Newsletter
May 2000

 
 
1967 - Seminary Doctoral student Paige Patterson and Judge Paul Pressler meet at Cafe du Monde in New Orleans and discuss a long term strategy for fundamentalist domination of the Southern Baptist Convention.
Frank L. Mauldin has written a book that tells the story of the Baptist passion for personal truth, a story full of significance for understanding the identity and the integrity of Baptists, both past and present for encountering the personal truth itself.
The Fruits of Norrisism
by L. R. Scarborough, circa 1924.
This trace is a discussion of some of the fruits of an old cult under a new name. The following are some of the characteristics of this cult - Norrisism:
In an address to the 1993 statewide meeting of Texas Baptists Committed, I made the statement that "inerrancy" is a term with some eight definitions and twelve qualifications.
Al Mohler's criticism of E.Y. Mullins and the Baptist doctrine of soul competency has more to do with advancing a strict Calvinistic theology than with Baptist history, according to historians and theologians who have studied Mullins extensively.
ALPHARETTA, Ga. (BP)-Officials with the North American Mission Board are hoping today's mega-churches will beget mega-churches in other cities.
When I started getting invited to Southern Baptist platforms (in the 1970s), I immediately started speaking up about the necessity of upholding the Word of God; staying hot after the trail of the lost; holding on to biblical prospective and evangelical zeal.
Roger Moran has tried to link CBF, BGCT and TBC leadership with left wing organizations. Moran is research director of Missouri Baptist Laymen's Association.
"Some interesting things have happened in the last dozen years or so . when things began to move in different directions in the Southern Baptist Convention."

A Presupposition : This account begins with a basic presupposition: the Southern Baptist Convention, as we have known and loved-no longer exists.

In 1995, the SBC’s fundamentalist machine undertook the most massive reorganization in the convention’s long history.
Over the past 10 years Texas Baptists Committed has had two people share the load of leadership serving as co-chairs. TBC has always had the desire to have a broad base of shared leadership.
Texas Has Not Moved
by Betty Rutledge
The Effectiveness/Efficiency Committee has been given the challenge of dealing with a tragic reality that someone in Baptist life has moved off true center in cooperative sharing of the Gospel.
What is Fundamentalism?
by: Edward John Carnell
Fundamentalism is an extreme right element in Protestant orthodoxy. Orthodoxy is that branch of Christendom which limits the basis of its authority to the Bible.
The conflict between moderate/conservatives and fundamentalists is not a fight between contemporary preachers. Attitude, belief and behavior differences are rooted in history.
Lies continue to circulate in fundamentalist rhetoric about the Baptist General Convention of Texas.
Some interesting things have happened in the last dozen years or so . when things began to move in different directions in the Southern Baptist Convention.

 

 

Understanding Fundamentalism

by: Graham Cray, interview, reprinted by permission The Door, May/June 1994

"Fundamentalism is a reaction against the modern world rather than a commitment to the Bible. It is a kind of retrenchment, going back into a shell, talking only to people like themselves, naming the enemy. What happens with fundamentalism is an almost total rejection of the present culture - the creation of a counterculture, really, which tries to pretend it's pure from Scripture, but doesn't read Scripture intelligently . As a result, the Bible becomes a magic book of proof-texts, read irrespective of its historical context."

A Book Worthy of Consideration

In the Name of the Father is an analysis of the persuasive strategies and loyalist rhetoric of the post-1979 Southern Baptist Convention. With a membership of more than 15 million, the SBC is the largest denomination in the South and the largest Protestant denomination in the United States.In the Name of the Father: The Rhetoric of the New Southern Baptist Convention by Carl L Kell and L. Raymond Camp examine current leadership discourses on fundamentalism, inerrancy and exclusion because they characterize the new messages of the denomination. Baptist scholars trained in evaluating discourse, Kell and Camp write as insiders about the rhetoric that overpowered the voices of moderation at the 1979 Convention. They investigate the rhetoric of impassioned pleas for a cleansed denomination.

This book is available from the publisher, Southern Illinois University Press, 800-346-2680 or contact Dan Seiters at 618-453-6633



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