HOW MUCH INFLUENCE DOES JERRY FALWELL HAVE IN THE SBC?

The May 4 issue of the Baptist Standard reported that “top leaders of the Southern Baptist convention’s fundamental-conservative movement” met in Atlanta, April 21. Presiding at the meeting was Adrian Rogers. In attendance were Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson, “credited with spearheading the movement that brought fundamental-conservatives to power in 1979.”

It listed others who attended the meeting. They were:

• O. S. Hawkins, pastor, FBC, Dallas
• Jack Graham, pastor, Prestonwood, Dallas
• Ike Reighard, pastor, New Hope, Fayetteville, GA, and current president of the SBC Pastors’ Conference
• James Merritt, pastor, FBC, Snellville, GA, an officer of the SBC Executive Committee
• Richard Lee, pastor, Rehoboth, Decatur, GA, former Pastors’ Conference president
• Ronnie Floyd, pastor, FBC, Springdale, Ark., an Executive Committee leader
• Bailey Smith, evangelist, Atlanta, GA, former SBC president
• Jerry Vines, pastor, Jacksonville, Fl, former SBC president
• Charles Stanley, pastor, FBC, Atlanta, GA, former SBC president

Friends, there is a pretty good list of the power brokers in the SBC. A few powers, like Ed Young, Jimmy Draper and Morris Chapman, who are in official positions, were not listed as attending.

We find the following very alarming and want to point it out to Texas Baptists. We have a copy of the Board of Trustees for Jerry Falwell’s Liberty University. Guess which Southern Baptists are on the Liberty Board of Trustees that Chancellor Jerry Falwell calls “the backbone of this university’s quest for excellence? We will list them:

• Jack Graham
• Ike Reighard
• James Merritt
• Richard Lee
• Bailey Smith
• Jerry Vines
• Freddie Gage

All were in attendance with Pressler and Patterson except Freddie Gage, a known fundamentalist evangelist. And who is joining Falwell on the program of his Super Conference XIII this October? There are six speakers including Falwell. Three of the others are 0. S. Hawkins, Bailey Smith, and Ed Young.

We do not know how much influence Jerry Falwell has on the SBC but we can promise you it is more than any recent president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

By the way, Jerry Falwell is on the program of the SBC Pastors’ Conference.

All of this emphasizes why we are encouraging Texas Baptists to follow Gods leadership and create increased independence from the SBC. (And we firmly believe He is leading us this way.) Jerry Falwell is a militant, radical fundamentalist, and a major player in the Religious Right political movement in this country. The fact of the matter is, the current leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention is saturated with similar militant, radical fundamentalists who have a totally different world view, concept of religious liberty, and concept of missions and evangelism than the majority of Texas Baptists.

The Religious Right political movement has co-opted the resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. As Texas Baptists, we are in the church business, not the politics business.

The state convention needs to exercise its autonomy and chart our own course apart from the influence of the militant, radical, leadership of the SBC.

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