Thanks, for correcting inaccuracies

Editor’s Note: The following are four “Letters to the Editor” of local newspapers to correct misperceptions of the BGCT. All those who refuse to let false allegations go unheeded deserve commendation.

BAPTIST DIFFERENCES NOT SO FAR APART

I read with sadness the November 11 front-page Express-News article about the recent meeting of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. I attended and would like to give a more accurate description of the controversy the article described.

While the political groups “moderates” and “fundamentalists” disagree on a few issues, the differences spelled out in the article are grossly misleading.

I have been a member of the Executive Board of Texas Baptists Committed (a moderate group) for several years, and I know of no Texas Baptist moderate who does not believe in the Virgin Birth of Jesus Christ.

I know of none who believe that homosexuality is not a sin. And I know of no churches in good standing with the Baptist General Convention of Texas or Texas Baptists Committed that would even consider ordaining a homosexual.

The article made these sound like common beliefs among moderates. These beliefs do not exist.

Are there differences between the two groups? Yes. Moderates are more open to a greater role for women in ministry than fundamentalists. Moderates tend to emphasize the doctrine of the “priesthood of the believer,” while fundamentalists tend to put more emphasis on the pastor's authority.

But these are not differences of basic core beliefs. We all use the Bible as our standard of belief and practice.

The BGCT has worked hard to include the different styles of Baptists without compromising the fundamentals of our faith.

J. Dowell Loftis, pastor
Shearer Hills Baptist Church
San Antonio

BAPTIST BELIEFS CHARGE IS NOTHING BUT SMEAR TACTIC

In a November 11 page one San Antonio Express-News article entitled “Texas Baptist fundamentalists meet separately for the first time,” Jeff Harris of Castle Hills Church, Northwest, is quoted as saying that Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders interpret the Bible in ways inconsistent with Baptist beliefs.

This is another all too frequent fundamentalist smear tactic. I challenge him to name one. Why hide behind a generalized accusation?

The article further states that Harris pointed to the discussion among moderates that Jesus may not have been born of a virgin.

I have pastored a Baptist church for more than 50 years and have never heard either a pastor or a member in the pew ever hint at such a thing. During that time I have been acquainted with the leaders of the Baptist General Convention of Texas and nothing could be further from the truth.

I plead with him to either name one or apologize for making such a blanket accusation.

It's totally unchristian and violates the Ninth Commandment, “You Shall Not Bear False Witness Against Your Neighbor.”

William Perdue, pastor,
Cranes Mill Baptist Church,
Canyon Lake

CONSERVATIVE/FUNDAMENTALIST BAPTISTS ACTUALLY DESIRE CONTROL

In 1979 at the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Houston, unhappy conservative/fundamentalist Baptists mounted a massive effort to elect a president. Their purpose was to have a president who would appoint only persons who would agree to certain fundamentals of faith and who would champion the political cause of controlling the Southern Baptist Convention.

The effort was highly successful, and 19 years later the multimillion-dollar enterprise is totally dominated by ultra-conservative Baptists. So effective was this movement that the previously independent Jerry Falwell not only joined, but became a spokesperson for Southern Baptists on national news programs such as “Nightline.”

In Texas, however, a resistance movement was formed in order to keep such a thing from happening in the autonomous Baptist General Convention of Texas. Those efforts have infuriated and frustrated pastors and church members who took over the national organization because they were unable to control Texas and its vast resources and ministries.

Texas is by far the wealthiest and strongest state convention of any Baptist work. If Texas Baptists were to become an independent Protestant denomination, they would be the ninth largest in the world.

It is unfortunate that the departure of those leaving has been couched in accusations that Texas Baptists endorsed homosexuality and abortion. Quite the contrary. Texas Baptists’ elected leaders recently asked an Austin church to discontinue using reference to the state convention on the church’s web page, which ordained a gay man as a deacon.

While Texas Baptists have always supported helping, caring for and ministering to all people with Christ’s love, the convention leaders would not endorse a lifestyle that many Baptists believe presents a moral departure from biblical principles.

The accusation that Texas Baptists support abortion is another misrepresentation. Texas Baptists hospitals will not perform abortions on demand in any situation.

Only when the life of the mother is in imminent danger can such a procedure be utilized, and then only in a regimented process. This procedure requires a consultation and agreement with the patient or immediate family, an administrative representative, the chief of staff, the attending physician, a nursing staff representative and a chaplain.

This arduous process acknowledges that some situations call for more discerning judgment rather than simplistic platitudes. Due to an unwillingness to call everyone who ever had to painfully end the possibility of life for a developing child a “murderer,” Texas Baptists are now accused of supporting abortion by those who now are leaving the convention.

Control, really is the bottom line in the founding of the Southern Baptists for Texas group. While calling for women to submit to their husbands this summer in the annual Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Salt Lake City, the tip of a larger iceberg emerged. Most issues for the so-called conservative/ fundamentalist truly are related to having someone give up their autonomy.

According to the thinking of those who took over the Southern Baptist Convention and have now failed to take over Texas, the list of those who should submit goes on and one women to men, laity to clergy, clergy and congregations to denomination and, finally, state conventions to the national convention.

Any other stated reason for the new state convention of Baptists being formed is a smokescreen.

Dan Williams, pastor
Southland Baptist Church,
San Angelo

READER WANTS TO CLARIFY BAPTIST STANCES

Thank you for your generous coverage of the excellent sermon by Paul Saylors, executive director of the Smith Baptist Association, at the Baptist General Convention of Texas meeting in Houston.

I did note an error of fact in the story which said Calvary Baptist Church, Waco, did not send messengers to the convention. Calvary did, in fact, send messengers who were seated without any question being raised. I checked my memory on this with the chairman of convention credentials committee.

I believe this is important since it is an affirmation of the historic Baptist understanding of the autonomy of the local church. Many, perhaps most, Baptist churches would not choose at this time to call a woman as senior pastor, but the overwhelming majority of Texas Baptist churches continue to affirm the right of the local church to decide who its pastor will be.

Messengers to the annual meeting also approved a resolution on biblical equality which relates to the matter of local church autonomy. The final paragraph of this resolution reads: “Be it fully resolved that we affirm the freedom of each local Baptist church to commission for service all persons regardless of race, socioeconomic-economic standing, age or gender who are called of God to model servant leadership.” (Convention Bulletin, Nov. 10, 1998).

I question the first paragraph of the Associated Press article about formation of a new convention of Baptists in Texas which states that these Baptists were “upset with the Baptist General Convention of Texas’ stance on homosexuality.” BGCT executive director Bill Pinson, its current president, Russell Dilday, and its most recent former president, Charles Wade, have all stated that they believe homosexuality is sin.

Bob Campbell, pastor of Westbury Baptist Church, Houston, and past chairman of the BGCT executive board, has reported on meetings held in January between the leadership of Southern Baptists of Texas and the BGCT. Campbell said, “Every person in the room stated that homosexuality is a sin. We all expressed our disapproval of knowingly ordaining a practicing homosexual. Furthermore, none of us would knowingly ordain a practicing adulterer, murderer, thief or rapist.

“We did not split over whether to add to the BGCT constitution a prohibition listing only the ordination of practicing homosexuals as grounds for not seating church messengers to the annual convention. The SBT leadership wanted such and the BGCT leadership did not, because we felt it would not be able to stop with only the homosexual issue. It necessarily would require the addition of all sexual sins and an array of many, many other sins.

“Eventually, no one could be seated. We felt it better that each convention itself decide every challenge to messenger seating brought to the convention floor. The BGCT leadership has the complete confidence in convention messengers to do the right thing on each occasion." (The Baptist Standard, Nov. 11, 1998)

Furthermore, in its session just concluded, messengers overwhelmingly rejected an amendment to the resolution on biblical equality which would have added the words “sexual orientation” to the paragraph cited above. Both BGCT leaders and messengers to the convention just concluded have made it clear their belief in homosexuality is sin. With what BGCT stance on homosexuality is the SBT “upset?”

Marilyn Hillyer,
FBC Tyler

December 1998/January 1999