THE JUGULAR VEIN
Percy H. Bailey

Under the guise of restructuring and conservation the Fundamental Conservative Executive Committee is seeking to impose complete control over the SBC Convention. Will the convention be foolish enough to cut its own throat and adopt a system that is set up to rule from the top downward? Baptists have always exercised their power from bottom upward. If they can’t control it they will discard it. The WMU has served in a very wonderful and noble way for over 100 years and they would be stripped of their part in the work simply because the Executive Committee did not have control over their organization. Does the Executive Committee seem to be saying “I am a big boy now and I don’t need your help?” Have they forgotten when they tried to tell what percentages Texas Baptists should give to things? Texas went ahead and did what they wanted to.

The SBC is a cooperative effort, and not a dictated effort from top to bottom. The spirit of the WMU has demonstrated for over 100 years what it means to have a true sense of cooperation.

Now they want to wipe all this out and start a new system. Baptist democracy and cooperation is threatened by the new spirit of run it or ruin it. Our convention has recently seen the firing of all those who held on to the old school of democracy. Dilday is the most recent example. Can the SBC continue to run on a system that seeks to dictate from top to bottom? We may need some restructuring and a lots of conservation but we need the jugular vein of democracy or Baptists will be cast on the junk pile and rightly so. If the Fundamentalist Conservative group want to have such an organization that runs from top to bottom, why don’t they go out and organize it and quit trying to steal our democratic SBC? When a power-hungry bunch takes over, it reveals they are trusting in human wisdom, not in Godly leadership to see them through. Only with God’s help and Baptist democracy have we been able to weather the last few stormy years! Baptists need to wake up and “Stand for Jesus,” as the old song says!

Percy H. Bailey, Retired
BD 1948 — SWBTS
Diana, TX

April 1995