ONCE AGAIN, WHO ARE THE CENTRISTS?

Every so often, someone worries that no one is representing the center between the two extremes, i.e., the fundamentalists and Texas Baptists Committed. When I hear or read something like that, it reminds me that it is time for a little education once again.

Friends, Texas Baptists Committed represents the center. We are not extreme in any manner. We represent mainstream, traditional Texas Baptist thought, theology, and practice. We are standing in the center between the fundamentalists, who want to control Texas, and those who for whatever reason, will not stand up for Baptist principles or who are uninvolved in the state convention.

We are standing against the far right who want to control our BGCT. There is no group on the left, because there are not any liberal Texas Baptists. We are standing in the middle, promoting a traditional, mainstream state convention focused on missions and evangelism, between those who want to control the BGCT and those who are uninvolved.

How much more in the center can you be than standing up for the leadership of the BGCT and its institutions and programs and keeping things the way they are — which is traditionally Baptist in all we say and do? WE ARE THE CENTRISTS!

October 1995