What Is Texas Baptists Committed?
by David R. Currie,
Coordinator

The roots of the organization, Texas Baptists Committed (TBC), go back to 1845 and the birth of the Southern Baptist Convention. To understand TBC, you need to understand history.

The Southern Baptist Convention was formed in 1845 around a common purpose and a group of guiding principles. The various Baptist churches that came together in forming the SBC were very diverse. They united around the purpose of missions.

PURPOSE

The SBC Constitution of 1845 defines the purpose as follows:

“It is the purpose of the Convention to provide a general organization for Baptists in the United States and its territories for the promotion of Christian missions at home and abroad and any other objects such as Christian education, benevolent enterprises, and social services which it may deem proper and advisable for the furtherance of the Kingdom of God.”

The charter, approved, December 27th, 1845, reads “said corporation being created for the purpose of eliciting, combining, and directing the energies of the Baptist denomination of Christians, for the propagation of the gospel…”

The purpose of the founders of the convention was clear then and is clear now, “the propagation of the gospel… the promotion of Christian missions at home and abroad…”

This purpose revolved around the belief that every person on earth needed to believe or have the opportunity to believe in “Jesus Christ as Lord.” While sharing Jesus was the responsibility of every believer and every local congregation, it was also important to spread the gospel through larger voluntary organizations.

GUIDING PRINCIPLES

The guiding principles of the SBC were based on limited authority, radical freedom and voluntary cooperation.

Limited Authority: The SBC Constitution states the limited authority of the SBC. “While independent and sovereign in its own sphere, the Convention does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention.”

Radical Freedom: Baptists were adamant about freedom. No convention had authority over a local church. There was no pope, no cardinals, no bishops, and no hierarchical ecclesiology.

This commitment to freedom shaped the guiding principles. Those principles are:

—the authority of Scripture. Baptists have no creeds. Scripture is the final authority for the individual and the local church.

—the priesthood of all believers. Each believer has the right and responsibility of being a priest. They are to interpret scripture for themselves and act as priests to each other.

—the autonomy of the local church. Each local congregation is free to choose its ministers, worship as it feels comfortable, and ordain whomever it believes is called of God to ministry. The church is a democracy where each member has equal rights, privileges and responsibilities. No other Baptist organization has authority over the local congregation.

—the separation of church and state/religious liberty. Here Baptists were the most radical. Their roots were in the Separatist movement in England and Holland. Baptists did not simply believe in religious toleration, but in religious liberty. No person, civil government, or religious system has the right to come between God and human beings. All religions, as well as the freedom to believe in no religion or not to worship, are equal before the law.

Undergirding these principles is the most distinctive Baptist belief, “the competency of the soul in religion.” Soul competency excludes all human interference in religion such as episcopacy, infant baptism, religious proxy, and governmental authority in religion. Religion is a personal matter between the soul and God!

Voluntary Cooperation: Everything Southern Baptists did together was to be done on the basis of voluntary cooperation. Local churches make all the decisions. They choose to join associations, state conventions, or national conventions. They choose how much money to give to cooperative mission efforts. Coercion or authority from the top down was not to exist.

RESULT

One result of the practice of these guiding principles is well summed up in the writing of Herschel Hobbs. Hobbs writes:

“So in reality Baptists are the most broadminded of all people in religion. They grant to every man that he shall be free to believe as he wants. But they insist upon the same right for themselves. The moment that a Baptist seeks to coerce another person—even another Baptist— in matters of religion, he violates the basic belief of Baptists.”

Another result was incredible growth in mission and ministry. Following these principles, Southern Baptists became the largest non-Catholic denomination in America. We commissioned more missionaries, educated more theological students, and provided more social services than any other protestant denomination. God blessed Southern Baptists!

THEN EVERYTHING CHANGED…

From 1845 until 1979, Southern Baptists stayed true to the above listed guiding principles. We always had differences of opinion regarding theology, style of worship, and local church practices. But because we agreed on the major guiding principles, i.e., Jesus is Lord, Scripture is final authority, voluntary cooperation, and soul competency, disagreements on other issues were considered minor. The main thing was sharing the Gospel.

In 1979, everything changed. An organized political effort was launched to elect Adrian Rogers president of the SBC. This political organization is well documented and admitted to by its leaders, Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson. They had realized that the president of the SBC had total power to appoint the convention committees responsible for appointing trustees of all SBC agencies and institutions.

Rogers won, as did all the presidential candidates endorsed by this political machine over the next 15 years. The result is only “one kind” of Baptist has been allowed to serve in leadership positions within the SBC.

This one kind of Baptist is not only fundamentalist theologically, but politically. Issues which were once not tremendously divisive because of the principles of local church autonomy and the priesthood of all believers, became very divisive. The “correct” positions on exactly “how” the Bible was authoritative and trustworthy, abortion, the role of women in the church, divorced persons, etc. became litmus tests for denominational employment and service.

Persons who did not agree with the positions of SBC leaders were branded as “persons who do not believe the Bible.” SBC leaders at the time of the “takeover” in 1979 (as it has been identified), were forced to resign or were fired. The result is the Southern Baptist Convention of 1995 is bitterly divided, stagnate in its growth, and embroiled in continuing turmoil and controversy. The main thing, Jesus is Lord, is no longer the main thing. Conformity to SBC leadership is the priority. Southern Baptists have abandoned their original purpose and guiding principles.

WHY TEXAS BAPTISTS COMMITTED?

Throughout the decade of the 1980s, various attempts were made to stop the movement controlling the SBC. These efforts were not successful. Persons who supported the political movement in the SBC would like for the movement to be successful in controlling state Baptist conventions as well. They are organized in Texas, calling themselves Southern Baptists of Texas. They are open about their agenda.

Texas Baptists Committed exists in Texas as an organized, educational (some would say political) effort to resist any takeover of our state convention by those that we (based on sixteen years of observation) believe do not adhere to our Baptist roots of limited authority, radical freedom, and voluntary cooperation around the main purpose of spreading the Gospel of Jesus Christ.

We are Texas Baptists, committed to not controlling anything! We are committed to Jesus Christ and the purpose and guiding principles that kept Southern Baptists united from 1845 until 1979. We want Texas to stay true to these principles, and thus “keep the main thing — the person of Jesus Christ and ministry in His name — the main thing.”

We are a voluntary organization, funded by individuals who choose to identify with this cause by paying a yearly membership in the organization.

We do our educational work by publishing a newsletter six times per year that highlights our historical guiding principles, points out when the SBC ignores these principles, and urges Texas Baptists to practice good stewardship by attending our state convention and electing leaders who will honor these principles. WE want leaders who will seek to include everyone, even those who disagree with us, and seek to keep Texas Baptists focused on the “main thing.”

We also sponsor meetings throughout Texas during which speakers emphasize our historic Baptist guiding principles and the importance of unity around Jesus and missions.

We sincerely wish we did not need Texas Baptists Committed. We wish what happened in the SBC had never occurred. We can only dream about where the SBC would be today in ministry and missions had we not abandoned the “main thing” for secular politics.

But as Christians, we must live in the real world. And reality says to us that if we do not have an organized movement to counter the political machine in our midst, our state convention will be taken down the same road as the SBC. So we choose to stand, hoping and praying that our efforts honor God and His work and help us to be more effective witnesses for Christ as a state convention.

We hope this helps you better understand why Texas Baptists Committed exists. If you believe our ministry is worthwhile and necessary, please join with us. What the future holds for Southern Baptists, only God knows. If the SBC remains in turmoil, and there is no evidence of the situation changing, maybe God will use Texas Baptists in a mighty way, because we have stayed true to our Lord, His Word, our purpose, and our guiding principles.

*The article above will appear in all of the adult literature of Smyth and Helwy’s starting this fall. We appreciate Smyth and Helwy’s giving TBC this opportunity to reach more people with our message. In turn, we encourage you to examine their excellent “Baptist” literature. We think you will find it meets the need.

June/July 1995