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BGCT
Takes Historic Steps Texas Baptists agreed by a 4-to-1 margin Oct. 30 to cut $4.3 million from six Southern Baptist seminaries they say have abandoned some traditional Baptist beliefs and forced doctrinal conformity on their faculties and trustees. Instead the money will be spent on three theological schools in Texas. Before approving the report of the Seminary Study Committee, messengers easily defeated an amendment that would have phased in the funding cuts over three years. Other messengers, who numbered 6,475 at the time of the vote, said they were attempting to make motions when debate was called off. A separate vote further reduced money the state will send to the SBC next year by another $1.1 million, slashing funds to the SBC Executive Committee to a token $10,000 and completely defunding the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. With one of every six Southern Baptists living in Texas, however, and 13 percent of the SBC's funding coming from the state, Texas Baptists' decision to redefine their relationship to the 41,000-church national body could be the most far-reaching to date. The Texas funding cuts culminate several years of disagreement between fundamentalist/conservative leaders of the SBC and the conservative/moderate-led BGCT, the largest SBC affiliate with some 2.7 million members. The dispute came to a head this summer when the SBC approved a rewrite of its "Baptist Faith and Message." Texas Baptist leaders have been critical of the rewrite and say it is un-Baptist to use it as a creed. Among disputed changes in the faith statement are a ban on women preachers, a family article that says wives should submit to their husbands and the deletion of a phrase in the earlier edition that said Jesus Christ is the criterion for interpreting Scripture. A special committee conducted a six-month study of SBC seminaries before recommending the funding cut in September. The BGCT's 200-member Executive Board voted overwhelmingly Sept. 26 to pass the committee's report on to the state convention. In recommending the seminary plan to the convention, study committee chairman Bob Campbell said the new faith statement is called "an instrument of doctrinal accountability" and is being used to "demand creedal adherence" from those who teach in SBC seminaries. He said it is inaccurate to say Texas Baptists are breaking off a 92-year relationship with the SBC abruptly. "It has been decided over 21 years," he said, referring to the two-decade dominance of fundamentalist/conservatives in the SBC. "Let us leave behind the constant battle with other Baptists," Campbell said. "We can no longer be embroiled with those who want to teach rigid creedalism." Before the discussion, Charles Wade, executive director of the Texas convention, said it was necessary to approve the plan to get the attention of Southern Baptist leaders. "[W]e need to do this because Southern Baptist leaders have shown greater willingness to talk with Texas Baptists in the last six weeks than ever before," Wade said. "If we vote to do this today and the churches heartily follow the recommendations adopted, then I believe we may have some influence with Southern Baptist leaders." Wade said he hoped the SBC would be persuaded to consider changes to the newly adopted "Baptist Faith and Message" statement to allow more differences of opinion and freedom of interpretation. Albert Mohler, president of one of the defunded schools, said there is no provision in the plan for further discussion. "They didn't say 'We want a hearing.' They said, 'This is how we will fund the seminaries,'" said Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. "Only time will tell whether any fruitful discussion between the SBC and BGCT leaders can take place," he continued. "The right conversation needs to take place with the right people. It would be wrong to try to close the door. But I don't see any openness." Ken Hemphill, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, said he wished there had been an opportunity to respond to some of the charges by the BGCT committee. "Many of the points we made [to the study committee] were ignored" in the final report, he said. Hemphill said the revised "Baptist Faith and Message" is "an excellent document" and that Southwestern Seminary gladly "stands accountable to the Southern Baptist Convention." Three schools in Texas stand to benefit from the funding change. Baylor University's George W. Truett Theological Seminary in Waco and Hardin-Simmons University's Logsdon School of Theology in Abilene, which both opened in 1996, will each receive a share of the $4.3 funding cut from SBC schools, along with Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio. In weeks prior to the BGCT annual meeting, SBC leaders launched an unprecedented effort to urge Texas Baptists to attend their state convention and defeat the proposal. The SBC Executive Committee started a special Web site and mass mailed material to Texas Baptist churches countering criticism leveled by Texas Baptist leaders. A companion recommendation also approved Oct. 30 eliminates $345,000 in funding for the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and reduces an allocation to the SBC Executive Committee from $746,000 to $10,000. Texas leaders say they have been routinely criticized and "slandered" by the Executive Committee and its news service, Baptist Press, and that the SBC's social-concerns agency has turned into a partisan political organization instead of educating churches about moral and ethical issues. The BGCT also gave final approval to constitutional changes that allow churches from outside Texas as members of the state group. Some say the change opens the door for the Texas convention to become a regional body rivaling the SBC. Other observers, however, say it is unlikely that large numbers of churches from other states will join the BGCT. The stated intent for the change is to allow moderate churches in overwhelmingly fundamentalist/conservative states, such as Oklahoma, to participate in a state convention where they feel more at home. Messengers adopted a $52 million budget for 2001, which puts in place the new reduced funding levels for Southern Baptist agencies. The budget still includes more than $17.8 million in funding for SBC mission boards and other ministries. The budget was approved by 74 percent of messengers, with 26 percent opposed. Earlier a motion to cut all funding to causes outside Texas was defeated. A motion to restore funding of SBC agencies to original levels was ruled out of order. Clyde Glazener, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, was re-elected convention president. In his presidential address, Glazener said "Any who say Texas Baptists believe the Bible is just another book like any other book knows he's lying even as he speaks. We do love the Bible as the Word of God. But we adore and worship Jesus who is the expression of God." January 2001 |