SOUTHWESTERN SEMINARY JOINS LIST OF AGENCIES CHANGED SINCE ’79
by Bob Allen

(ABP) In 1979, the first of a string of fundamental-conservative presidents was elected to lead the Southern Baptist Convention. Through presidential appointments, the presidents sought to change the character of denominational institutions and agencies to reflect a more conservative posture.

The following leadership changes have occurred since then:

—Golden Gate Seminary (1986): Frank Pollard, who described himself at one point as a fundamentalist “if you don’t capitalize the word and put the accent on the second syllable,” resigned as president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary to return to the pastorate. William Crews was elected his successor, regarded at the time as a win for conservatives.

—The Home Mission Board (1987): Missouri college president Larry Lewis was elected president by a vote of 52- 15. Lewis, the first SBC agency head to have been vocal in support of a fundamentalist conservative movement, succeeded William Tanner, who left to become executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

—Southeastern Seminary (1987): Randall Lolley resigned as president of the Wake Forest, N.C., seminary after trustees unilaterally altered the method of selecting faculty. He was succeeded immediately by longtime Southern Seminary evangelism professor Lewis Drummond and eventually (1992) by Paige Patterson, former president of Criswell College and architect of the fundamental-conservative movement in the SBC.

—The Christian Life Commission (1988): The SBC’s moral-concerns agency elected Richard Land as president in 1988. Land, academic vice president at Criswell College in Dallas, Texas, succeeded Larry Baker, who narrowly survived a firing attempt in 1987 and months later accepted the pastorate of First Baptist Church, Pineville, La.

—Baptist Press (1990): Vice president Al Shackleford and editor Dan Martin were fired behind closed doors by the SBC Executive Committee at a called meeting July 17, 1990. No stated reason was given for the firings. Supporters of the move interpreted it as a problem of bias against conservatives; detractors called it censorship. Succeeding Shackleford was California Baptist editor Herb Hollinger. A public relations vice presidency was created apart from Baptist Press, and Mark Coppenger, an Indiana Baptist executive director and conservative spokesman, was named to fill the slot.

—Sunday School Board (1991): President Lloyd Elder, who had been elected as a compromise candidate after moderate president Grady Cothen’s 1984 retirement, accepted a generous severance package for a negotiated retirement at a special meeting January 17, 1991. A year earlier Elder survived a firing attempt. Conservative Texas pastor, Jimmy Draper, SBC president from 1982-84, was elected to lead the board July 19.

—The Baptist Joint Committee (1991): The SBC voted in 1991 to disassociate itself from the Baptist Joint Committee, a coalition of Baptist groups that had represented the SBC on church-state issues for a half-century, and transfer the denomination’s religious- liberty assignment to the Christian Life Commission. BJC head James Dunn had been under fire for opposing school prayer and other political offenses, including criticism of President Ronald Reagan.

—Executive Committee (1991): Harold Bennett retired after 10 year as president of the SBC Executive Committee. He was succeeded by Texas Pastor Morris Chapman, one of the inerrantist presidents who served from 1990-92.

—Foreign Mission Board (1992) Keith Parks, after years of trying to compromise with an increasingly adversarial board of trustees, retired as president of the Foreign Mission Board in October, three years earlier than planned,protesting a trustee deci-sion to defund a European seminary for perceived liberalism. Subsequently, Parks accepted a position with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an alternative missions agency for moderates. He was replaced at the FMB by missionary Jerry Rankin, who said he supported the SBC’s conservative movement.

—Southern Seminary (1993): President Roy Honeycutt opted for retirement at age 66, backing off a stated desire to stay on a few years. Trustees elected 33 year old Georgia state paper editor Albert Mohler, a darling of the SBC right, to succeed Honeycutt.

—Southwestern Seminary (1994): Trustees fired president Russell Dilday March 9.

*This article is condensed from an Associated Baptist Press news report.

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