Falwell identifies SBC seminaries as “fundamentalist”
by Mark Wingfield, ABP

The Southern Baptist Convention now has six “fundamentalist” seminaries, according to Jerry Falwell.

Falwell, the lifelong independent Baptist who recently became a Southern Baptist, used the term as a compliment when endorsing the six SBC schools on the front page of the July issue of his National Liberty Journal.

Southern Baptist conservatives long have shunned the term “fundamentalist” to describe their movement, which fought from 1979 to 1991 to capture control of the SBC’s leadership. But Baptist moderates, whom the conservatives call “liberals,” have characterized their political opponents as fundamentalists.

Falwell’s article, titled “Southern Baptist Convention Defies Prophets of Doom,” gives a glowing endorsement of the SBC, its seminaries and agencies.

“All six SBC seminaries now have fundamentalist presidents and faculties. All its agencies now have fundamentalist leadership.”

What has happened in the SBC since 1979 was not a takeover by conservatives but a “spiritual revolution,” Falwell explained.

In the article, Falwell explains to his newspaper audience that he and other members of Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, Va., attended the recent SBC annual meeting as messengers for the first time. And he predicted that more independent Baptist churches will follow his lead and join the SBC.

“While Thomas Road Church continues its relationship with and support of Baptist Bible Fellowship missionaries and other independent Baptist missions, we have also officially thrown our enthusiastic support behind the historic and unprecedented conservative ‘revolution’ which has taken place within the SBC during the past 20 years. Many of our sister churches have done the same and many more will in the months and years to come.”

September 1998