ONE PASTOR’S THOUGHTS
by Rick Davis,
Pastor, First Baptist Church, Midlothian

For those of us who are life-long Southern Baptists these days are traumatic. Many of us must now think again about our commitment to the Southern Baptist Convention. For those of us who like to call ourselves “centrists,” neither moderates nor fundamentalists, the day when that term seemed a safe haven is behind us.

Our mission money has been split between the BGCT (66 percent) and the SBC (34 percent). I cannot live with this situation as I see it now. We are told by the governing boards of the national convention that they have the power and, therefore, the right, to do as they please. In a technical sense this is correct.

I believe they also have the obligation to act in a higher moral context as well. To this my fundamentalist friends answer they believe their actions are moral. When that morality includes hypocrisy, lies, gestapo tactics of intimidation and the smug reply that they need give no rationale for their actions, I must finally accept the fact that their morality differs from my own.

I do not claim to speak for anyone but myself. When Mr. Pulley says he expected the uproar over the firing of our seminary president and also knew that it would subside, he was speaking from historical fact. We want so much to have peace we have created another Munich with the democratic allies willing to appease the dictator state until peace could not be saved and their society could only survive by use of the most drastic means.

I see that we have very little influence over the conduct of the party in power in our national convention. We can stop arming them to beat us to death. I hope that Texas Baptists will see that we have some power in our own state. We do not have to accept the leadership of the lowest level of our convention. Texas Baptists can take control of our destiny. I intend to work toward that end.

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