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BAPTIST
PRESS: A CASE-STUDY OF UNETHICAL JOURNALISM
During the debate on the Baptist Faith and Message statement at the June Southern Baptist Convention in Orlando, Texas pastor Anthony Sisemore urged the SBC to keep language saying "the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted is Jesus Christ." "Without any hesitation, I believe the Bible is God's word, and I strive to obey the standards it prescribes," Sisemore said. "The Bible is a book that we can trust. The Bible is a book that points toward the truth. With that being said, the Bible is still just a book. Christians are supposed to have a relationship with Jesus Christ, the Living Word, not a book. Jesus Christ redeems, not a book." Now read Sisemore's statement again. Do you see heresy there? Is he saying anything wrong? Is he saying the Bible is not special or not the Written Word of God? Is he saying the Bible is not authoritative? No. He affirms the authority of scripture. The Bible tells us about God but it is not God. Jesus was God in the flesh, the full and complete revelation of God and it is Jesus that saves us. How did Baptist Press report Sisemore's statement? On June 21, BP released a story that began, ". . . the Bible is just a book." As those words resonated through the Orlando, Fla., convention center June 14, thousands of shocked Baptists responded with audible gasps. For fundamentalists, it was a moment of truth. The 20-year battle for the spiritual heart of the SBC had just been exposed in six words. Propaganda or Journalism? BP tied the moderate movement to the statement, "the Bible is just a book" and gave God credit. They quoted Jerry Sutton saying, "The moderates really do believe the Bible is just another book." Sutton said he believes that God used the statement to expose the moderates. "God brings truth out of confusion," he said. "God allowed the moderate crowd, some of whom were confused, to expose what they really believed. Out of the confusion of their emotions, He brought out the truth." BP, under the direction of SBC leadership, did a hatchet job on Sisemore, pastor of First Baptist Church, Floydada, Texas. They twisted his words and told the world that Sisemore was a heretic who did not believe the Bible. What BP did was unethical, unchristian, unbiblical and immoral. The sad thing is, they have been doing this for years. One can learn how aggressive BP is in attacking the Baptist General Convention of Texas, CBF, TBC and the mainstream movement by going to the SBC web site at www.sbc.net. Click on BP and go to the archives. At keyword search, type in David Currie. Baptist Press has issued eight stories mentioning me since May 1. The articles are written as propaganda attacks on Texas Baptists, CBF or TBC. This kind of "slander journalism" is consistent with their work the past 10 years. In 1990, BP staffers Al Shackleford, who recently was killed in an automobile accident, and Dan Martin, were fired by the SBC Executive Committee for truthfully reporting the scandalous tactics of fundamentalist leadership. Since that day, BP has not practiced the ethics of a nonpartisan news agency. Since the CBF formation in 1991, BP has followed consistently the "Big Lie" philosophy. That philosophy, used by Adolph Hitler, was that if you told a lie strongly enough and forcefully enough, long enough, people would believe it. BP has, since 1991, erroneously portrayed CBF as liberal Baptists who do not believe the Bible, and who support homosexuality and abortion. They have been successful in this effort. CBF has only 1,800 contributing churches out of 41,000 in the SBC. Fundamentalists won most of the SBC presidential elections in the 1980s with only slightly more than 50 percent of the vote. Thousands of Baptists resisted fundamentalism in the 1980s, yet have never joined CBF. I believe this is due in large measure, to the tremendously effective propaganda campaign waged by BP and SBC leadership against CBF. This explains why people say, "I appreciate Texas Baptists Committed and support the BGCT but I'm just not comfortable with CBF." When I point out that CBF and the BGCT stand for the same historic Baptists principles, I usually hear, "Do you really think so?" SBC leaders have attacked state conventions through BP but have not been as successful in taking control of state Baptist conventions. This is certainly the case in Texas and Virginia, where fundamentalists have formed rival state conventions. They have failed also to be successful in many other states. SBC fundamentalist leaders have tried consistently to tie state resistance mainstream movements like TBC to CBF. The strategy is to discredit them and convince Baptists that mainstream organizations are composed primarily of liberal, non-Bible believing Baptists. It is not true of CBF nor mainstream organizations. True, many mainstream supporters like me, have been active also in CBF, as a way of expressing our support of historic Baptist principles nationally. Our involvement in CBF is a different issue than our involvement in TBC or any other mainstream organization. Mainstream organizations are committed to keeping state conventions open, inclusive and united around Jesus and missions. Mainstream organizations are about resisting fundamentalism and stopping its spread to state conventions. CBF is about missions, theological education and helping churches. Overview of Baptist Press SBC leaders have used BP to attack the truth that CBF and mainstream organizations are separate. Events in Texas, coupled with formation of mainstream Baptists-Committed-type organizations in several states, seem to have led SBC leaders to a state of paranoid fear. A brief overview of the BP in the last three months reveals that BP is practicing hatchet journalism and Hitler's big lie philosophy. The past three months provide a glimpse of what BP has been doing the past 10 years. In April, enthusiasm was expressed for the mainstream movement in a national meeting when 100 representatives from 15 states gathered in Atlanta. Eight states now have mainstream organizations. SBC leaders, fearful that other mainstream groups might have the success of Texas Baptists Committed, responded to this meeting using their big lie strategy. BP released a news story May 4, titled "Dissident Baptists with CBF ties establish new 'mainstream' network." The opening paragraph reads, "A group of dissident Southern Baptists with ties to the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship have formed a 'Network of mainstream Baptists' to prevent churches and state conventions from following the conservative renewal of the Southern Baptist Convention over the past two decades." This article was written by Todd Starnes of BP who interviewed me. Starnes did not report that I said, "I believe the fundamentals of the faith: the virgin birth of Christ, that Christ lived a sinless life, that Christ died for our sins, was literally raised from the dead and is coming again. Everyone I know believes those things." He did accurately report that I said, "fundamentalism is a perversion of the Gospel...I am talking about the movement. That's the perversion...Fundamentalism is focused on power and control." BP did allow James Merritt, now SBC president, to say he did not understand what I meant by fundamentalist. They quoted Merritt saying, "If they mean it's someone who believes the Bible is the Word of God, that Jesus was born of a virgin, that Jesus died on a cross and was literally raised from the dead, then quite frankly, I believe that Baptists are guilty of being fundamentalists." I agree with Merritt. Most Baptists are conservative, thus, the label moderate is inaccurate. Not satisfied, on May 15, BP ran another article titled, "Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is busy organizing, strategizing, networking." In this article, they used their big lie philosophy saying mainstream organizations were "political front groups that are providing tactical cover for the CBF at the state Baptist convention level by opposing conservative candidates for office and encouraging Southern Baptist churches to distance themselves from the national convention." The five-page BP article cited Moran's guilt by association material tying the mainstream/Baptists Committed organizations to CBF. It was the big lie philosophy carried to the extreme as they used every conceivable connection they could think of to link the groups. TBC Formed Prior to CBF Chronological events in history reveal the weakness of BP fabrications. Texas Baptists Committed could not have been formed to lead Texas Baptists into the CBF. TBC was organized in 1989, two years before CBF's formation. How could we be a front group for an organization that did not yet exist? TBC was organized in 1989 as part of the national effort to stop fundamentalist takeover of the SBC. After the national effort was abandoned, TBC leadership choose to continue because Paige Patterson had pledged to take over the BGCT, The Baptist Standard, and Baylor University. TBC remained active to fight to keep Texas Baptists free. Other states, which also had Baptists Committed state organizations, closed their organizations. Years later, after seeing the success of TBC and watching the fundamentalist movement turn its attention to taking over state conventions, these states are now reforming their mainstream/Baptists Committed organizations in hopes of saving their state convention. None is a front group for CBF. Some CBF supporters are active in mainstream organizations and some are not. The mainstream movement is not about leading a state into CBF. Mainstream movements are about stopping the scorch and burn tactics of fundamentalism from succeeding in state conventions. One month later, Charles Wade, executive director of the BGCT, went to Orlando and challenged SBC leadership from the convention floor. Bruce Prescott, president of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists and I also spoke from the floor pleading with the SBC to leave the words, "the criterion by which we interpret scripture is Jesus Christ" in the BF&M statement. A Time magazine reporter who interviewed me asked, "how can a group of Baptists vote against Jesus?" Wade courageously challenged fundamentalism and evidently enraged SBC leadership because they misrepresented Sisemore's words in their June 21 report. Picking up on the big lie philosophy the article said, "The moment of truth for dissident moderates and their denomination-like Cooperative Baptist Fellowship came when Anthony Sisemore, . . . offered an amendment to the proposed Baptist Faith and Message when it came up for discussion. . ." BP called our office in hopes of tying Sisemore to TBC and CBF, but found out he was not even on our 19,000-plus mailing list. Later they interviewed Sisemore and found FBC Floydada gives 13% to the SBC Cooperative Program. The church does allow members to designate to CBF. (As a side note: Reporting the giving record of FBC Floydada to the Cooperative Program is ironic in that BP has never reported the giving record of newly-elected SBC president James Merritt. What they apparently do not want publicized is that it appears Merritt's church gives between 2 and 3 percent to Cooperative Program while he is bragging about how wonderful it is. Merritt was nominated by Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas. According to published records, Prestonwood managed to give $275,550 to missions in 1998 out of $22,470,098 in total receipts. That is 1.23 percent.) Obviously, Sisemore was not saying that "the Bible is just a book" like War and Peace or Tom Sawyer, yet SBC leaders jumped on the opportunity to misrepresent Sisemore's statement. They will use this lie over and over again attempting to destroy the BGCT, the mainstream/Baptists Committed movement and CBF. Sutton even went so far as to say that former SBC leaders, "I'm talking about the heads of the agencies and many of our professors," were on that same road, i.e., "the Bible is just a book," thus claiming that men like Keith Parks, Russell Dilday, Paul Powell, Foy Valentine, Duke McCall, William Hendricks, Leon McBeth, William Estep, Buddy Shurden and others were all men who believed "the Bible is just a book." To continue their big lie strategy BP released another story May 26 titled, "Texas moderates may leave SBC to form new, national Baptist group." Claude Thomas, pastor of First Baptist Church, Euless, Texas, and chairman of the SBC executive committee was cited as saying that the issue for Texas Baptists is whether or not to remain a part of a convention that "believes the Bible is just a book," referring to the BGCT. Thomas also said, "it appears that from the (Orlando) convention discussion that some in leadership in the BGCT have a lower view of Scripture than our Southern Baptist forefathers." This is the old strategy that anyone who does not bow down to the SBC is accused of not believing the Bible. BP's Spin on CBF in Orlando By the June meeting of the CBF General Assembly in Orlando BP was known for lacking integrity. BP wants to convince others that TBC is an arm of CBF. Why do they do this? One, they are scared other states may be able to do what we have done in Texas. Two, they think they have done such a good job slandering CBF through the years that if they can link us together, they can stop the mainstream movement in individual states. At the CBF General Assembly some mainstream state leaders lead a workshop about the relationship of mainstream organizations and CBF. The purpose of the workshop is to seek converts for the mainstream movement. I asked if a BP reporter was present and a hand was raised. I asked if the reporter was Todd Starnes, who wrote three of the four articles described above. He said he was Russell Moore and when some of the crowd groaned, I said, "Don't do that. He has a right to be here. He just needs to report this meeting accurately and not do the hatchet job his co-workers did on Anthony Sisemore." I said when you start a mainstream group you will have to deal with the lies and misrepresentations of BP. My remarks were not directed to him, but toward his bosses and fellow reporters. In my speech I addressed how fundamentalism was hurting the Kingdom and how the world needs an authentic Baptist witness in the 21st Century. Participants were encouraged to stand up for Jesus and His message of love and grace just as Paul stood up to the Judaizers and Jesus to the legalists of His day. Russell Moore reported my comments in the July 3 release of BP titled, "BGCT leader confirms ties between mainstream Baptist groups, CBF." Currie spoke optimistically of moderates in the state conventions diverting money from the International Mission Board to other groups since "conservatives don't care about missions They're fighting a culture war." Notice how they said I spoke "optimistically" of moderates diverting money from the International Mission Board. That is not true. I never said such a thing. In fact, I said, "Texas Baptists will never abandon the missionaries," but this statement was not reported. Nor did they report about the concerns expressed for our missionaries, especially in light of how the revised BF&M could be implemented to the harm of our missionaries. In short, the article took my comments on one subject and twisted them to help their agenda. And what is their agenda? To label us as the anti-missionary group. They want people to believe moderates, whose churches mostly give 10% or more to cooperative missions, do not believe in missions. This is typical of BP. They take statements and twist them to fit their purpose and call this professional journalism. They did it throughout the CBF meeting. They issued another press release saying "CBF to approve funding for pro-homosexual groups." Is this true? No, once again, it is a fabrication. CBF does give something like $9,000 out of a $16.9 million budget to the Baptist Peace Fellowship for a specific race relations project. CBF does not support the ordination of gays. That is one of the reasons why CBF funds a project of the Peace Fellowship and not its general budget. I have been chair of the CBF Finance Committee for two years and I can tell you unequivocally that CBF does not give one penny to support homosexuality. Reading BP reports on the CBF general assembly, you would think all CBF does is promote homosexuality and abortion when I never heard either issue mentioned. BP twisted Daniel Vestal's message delivered at the General Assembly into an attack on SBC. At CBF people were talking about missions and their desire to lead people to Christ. I heard about the importance of keeping Jesus Christ the focus of your life but I never heard a word about homosexuality or abortion. After CBF ended, BP issued another story on July 5, this time accusing me of publicly rebuking their reporter, Russell Moore, and stirring the crowd to make negative remarks at Moore. They claimed someone cursed Moore and pushed him against a wall, even though they have no one who can validate his accusations. I did publicly criticize BP but I was very nice to Mr. Moore. For the rest of July, BP turned their criticism to Missouri and the mainstream Missouri Baptist movement. As Russell Dilday traveled and spoke in Missouri, he and leaders of mainstream Missouri Baptists were subjected to the same hatchet journalism we have come to expect from BP. They called Dilday's speeches, "anti-SBC rallies." On August 4, they issued a story titled, "Chapman addresses 'anti-SBC spirit' among some Texas Baptist leaders." They mentioned that "Dilday, during a late-July speaking tour in Missouri in behalf of the anti-SBC 'mainstream Missouri Baptists' group, said Texas Baptists' level of cooperation with Ñ and the 'amount of money forwarded 'to the SBC may be reduced." Finally, on August 8, BP decided it was time to go back after me and Marv Knox, editor of The Baptist Standard. This story was titled "Baptist Standard editor's endorsement evidences CBF leader's sway in Texas." The story begins, "David Currie, who is at the forefront of a national anti-Southern Baptist Convention campaign, was lauded in a recent Texas Baptist Standard editorial for his group's strategy in keeping the Baptist General Convention of Texas from going along with the Southern Baptist Convention's 'juggernaut to the right.'" Using the big lie strategy they said I was "working in harmony with the CBF in creating opposition in Texas and elsewhere for traditional Southern Baptist missions and theology." In reality I support traditional Baptist theology and historic Baptist principles. BP Knows Better Using guilt by association tactics they attacked me for serving on the board of The Interfaith Alliance, accusing me of supporting homosexuality and abortion, which is untrue. I have answered all that before and am as tired of answering it as you are reading about it. BP and SBC leaders know that all these news stories mentioned above are slanted and lack integrity. They know guilt by association is wrong. They know these stories lack ethics and common Christian decency. What is sad is that they do not seem to care. What is even sadder is that what was once the most effective denomination in America is now led by people who present themselves to the world as mean, bitter and judgmental. It is disheartening that so many Baptists have put their trust in a press agency that lacks integrity as well as professionalism. The true Baptist movement will survive and flourish despite the efforts of BP. Let us go forward with the same commitment to "freedom in Christ" that the Apostle Paul shared in his letters. September 2000 |
