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Takeover
Accomplished Through Deception COLUMBIA,
Mo. (ABP) - In his strongest remarks on record to date, a longtime
missions leader claimed conservatives gained control of the Southern
Baptist Convention through deception. "This
whole takeover was based on deceit, on lying, on cheating,"
said Keith Parks, former president of the SBC agency now known
as the International Mission Board. Parks took early retirement
from the Richmond, Va., agency, then called the Foreign Mission
Board, in 1992 because of philosophical differences with an increasingly
conservative board of trustees. While he has previously criticized
convention leaders for allowing controversy to override the denomination's
main priority of cooperative missions, Parks' recent remarks are
his most pointed against Southern Baptists' current leaders. Parks,
who recently retired as global-missions coordinator of the Cooperative
Baptist Fellowship, spoke four times May 8-11 in Missouri. He
was invited by Mainstream Missouri Baptists, a moderate group
formed to defend the state against the so-called "conservative
resurgence" that took control of the SBC during the 1980s. Unite behind doctrine or missions? Parks,
at one time among the SBC's most respected leaders, said Southern
Baptists came together in 1845 for missions, unifying a regionally
and theologically diverse group of churches. "There
were a lot of differences and disagreements, but the consensus
was, 'Let's unite behind the gospel and share it with the world,'"
Parks said. Parks
described conversations he once had with former SBC president
Adrian Rogers, who countered that doctrine - not missions - is
what has held Southern Baptists together. Evidence
that Rogers' view has prevailed is seen in the fact that Independent
Baptist Jerry Falwell now is in the theological center of Southern
Baptist leaders, Parks said. "(Falwell) hasn't moved, but
SBC leadership has moved to where he's been all along," Parks
said. Lessons learned Parks
said he learned several lessons from watching and being removed
from leadership for refusing to embrace the conservative takeover
of the SBC. One,
he said, is the battle was not, as conservatives claimed, over
theology. "Never
one time did anyone try to accuse me of not believing the Bible,"
he said. "They'd say, 'If you support the conservative resurgence,
you can stay.'" Most
of Parks' FMB presidency spanned the first decade of the conservative
movement's rise. He recalled leaders repeatedly insisting they
wanted only parity. Once
they succeeded in gaining complete control in 1990 when the SBC
met in New Orleans, however, they celebrated the achievement.
"They sat there and bragged about the fact that they had
lied and cheated and deceived," Parks said. Parks
voiced dismay at what happened once the takeover was complete.
"The people called Baptists didn't even blink," he said.
"They said, 'We'll follow these guys who acted unbiblically.'" As
conservatives moved to exclude people who weren't committed to
their political takeover, Parks continued, the whole nature of
the SBC annual meeting changed. "Missions night," which
had been the big event, became overshadowed by the election of
a president. Baptists
have always disagreed, Parks said, but they formerly sought to
change minds through persuasion. Now, he charged, Southern Baptist
leaders resort to coercion and control, with rewards for those
who do as they're told. "There are preachers who are afraid
to come to this meeting tonight," he said to illustrate. Parks
said the SBC has shifted from being "confessional,"
where churches voluntarily unite around similar beliefs, to "creedal,"
where orthodoxy is a requirement for inclusion. He
described the mindset of current SBC leaders as: "This is
what you must believe, and we'll decide if you do." Parks
described this approach as making decisions based on legalism
instead of grace. Parks
said he believes if Baptists across the land really understood
what has happened, they would rise in opposition to the convention's
conservative leaders. One
example of how churches suffer, Parks said, is that many congregations
continue the habit of hiring ministers who are graduates of Southern
Baptist seminaries, even though those seminaries no longer teach
traditional Southern Baptist views. Parks
concluded by quoting a philosopher who said, "All it takes
for evil to prevail is for good people to do nothing." In
an interview after his speech, Parks said he broke his public
silence about SBC leaders only because he had been asked to speak
on Baptist principles and on what happened in the SBC. "Usually
I'm asked to speak on missions," he explained. Parks said
he doesn't enjoy criticizing the takeover. "It's an unpleasant
task," he said, "because it's a tragic thing that has
happened to Southern Baptists." Open
or closed meetings? Organizers
of Project 1000 - the Missouri Baptist Laymen's Association effort
to consolidate conservatives' control in Missouri - also had a
statewide meeting May 9 in Jefferson City. Both
sides are gearing up for the Oct. 30-Nov. 1 state convention meeting,
where conservatives hope to elect their third consecutive president. Project
1000 leader Roger Moran declined a request to admit a reporter
to the May 9 meeting, which took place in Jefferson City. "Our
meetings are closed," Moran said. "That's the way we
like it, and that's the way we're going to keep it." He denied
the organization has anything to hide, however. "Our agenda
is to tell the truth to people." July 2000 |