MORE LIES AND ATTACKS
By David R. Currie,
Coordinator

It seems the fundamentalist movement in Texas is getting meaner and meaner. Now they have mailed out a brochure titled “Leadership Links of Southern Baptists in Liberal Organizations.” It is a classic attempt to smear people.

Listed together as liberal organizations are the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, the Religious Liberty Council, Americans United for Church and State, the National Coalition for Public Education and Religious Liberty, Americans for Religious Liberty, People for the American Way, Baptist Peace Fellowship, American Humanist Association, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, The Interfaith Alliance, Alliance of Baptists, Texas Baptists Committed, and Second Baptist Church, Lubbock.

It seems strange to me that nearly all the above groups or organizations stand strongly for the first amendment of the constitution. (I never heard of the humanist group so I do not know what they stand for.) They all strongly support religious liberty and the separation of church and state. I do not quite understand why supporting the first amendment of the U. S. Constitution is such a “liberal” thing to be involved in. It seems to me that supporting the constitution is a pretty “conservative” thing to do.

I guess since the person who put this lovely piece together was Skeet Workman of Lubbock, she had a special agenda in mentioning Second Baptist, Lubbock. One of the reasons Second Baptist is liberal, according to the material, is they had Molly Marshall speak in February, 1994. Unbelievable! Mrs. Workman, by the way, is a long time member of the SBC Christian Life Commission, our ethics agency.

Among the people mentioned in the material, besides me, include Richard Jackson, Russell Dilday, Cecil Sherman, James Dunn, Keith Parks, Foy Valentine, Carolyn Crumpler, James E. Wood, Jr., Grady Cothen, and Phil Strickland. As for me, I could not be more honored than to be included with such a group of Baptist “giants” of the faith.

As you might expect, the information is not accurate. Mrs. Workman says Texas Baptists Committed is an offshoot of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. That is hard to figure since Baptists Committed formed in the Spring of 1988 and CBF in the Summer of 1990. That is like saying my 14 year old was born before my 16 year old. Hard to comprehend.

She also says in regard to TBC that “this group gives financial support to James Dunn of the BJC through the Texas Christian Life Commission.” TBC does not give money to the Baptist Joint Committee, CBF, or any of these groups. Texas Baptists support the BJC through the BGCT budget, which TBC encourages Texas Baptists to support. But we do not give money to any group. We are too busy raising money to mail our own newsletter.

She did accurately quote a statement from one of our newsletters. We said, “We must stand strong against fundamentalism and then include everyone.” I stick by that philosophy for Texas Baptists. But I do not think Skeet wants to include me. That’s the difference in traditional Baptists and fundamentalists. We think we should work together for the cause of Christ even if we disagree on some things. We think its the Baptist Way! Fundamentalists want us to all think alike and agree on everything or else go our separate ways. I think that is sad.

October 1995