AUTONOMY: A BAPTIST PRINCIPLE WORTH PRESERVING
By David R. Currie,
Coordinator

Autonomy is important to Baptists. It is fundamental to who we are as Baptists. Without autonomy, Baptists are simply not Baptists.

In Baptist polity, autonomy means freedom. Local churches are autonomous. That means they are free to choose to relate to local associations, state conventions, and national conventions or fellowships. Each of these entities is equally autonomous. All cooperation in Baptist life is voluntary. If cooperation is forced, it is neither Baptist, nor cooperation.

The constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention says it well: “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.”

The constitution of the Baptist General Convention of Texas is even better: “This body is and always shall remain, only and solely a medium through which Baptist churches may work harmoniously in cooperation with each other, promoting the work and objects set forth in this constitution. It has not, to any degree, and shall never have any ecclesiastical authority. It shall not have and shall never attempt to exercise a single attribute of power or authority over any church, or over the messengers of the churches in such wise as to limit the sovereignty of the churches, but shall recognize the sovereignty of the churches under the one Sovereign, Jesus Christ the Lord.”

The Baptist Faith and Message statement on cooperation reads: “Christ’s people should, as occasion requires, organize such associations and conventions as may best secure cooperation for the great objects of the Kingdom of God. Such organizations have no authority over one another or over the churches. They are voluntary and advisory bodies designed to elicit, combine, and direct the energies of our people in the most effective manner.”

NOW PLEASE READ CAREFULLY. THE CRITICAL ISSUE FACING TEXAS BAPTISTS, AND BAPTISTS IN OTHER STATES AS WELL, IS WHETHER WE WILL CONTINUE TO PRACTICE AUTONOMY AND VOLUNTARY COOPERATION!

The fundamentalist takeover of the SBC began 17 years ago. Fundamentalism controls the SBC. The SBC refuses to recognize autonomy in the following ways…

—SBC leadership told local churches and individuals that SBC agencies would no longer accept contributions channeled through the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

—SBC leadership attempted to tell the WMU that it could not encourage mission giving through CBF or participate in mission education with CBF.

—SBC executive director Morris Chapman wrote the Northwest Baptist Convention that it could not give funds to Golden Gate Seminary from SBC Cooperative Program funds. (Please note the excellent editorial by Mark Wingfield in this newsletter.)

Texas fundamentalist leaders do not want Texas Baptists to exercise their autonomy. They want the BGCT to be a “farm team” of the SBC. As Walter Carpenter wrote in The Texas Baptist: “Thus, unless the BGCT returns to its historic position of friendly cooperation with the SBC and eschews cooperation with competing entities, its budget is going to suffer massive down-sizing. Already the word is out in the SBC grapevine that it is a dangerous undertaking to accept employment with the BGCT, as layoffs appear inevitable.”

The Cooperative Program Study Committee vote in Amarillo was a vote to confirm autonomy. Texas Baptists voted to honor local church autonomy and recognize the gifts of all churches equally. Last year’s budget vote concerned autonomy. Both votes angered Texas fundamentalists. They do not want Texas Baptist churches to have freedom in giving. The same issue is facing state conventions across the SBC.

The attitude of fundamentalist leaders is interesting given past positions espoused by Paige Patterson, one the architects of the takeover of the SBC. Patterson wrote an article, which included the section on connectionalism, printed on this page in this newsletter, in 1991. In this article, he clearly calls for local churches to have the autonomy to give as they choose. He indicates such a practice is more Baptist than what we have been practicing and will encourage persons of varying perspectives to get along and give more. He encourages exactly the kind of actions we have taken as Texas Baptists.

Why are fundamentalists working so hard to take control of state Baptist conventions? One reasons is to enforce giving to the SBC. They do not want state conventions to allow autonomy. They want Cooperative Program giving options to be limited only to the SBC.

Another reason is to control state Baptist convention news. Are you aware that in many states, the state Baptist papers ARE PRESSURED not to print news that relates to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship? The fact is, only four states, Texas, Virginia, Kentucky, and North Carolina, give full news coverage to their people on news relating to both the SBC and CBF.

Texas Baptists, we must remain committed to autonomy. Autonomy also means freedom and fairness. All we do as Texas Baptists must be fair to all Texas Baptists. Even as we stand up to those who, if they had the power, would deny autonomy to us, we must diligently continue to give autonomy to them. If we did otherwise, we should not call ourselves Baptist.

April 1996