.

Duke grew up in New Orleans and lived a life of rebellion as a teenager. He remarked, “I did a lot of partying and just squeaked through high school. I left home as soon as I could. Life had no meaning or purpose for me.”

When Duke was 21 years old he returned to his family and tried to patch things up with his parents. One day he was sitting in the family living room with his older sister, Cathey, and confessed, “I see no value in continuing to live.”

Cathey responded, “All you need is God.”

Duke quipped, “That may be good for you, but I don’t need to humble myself like that.”

“I couldn’t shake the emptiness I felt,” Duke stated, and he began to pray to God, “Maybe all I do need is you. If you show me what you want me to do, I’ll do it.”

God gave Duke the peace and assurance that He would begin to work in his life. He immediately called a high school friend who had been saved and indicated a desire to get involved in a Bible study.

He started reading the Bible and admitted, “I soon realized I was lost and separated from God and came to understand that Jesus died for my sins. I got on my knees and invited Jesus into my heart and I know God came into my life.”

Less than a year later God called Barrett Duke into the ministry. He enrolled in Criswell College in Dallas, Texas, where he met a young woman, Denise Young, who subsequently became his wife and the mother of his three children.

To his Criswell degree Duke added a Master of Arts in Old Testament degree from Denver Conservative Baptist Theological Seminary. While in Denver he also started Cornerstone Baptist Church and served as the church’s pastor for 13 years. During his years in the Colorado capital city Duke earned his Ph.D in a program that was jointly granted by The University of Denver and The Iliff School of Theology.

As a pastor Duke became increasingly interested in the culture and observed how people in the church were deeply impacted by the trends in society.

“I realized that many people who had been in the church for years seemed to have the same problems as the unchurched people we were trying to reach,” he explained.

“Many church people have marital problems because they have never been taught what a biblical marriage looks like or if they have been taught it apparently doesn’t make much of an impact. In fact, much of the church has lost its disciple-making capabilities. We just don’t make many disciples anymore.”

Through the years Duke had kept in touch with Richard Land, who was the academic dean at Criswell College during Duke’s years as a student. When the president of the ERLC needed someone to come on board as the director of conferences, seminars, and denominational relations, he called on the Cornerstone (formerly Highlands Ranch) pastor to fill that staff position.

In time Duke began to do research and writing for the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and worked with Richard Land to start the Research Institute. As the director of this Institute Duke is responsible for convening 16 fellows, primarily academicians, who meet twice a year to discuss current affairs and determine how to best educate Southern Baptists on some of the pressing issues of the day.

For the past five years Duke has been serving Southern Baptists in Washington as an advocate for public policy. The ERLC office in Washington at 505 Second Street is called the Leland House, named for John Leland, a Baptist minister who championed the cause of religious liberty in colonial America.

From his office just four blocks from the Capitol, Duke interacts with senators and members of the House of Representatives on a daily basis to urge their support for issues that relate to faith and family.

“The primary point I want to stress,” emphasized Duke, “is the need to build a grassroots base of support for these issues that are important to the foundation and fabric of our nation. There are 16,000,000 Southern Baptists and we should be able to shut down the congressional switchboard all by ourselves when there is a need to voice our convictions on a certain issue.”

Land has reiterated the importance of grassroots involvement by stating, “The ERLC seeks to awaken, inform, energize, equip, and mobilize Christians to preserve what is godly and purify what is ungodly in our culture.”

 

Baptists, in faith and numbers, can make a difference

With a convincing passion Duke proclaimed, “We are not going to save this nation from Washington, D.C. If churches don’t rise to the occasion we are just postponing the inevitable – just buying the church a little more time. Southern Baptists could very well be America’s best hope as God’s instrument to turn this country around. There are enough of us and we are in enough places to make a difference.

“If we were to get serious enough at the same time God could do a great work through our denomination, but if Southern Baptists don’t get serious soon God may just move on and start something new. Our people must decide if they want to be God’s instrument to do something great.”

When asked, “What will happen if Southern Baptists don’t rise to the challenge?” Duke responded, “Look at Europe. Christianity was once vital there and their churches were strong, but now they are museums. We are in a serious moral and spiritual decline and without a revival I don’t know whether America can recover, but a genuine revival could surely turn things around.”

 

If nothing is done, churches’ vitality will be lost

Duke mentioned three things that are likely to happen if Christians fail to get serious about taking a stand for righteousness. “First,” he explained, “there will be more incursions on the sanctity of human life, including continued efforts to push the boundaries on human genetic manipulation.

“Second, there will be an ever increasing effort to restrict the rights of religious people to speak out and we will see continued attempts to keep people from acting on what they believe.

“Third, marriage continues to be threatened as a principle social institution. Many already think of marriage as irrelevant. We are already beginning to reap the consequences of an unwillingness to engage in the long term commitment that marriage requires.”

Doug Carlson, a staffer with the ERLC in Washington, weighed in on the culture by stating, “Our culture is drifting away from our Christian-Judeo foundation. It is becoming increasingly difficult to reverse that trend. Therefore, it is more important than ever for the church to be strong, for churches to grow, and for individual Christians to be engaged in the culture in the matter of public policy.

“Too many are content to let the culture drift without stemming the tide, but I think we are ripe for a reformation or a revival.”

Tom Strode, another ERLC staffer in Washington who also writes for Baptist Press, did see a ray of hope on the horizon and remarked, “I’m encouraged by many of the young people I see in our nation. There seems to be a growing movement of youth who are committed to Christ, the sanctity of life, and living out their commitment to Christ in the public arena.”

But Duke pleaded, “We need Georgia Baptists to partner with us in voicing their convictions in Washington. Go to our website – www.erlc.com – and sign up to receive our electronic communications so we can help you stay abreast of what is happening in the nation’s capital and so you can be properly notified when there is a need for you to contact your senator or representative about an important issue.

“Some politicians are driven by their convictions but others are more responsive to their constituents and can be persuaded by pressure from the people in their district or state.”

The ERLC releases an action alert about every three weeks when Congress is in session. The Faith and Family Values news journal is produced monthly in electronic form with weekly updates in an abbreviated version. There is also one printed copy published each year at the time of the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting.

Let all Georgia Baptists heed the call to become a grassroots movement for the sake of preserving the principles upon which America was founded and be reminded of Edmund Burke’s words: “All that is necessary for the forces of evil to win in the world is for enough good men to do nothing.”