Doctrine, Cooperation, and Association DOCTRINE, COOPERATION and ASSOCIATION
A Report to the
INTRODUCTION For over a century on this very corner in downtown Dallas, First Baptist Church has stood as a lighthouse and a testimony to the saving power of the Lord Jesus Christ. The stand and the testimony of this church through the generations has been uncompromising, as it has been known around the world as a congregation that believes in the inerrant and infallible Word of God. All around are those who, through accommodation to the principles of higher criticism, have wavered in their commitment to the authority of the Word of God. And in their desire to pursue relevancy and diversity, have drifted from the solid Anchor that binds this congregation together. Because of the events of the past several years in the life of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, the Chairman of the Fellowship of Deacons appointed an ad hoc study committee composed of: Mr. Wilton Davis, Mr. Weldon Fox, Dr. Paul Madeley, Dr. Eugene Merrill, Mr. Bo Sexton, Mr. Dean Willis and Mr. Jim Bolton, who was appointed chairman of the committee. In light of subsequent events the charge given to the committee was amended and this report is based on the amended charge. The Charge 1. Study the current status of the BGCT and other denominational conventions or organizations and any issues relating to these entities which affect our church. 2. Review the church bylaw provisions regarding the selection of messengers to denominational conventions and reports of convention business to the church, including an assessment of whether these provisions are being followed and any recommended changes. 3. Prepare a report concerning the above items to be presented to the Fellowship of Deacons, including recommended actions, if any, that our church should take at this time. To accomplish the mission in an orderly and comprehensive manner the committee approached the work with: (1) An inspection of historical doctrinal positions, Preview It is understood that the relationship of First Baptist Church, Dallas to the BGCT, or to any other convention is only a relationship of cooperation when the convention and the church hold common objectives and beliefs. It is recognized that the BGCT, the SBC, or any denominational entity has no sense of direction or standard by which to be judged apart from the statements, actions and practices of the elected leaders of those conventions. The committee was unanimous in its agreement as to the documented facts contained in this report but there were differences of opinion as to the form the report should take. The majority of the committee voted to present the report in this form. Foundational Statements There are certain foundational statements that seem appropriate for the committee to make. (1) The Committee is mindful of the many dedicated employees of the BGCT and the thousands of churches that make up the Convention. This report is not meant to reflect on the accomplishments of these loyal employees or on the churches of the convention that continue to report almost record numbers of baptisms and record amounts of giving. The BGCT is the largest Baptist state convention with almost 6000 related churches and missions, 2.7 million members, many child care, educational, health care, aging care and other ministry centers. This report does not detract from the good work being done by the BGCT but seeks to add perspective and bring to light some areas of serious concern to the committee. (2) The Committee is aware that members of the Fellowship and the congregation view events from different perspectives and has therefore been careful to include only documented information in this report (3) It has been said, "If you convince a man against his will, he'll be of the same opinion still." The committee does not present the report to "convince", but to provide information on the facts of denominational life, and to present those facts to the Fellowship in an orderly and organized manner. (4) Within our Fellowship and congregation are dedicated people who may view the current direction of the BGCT and the SBC differently but the committee, borrowing a phrase from the Baptist Standard admonition, "Tell the truth and trust the people," believes the information on denominational life should be available to the church. (5) The committee recognizes that everyone who identifies with the moderate or conservative cause would not necessarily embrace all moderate or conservative positions but recognizes the difficulty of sustaining a separate position if one chooses to be identified with a certain group. (6) The committee is aware that because of long held views, some may choose to deny the information presented, but to accept, deny or ignore documented information rests with each individual. The Committee would particularly like to acknowledge the contribution of Dr. Eugene Merrill who provided an overview of the theological background and his remarks are cited and attached in full to the report. Data and information was accumulated from a number of different sources, and each is identified with endnotes and submitted as part of the report.1 The Higher-Critical Method: History and Definition Contemporary biblical and theological scholarship has been dominated by an approach commonly known as the "historical (or higher) critical" method.2 This way of looking at the Bible is a product of a movement that originated in the latter part of the 17th century called the Enlightenment. Rationalistic and skeptical in tone, the Enlightenment gave rise to a critical methodology that challenged all existing claims of truth, including those of the Bible. If something was rational and "scientific," higher criticism said it could be believed, if it was not, it must be rejected. The supernatural and the miraculous content of the Word of God became a casualty of this way of viewing history and religion.3 Moderates by and large have been those who have embraced some, if not all, of the tenets of "higher criticism", while conservatives generally reject this methodology. In 1961 Ralph Elliott, professor at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, published The Message of Genesis.4 In it he embraced the tenets of "higher criticism" which denies Mosaic authorship of the first five books of the Bible; views the account of Genesis as traditions; and believes the stories of the Creation, the Fall, Noah's ark, and the Tower of Babel aren't to be taken as literally true. The book created a firestorm of controversy leading eventually to his dismissal from the faculty of Midwestern Seminary. (Ralph Elliott was a General Sessions Program Leader at the 1994 Cooperative Baptist Fellowship General Assembly meeting).5 W. A. Criswell's Why I Preach That the Bible is Literally True was first published in 1969 and fell like a bombshell on the theological landscape of the day. The Association of Baptist Professors of Religion passed a formal resolution blasting the book and excoriating the Baptist Sunday School Board for publishing and promoting it. One of the critics, Robert Alley, professor of religion at the University of Richmond, declared, "Our greatest concern is the image of the ministry cast by preachers like Criswell. His example is detrimental to the first-rate education our best students are looking for."6 Although Criswell nowhere mentioned Elliott by name, he clearly believed that certain teachers and scholars in the denomination had gone beyond the bounds of acceptable diversity by calling into question the total truthfulness of the biblical record.7 Since that time the Southern Baptist Convention has undergone a major change in leadership and direction. This reorientation is called by those who dislike it a "take-over," and by those who look on it with favor a "turn-around." Whatever perspective one takes, no one can deny that Dr. Criswell and many others from our church have played a major role in the conservative resurgence within the Southern Baptist Convention.8 Doctrine and the Southern Baptist Convention It has been fashionable to attribute the change of the past 20 years in the Southern Baptist Convention to politics. If politics is the process of conducting convention business in an orderly manner, by a vote of the messengers, then politics cannot be denied, but the fundamental issue is, and always has been, theological difference. Nancy T. Ammerman, a distinguished "moderate" historian from Emory University, writes, "The terms of this Baptist battle are theological,"9 a view shared by another "moderate" Southern Baptist historian, Bill J. Leonard, who said: "Theology is at the heart of The Controversy in the SBC."10 Walter "Buddy" Shurden, arguably the most influential church historian within the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, has written: "Moderates unhesitatingly and unequivocally affirm their faith in the authority of the Bible for faith and practice. They do not, however, view the Bible as an inerrant book of science or history. Moderates insist that there is a clear difference in affirming the authority of the Bible and the inerrancy of the Bible."11 While at first denied by some, the long held view by conservatives that theological difference is at the heart of the issue is now almost universally accepted. Cooperation and the Cooperative Program Over the years many leaders from the family of First Baptist Church Dallas have been involved in championing the struggle for doctrinal integrity. It is within the tradition of this perspective that recent trends within Baptist life in its various expressions have raised serious questions about compatibility with these entities for cooperation and ministry. As part of the foundation in establishing the Criswell College and the First Baptist Academy, First Baptist Church adopted in 1970 its own Articles of Faith , which closely parallel The Baptist Faith and Message (1963) of the Southern Baptist Convention. As stewards under the leadership of the Holy Spirit it is required that we be found faithful12 to see that tithes and offerings are used for those things that do not violate the Articles of Faith of the Church. Contained in these Articles of Faith is an article on cooperation. Article XIV contains the following: "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. Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends when the end to be attained is itself justified, and when such cooperation involves no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word."13 In order to maintain the integrity of the Articles of Faith of the church, it is incumbent that denominational cooperation involve "no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word." Next year the Southern Baptist Convention will be celebrating the 75th Anniversary of the Co-operative Program, a unified plan of giving adopted by Southern Baptists in 1925. In prior years, great financial confusion prevailed in Baptist life. Special fund drives were conducted in the churches twice a year -- one for the Southern Baptist Convention and one for the state conventions. The Future Program Commission recommended the Cooperative Program to the 1925 Southern Baptist Convention. A program defined in the Encyclopedia of Southern Baptists as:A unified appeal for all denominational causes, state and Convention-wide, a program of co-operation not among state conventions nor among churches, but between the In looking ahead to the dangers of the renewal of society-style appeals (which preceded the Cooperative Program and is the method where each church selects the entity or individual of its choice to receive funds), James L. Sullivan, president of the Sunday School Board, 1953-1975, counseled: "The churches need to recognize that present-day efforts to re-establish the old society system, whose known weaknesses were long-since abandoned by our forefathers, could be unwise."15 The Southern Baptist Convention Cooperative Program is, without dispute, the greatest voluntary funding program in the history of Christendom. And the Cooperative Program this church has known for the past 75 years is not a cooperative effort between the state convention and any number of other conventions or organizations. It is by definition a financial channel of cooperation between the state convention, through which the tithes and offerings of the church are directed, and the Southern Baptist Convention. The Baptist General Convention of Texas, while maintaining a quasi-cooperative relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention, has in recent years under its elected leadership reduced not only the percentage amount of cooperative program money allocated to the Southern Baptist Convention but has changed the historical definition of the cooperative program itself.16 Baptist Standard, January 27, 1999 - "In 1994, the BGCT altered its definition of what constitutes a Cooperative gift." The latest attempt to undermine the foundation of the Cooperative Program was taken on May 18, 1999 when the Executive Board of the BGCT solidly approved a fifth giving option for Texas churches.17 Notice the BGCT societal plans of giving now available to Texas Baptists. Option 1: 100% to Baptist General Convention of Texas. Option 2: Church specifies percentage split between BGCT and other worldwide causes. Church may direct funds to additional Texas ministries. Church may direct funds to up to eight worldwide ministries: (1) Woman's Missionary Union; (2) Baptist World Alliance; (3-4) two Southern Baptist Convention agencies; (5) Cooperative Baptist Fellowship; (6) Truett Seminary at Baylor University; (7) Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin Simmons University; (8) Criswell College. Option 3: 67% to BGCT, 33% to SBC. Option 4: 67% to BGCT, 33% to SBC, with up to five line-item exclusions on either side. Option 5: 73% to BGCT, 27% to SBC but only to the International Mission Board, North American Mission Board, Southwestern Seminary, Annuity Board and the Baptist World Alliance.18 As this church considers the options now offered, it is the opinion of the committee that the original intent and spirit of the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program for missions and evangelism has been fractured by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The committee agrees that a church is free to choose how to exercise the stewardship of its tithes and offerings but has concluded that to call an optional societal method of giving "The Cooperative Program" is deceiving the Baptists of Texas at worst and in the words of James Sullivan "unwise" at best. This is not to imply that the money received by the state convention is not used for worthy causes but it is indicative of the changed direction of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. The redirection of funds and complete elimination of some agencies of the SBC has changed the BGCT position from one of benign dissent to active participation in undermining the original Southern Baptist Convention intent of cooperation for missions and evangelism. But there is more to a cooperative spirit. The Church Article on Cooperation goes on to say, "Christian unity in the New Testament sense is spiritual harmony and voluntary cooperation for common ends . . . . ."The rules of music provide integrity of harmony to the melody. If the rules are violated when the notes are selected the result is called discord. It is apparent then that some standard of doctrinal integrity must be followed if cooperative efforts are to be in spiritual harmony. For this church those cooperative efforts must "involve no violation of conscience or compromise of loyalty to Christ and His Word." Direction and Association During the last twenty years those who hold a different view of Biblical integrity, truth and cooperation have created other denominational entities that more nearly reflects their own diversity and higher critical views, and have, when in control, shifted the direction of some state conventions. Direction of the BGCT or any denominational entity cannot be determined from a single point in time but is determined by observing over a period of time the statements, practices and conduct of those in positions of leadership. Listen for a moment to a statement by the current President of the BGCT on May 2, 1999 at the Calder Baptist Church in Beaumont, Texas. "What about the Texas Baptists Committed and the future of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, these two groups? Texas Baptists Committed is a group that organized here to avoid and oppose the fundamentalist takeover of Texas, so it became purely and unapologetically a political organization . . . . I think Texas Baptists Committed has now accomplished that purpose in Texas, and we still need them to be there in case we have another attempt by any right wing group to take over, although now, having the majority, Texas Baptists were able to make some changes in the way messengers are appointed so it will be very difficult in the future for any group, right or left to organize small churches and bring in messengers and take over. We've tried to create some ways in which that won't work in the future and I think the threat of that is not likely to happen again. But Texas Baptists Committed now is beginning to expend its energy toward creating similar organizations in other states where fundamentalist threat is very real or where they've already been strong, and I think that's a fitting thing to happen. They also are putting more emphasis in Texas Baptists Committed on a CBF or Cooperative Baptist Fellowship work in Texas. Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has provided a place for disenchanted Baptists, who still wanted to give their money and be a part of missions but didn't feel good about doing it through the SBC. . . . . Many of our churches do mission work through the CBF. CBF helps, through they're giving, our students at Truett Seminary so we're very much involved with that group . . . . they are wonderful Baptist people and they've been great friends to our institutions and our work here in Texas and we recognize the gifts that churches give through CBF as part of our Cooperative Program here in Texas."19 The BGCT, Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Texas Baptists Committed Just how closely aligned with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and Texas Baptists Committed is the elected leadership of the BGCT? Here is the record: Relationship Between the BGCT and the CBF and TBC20
Numbers represent identifiable connections to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and/or Texas Baptists Committed.
A - Represents the number of BGCT Officers, Pres. and 1st VP or 2nd VP
During the past eight years every President of the BGCT has been identified with the CBF or TBC in a supporting or leadership role and for fourteen of the past sixteen years the Presidents of the BGCT have been linked with the CBF. In addition for the past eight years one or more Vice-Presidents of the BGCT have been identified with the CBF or TBC. For the past seven years every single Chairman of the BGCT Executive Committee has been identified with these groups and in six of those years the Vice-Chairman as well. For the last seven years at least 20 and as many as 70 members of the BGCT Executive Committee and the Committee to nominate Executive Committee members have been identified with the CBF or TBC. And scores of others who have served in leadership positions on committees of the BGCT have served in leadership roles with the CBF or been identified with TBC. Eleven of the eighteen members (61%) of the BGCT committee that selected Charles Wade to be the new executive director were identified with the CBF and/or TBC.21
The view and approach to Scripture of a leader is reflected in the actions of the leader, is reflected in those with whom the leader chooses to associate, is reflected in those things which the leader votes to support through a budget and is reflected in those organizations with which the leader chooses to partner.
Webster defines accessory as "aiding or contributing in a secondary way." Involvement and close association with the CBF and TBC indicates that elected leadership of the BGCT has acted as an accessory by association because the committee could find little evidence of BGCT leadership criticism or repudiation of the expressed views and /or actions of the CBF or TBC leaders. This is the ultimate end of emphasizing diversity over doctrine. "How much leaven does it take to leaven the whole lump?" You'll find the answer in I Corinthians 5: 6-7 when God says, "Your glorying is not good. Do you not know that a little leaven leavens the whole lump? Therefore purge out the old leaven."22
Look at the leaven through the circle of those who participate as leaders in CBF General Assembly programs, those whom the BGCT President called "wonderful Baptist people and great friends" and with whom the BGCT leaders are identified as accessories by association.
Kirby Godsey, the president of Mercer University, the second largest Southern Baptist University, has written in his recent book, When We Talk About God ... Let's Be Honest, that: "The heart of our confession is that Jesus Christ is Lord."23 However, he also argues that "Jesus is not God"24 "Jesus did not have to die";25 discounts the virgin birth as "unimportant";26 rejects repentance and accepting Jesus" as "the basis of salvation"; 27 and claims that "Doctrinal soundness is arrogant theological nonsense."28 Goodsey served on the CBF Coordinating Council from 1991 to 199329 and the CBF is currently housed in the Mercer School of Theology building in Atlanta, Georgia.
Feminist theologian Jann Aldredge-Clanton, in her book In Search of the Christ-Sophia, writes: "While some feminist theologies exalt the image of the goddess [Sophia] ... this book has put forth the image of Christ-Sophia."30 Linking Christ and Sophia, she claims, "links races" and "draws from both the Egyptian and Greek figures of Isis."31 Isis is defined by The World Book Encyclopedia as "the most important female goddess of the ancient Egyptians."32 Aldredge-Clanton further states: "...Jesus is not just the last and greatest of Sophia's children, but is Sophia herself in the flesh."33 Clanton led "breakout sessions" at the l992 and l995 CBF General Assemblies.34
Paul Simmons, a former Professor of Christian Ethics at Southern Seminary, has been a leading Southern Baptist abortion rights advocate and writes in his book, Birth and Death: Bioethical Decision-Making , "God is truly pro-choice,"35 and that: "The Bible holds open the possibility, therefore, that abortion may be consistent with the will of God."36 He is currently chairman of the theological education committee of the Kentucky CBF and has been a CBF General Assembly breakout leader.37
On October 6th and 7th, 1995, a group of Baptists and secular humanists gathered together at the University of Richmond, a Virginia Baptist school, where they issued a statement entitled "In Defense of Freedom of Conscience: A cooperative Baptist/Secular Humanist Declaration."38 The Declaration reflected "common ground" between Baptist and secular humanist scholars. The "common ground" included "Biblical Scholarship" and "Separation of Church and State." Among the secular humanist signers were Paul Kurtz, Timothy Madigan and Lois Porter. All are editors of Free Inquiry , which describes itself on the cover as "a secular humanist magazine." On the back page of Free Inquiry is this paragraph "The Affirmations of Humanism: A Statement of Principles and Values": "We deplore efforts to denigrate human intelligence, to seek to explain the world in supernatural terms, and to look outside nature for salvation." 40 Among the Baptist signers of the Declaration were prominent CBF leaders Glenn Hinson, Paul Simmons and Stan Hastey, each of whom has served as a CBF breakout leader at General Assembly meetings. 41
A statement was published by the Center for Christian Ethics attacking conservative Christian organizations. The statement said: "We are alarmed because the Radical Religious Right poses significant dangers to our churches, our political system, and our American way of life."42 Radical Religious Right leaders are identified as James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Pat Robertson, Tim and Beverly LeHaye and Charles Stanley among others. Seven members of the CBF Coordinating Council signed the statement. The Center for Christian Ethics receives funding from the CBF43 and is headed by Foy Valentine, a former "sponsor" of the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights44 and a past president of Americans United. The first two Coordinators of the CBF, Cecil Sherman and Daniel Vestal, signed the Center for Christian Ethic's statement and Vestal has served as a trustee for the Center.46
James Dunn just retired as the Executive Director of the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs (BJC), an organization that received $262,700 in funding from the 1997 CBF budget.47 The BJC was defunded by the SBC in the early 1990's and was immediately placed in the budget of the BGCT. Only three state conventions besides the BGCT now provide funds for the BJC: North Carolina, Virginia and West Virginia.48 Dunn has also been a regular "breakout" leader at CBF General Assemblies since 1991. 49 In 1994, the BJC was given "special thanks" along with Planned Parenthood, People for the American Way and Americans United for Separation of Church and State for a leadership role in the production of a political training manual entitled How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating the Radical Right in Your Community. 50 Among the manual's 68 contributing organizations in addition to the Baptist Joint Committee were: National Gay and Lesbian Task Force; Gay and Lesbian Victory Fund; Penthouse International; National Abortion Federation; Planned Parenthood; People for the American Way (whose president Carole Shields served on the BJC board), 51 and Americans United for Separation of Church and State (where Dunn serves as a trustee)52. Concerning homosexuality, the manual states: "You cannot successfully battle right wing forces without gay and lesbian participation."53 On abortion, the manual notes: "If you're a physician and have not been trained in abortion practice, find out if a local facility offers a training rotation."54 According to a BJC board member, "The BJC entered into the [how to win] coalition effort to produce the manual because it believed that a document was needed to enable people to oppose the philosophy of many on the radical right..." The manual identifies the "Radical Religious Right" as: Focus on the Family; Concerned Women for America; American Family Association; Rutherford Institute; Christian Coalition; and other such conservative Christian organizations.55 The BGCT, in addition to providing annual funding to the BJC, showed support during the 1998 BGCT convention. Baptist Joint Committee executive James Dunn was presented the Texas Baptist 1998 Distinguished Service Award by Phil Strickland, the executive director of the BGCT Christian Life Commission.56 Strickland serves on the BJC board, both Dunn and Strickland have served as trustee or board member of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State58 and Dunn is a past Board member of People for the American Way.59
Southern Baptist Women in Ministry was founded in 1983 and has played a major role in the CBF. Claiming 126 known ordained women in Southern Baptist churches in l983, by l995 BWIM claims to have documented 1150.60 The CBF's commitment to women pastors was highlighted in an interview with CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal: "This organization is not going to back down from its commitment to women in leadership, women in ministry and women in the pastorate..."61 The BGCT has provided partial funding for two Texas churches that have a woman as pastor.62
At its 1994 General Assembly, the CBF released its first "resource packet" entitled "HIV/AIDS Ministry: Putting a Face on AIDS." The packet was again widely distributed at the 1995 CBF General Assembly. On the back cover is this statement: "This packet is printed by the Ethics and Public Policy Ministry Group of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It is not an official statement of the Fellowship but an educational resource designed to promote dialogue and share vital information with churches seeking to embody the compassion of Christ in Christian ministry."63 Among the statements in the CBF AIDS packet are:
"During pregnancy, the fetus is developing characteristics that will determine the persons sexual orientation. Therefore, a person does not choose to be homosexual or heterosexual." 64 "We do not choose our sexual orientation, but rather we awaken to it."65 "The Church needs to be a place where sexual identity and orientation can be discussed, developed, and fostered."66 "No longer is family defined as a mother, father, son, daughter, a dog and a station wagon. Family may be defined as a basic, primary group of caring relationships within intimate boundaries. There are couples who have no intent of marrying. There are single-parent families. There are blended families...gay families and lesbian families...yet they are constituted as families by enduring covenants."67 Stan Hastey is Executive Director of the Alliance of Baptists. According to Hastey: "the Alliance has provided much of the leadership for the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship." 68 In 1992 The Alliance of Baptists formed a Task Force on Human Sexuality in response to two North Carolina Baptist churches, one of which ordained a homosexual divinity student to the ministry and the other "married" two gay men.69 The Task Force included longtime Alliance leader and founder, Mahan Siler, the North Carolina pastor who performed the "gay marriage." Hastey has written: "Some now will say that we are pro-gay. And while some Alliance people will object, I want you to know I won't be among them…In the Alliance, we have known of some of our gay constituency and have sought to create a welcoming atmosphere. My strongly held view has been and will remain that this fact of Alliance life is not something to hide or run away from but to welcome and celebrate."70 Hastey has been a leader of "breakout sessions" at the 1996 and 1997 CBF General Assemblies,71 and served on the CBF steering committee in 1990 and 1991.72
"The Interfaith Alliance was established in July of 1994 as a mainstream alternative to the radical religious right."73 Headed by C. Welton Gaddy, TIA defines the religious political extremists as the Christian Coalition; Focus on the Family; Family Research Council; Eagle Forum; Rutherford Institute and others.74 The TIA's Statement of Principles claims that the Religious Right promotes an extreme political agenda based on a false gospel.75 Dr. Gaddy sits on the General Council of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, is the current President of the Alliance of Baptists and recently served as President of Americans United for the Separation of Church and State.76 TIA Executive Director Jill Hanauer was formerly the political action director of the National Abortion Rights Action League. TIA Board Member Denise Davidoff is moderator of the Unitarian Universalist Association and TIA Board Member Rev. Meg Riley is the director of the Washington Office for Faith in Action of the Unitarian Universalist Association. She has served as the Director of the Office of Lesbian, Bisexual and Gay Concerns, and serves on the Advisory Council of the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice.77
TIA was also one of the 68 "contributing organizations" that produced the pro-abortion, pro- homosexual political training manual How to Win: A Practical Guide for Defeating The Radical Right in Your Community.78 The Interfaith Alliance recently presented the Walter Cronkite Faith and Freedom award to Donna Red Wing for having created an interfaith service for supporters of gay and lesbian equality.79
David Currie, the Coordinator of Texas Baptist Committed, and a member of the CBF Coordinating Council, 80 is a member of TIA's board of directors.81 Foy Valentine, a longtime leader of the SBC and a CBF program leader82, also serves on TIA's board.83
According to the President of the BGCT, "Texas Baptist Committed is a group that organized here to avoid and oppose the fundamentalist takeover of Texas."84 To understand the implications, the committee looked at the public statements and the intertwined relationships of leaders involved with Texas Baptists Committed.
David Currie, the Coordinator of Texas Baptists Committed, said, "Recently, Loretta and I traveled to Washington, D.C., to attend the executive board meeting of the Interfaith Alliance. I serve on this board along with Foy Valentine, former executive director of the SBC Christian Life Commission. [The Interfaith Alliance] is a clear alternative to the many Religious Right organizations currently claiming to represent people of faith."
"I am honored to serve on this board and very proud of the excellent leadership being given by Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, our executive director. I would urge all our TBC readers to support the Interfaith Alliance."85
The Baptist General Convention of Texas
The BGCT includes the CBF in its "cooperative program" plan under Option 2. The Baptist Standard has a web page with links to the CBF. As already mentioned almost 100 leaders in the BGCT, including seven who have served 14 years as president, have close ties with the CBF and/or Texas Baptists Committed. The committee found no reason to believe that any BGCT leaders embrace all of the views expressed by many of those with whom they serve in the CBF but in the world of reality leaders are often known by the company they keep.
Look at just a few more actions and statements by leaders of the BGCT.
In the past a small church of 300 members was entitled to send 6 messengers to the BGCT convention. Under the EE plan adopted in 1998 that same church is now entitled to only 2 messengers and must pay $1,250 to the BGCT if it wants to send the additional 4 messengers. A church of 400 members will have to pay $3,250 for the 7 messengers it could take before the EE plan was adopted. This is what was meant when the President of the BGCT said "Texas Baptists were able to make some changes in the way messengers are appointed so it will be very difficult in the future for any group, right or left to organize small churches and bring in messengers and take over."86
The chancellor of Baylor University, who served on the search committee for a new executive director of the BGCT, has urged Texas Baptist to leave the Southern Baptist Convention saying, "Why should we send $43.3 million in tribute each year to the fundamentalists?"87
Associated Baptist Press News - byline by Greg Warner. "Last fall the Baptist General Convention of Texas revamped the way it does missions work, giving churches more freedom and distancing the state convention from the national Southern Baptist Convention."
David Currie, Coordinator of Texas Baptists Committed, and member of the Board of Directors of the Interfaith Alliance and on the Coordinating Council for the CBF, said: "Texas Baptists continue to make clear that they have no intention of following the path of the Southern Baptist Convention. Year after year messengers to the BGCT have rejected fundamentalist candidates for convention leadership. We are distancing ourselves from the Southern Baptist Convention and rightly so."88
Jerold McBride, President of the BGCT in 1994-95, and a CBF breakout leader in 199889 who served as Co-Chair of Texas Baptist Committed, has said, "The BGCT will not be safe until the majority of churches in Texas know what has happened and is happening and no longer feel an emotional connection nor have a strong financial tie to the SBC. We need a full alternative literature program to replace the SBC Sunday School Board literature. Which seminaries are we as the BGCT going to support?."90
BGCT - Web page link. Educational institutions which we represent: Logsdon School of Theology, Truett Theological Seminary. Notice the absence of the SBC Seminaries
As reported in the religion section of the February 28, 1998 Dallas Morning News the president of the BGCT said, "The BGCT might one day offer a way for Texas churches to satisfy their needs without having to affiliate with the more conservative national convention, but there are no plans to do so." Just over a year later the plans are in place.
In the 1998 BGCT convention sermon President Dilday titled his message, taken from the book of Joel, "The Years the Locusts Have Eaten" and in it describes his feelings toward the Southern Baptist Convention in these words:
". . . an invasion of locusts had devastated the land of Judah. . . . . Not only have the crops been destroyed, Joel says, Happiness itself has dried up. It reminded me of the last twenty years of Southern Baptist experience. It's been a grim and depressing chapter of our history too. In many ways, the past two decades in the Southern Baptist Convention are like years the locusts have eaten."91 Noah Rodriguez, 2nd Vice President of the BGCT in 1995-96, CBF program leader in 1996, CBF Coordinating Council Member 1996-1997,92 and member of Texas CBF Steering Committee, 93 said: "Through my position as the second vice-president of the General Baptist Convention of Texas, I've been able to tell the CBF story."94
Fort Worth Star Telegram, November 10, 1998 - "Herbert Reynolds, speaking to 1,100 people at a breakfast before the close of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said Texas Baptists have irreconcilable differences with "fundamentalists" controlling the national Southern Baptist Convention."
Fort Worth Star Telegram, November 10, 1998 - "Dilday said moderate leaders of the Texas convention were determined that the state body would not be taken over by the same kind of conservatives that now dominate the national convention."
Baptist Press, January 28, 1999 - "Dilday adds SBC ethics agency to possible Texas funding cuts. Dilday declared that Texas Baptists are "not a farm club" of the SBC and the BGCT should be "more responsible stewards" in funding allocations to the SBC. Dilday's recent comments and Currie's efforts to direct funding away from the SBC are among numerous evidences of Texas moderates seeking to chart an independent course for the BGCT of their own theological-philosophical liking."
Baptist Standard, March 3, 1999 - Texas Literature to Premiere in One Year. "Biblically based, Texas-focused" Bible study literature will be produced by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, beginning one year from now." (Spring 2000)
Associated Press , January 19, 1999 - "A group of moderate Texas Baptists will seek to withdraw financial support - possibly in the millions of dollars - to some seminaries because of the theological differences with the conservative Southern Baptist Convention. Russell Dilday, president of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said his group will vote on a plan during its convention in El Paso that would allow churches to designate which Southern Baptist entities they want to support. Three seminaries in particular - Southern in Kentucky, Southeastern in North Carolina and Midwestern in Kansas - stand to lose as much as $3 million if the Texans adopt the proposal."
Charles Wade, the recent nominee for Executive director of the BGCT, was mentioned in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship of Texas Newsletter: "The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship is sponsoring Celebrate the Spirit/Learn the Truth week in Texas, April 20-24, 1998. Over 35 meetings will be held across the state during this five day period. CBF national staff members . . . . will join Vestal, and prominent Texas Baptist pastors Jerold McBride, Charles Wade and Dean Dickins in criss-crossing the state sharing the CBF vision . . . "95
The Seminaries
On June 17, 1997, in the presence of the messengers to the 140th session of the Southern Baptist convention meeting in Dallas, the presidents of the six Southern Baptist Seminaries signed a document titled "One Faith, One Task, One Sacred Trust - A Covenant Between Our Seminaries and Our Churches." That document contains the following:
"The church of Jesus Christ is charged to contend for the faith once for all delivered to the saints. Our seminaries, charged with the theological formation of ministers, must take this charge as central and essential to our mission. In an age of rampant theological compromise, our seminaries must send no uncertain sound.
Let the churches of the Southern Baptist Convention know that our seminaries are committed to theological integrity and biblical fidelity: Our pledge is to maintain the confessional character of our seminaries by upholding those doctrines so clearly articulated in our confessions of faith; by teaching the authority; inspiration, inerrancy, and infallibility of the Bible.
We are the six theological seminaries serving the Southern Baptist Convention. We belong to you--we belong to the churches of this Convention. We are proud to carry your charge, and we declare our fidelity to you as a sacred trust. In this trust we stand before the Southern Baptist Convention, and we stand together.
As the presidents of' your seminaries, we declare our unbending and fervent resolve to uphold all of these commitments. This is our pledge, our resolve, our declaration."96 These are the Southern Baptist seminaries the leaders of the BGCT have declared not to support.
This brings us full circle, back to the beginning, and emphasizes anew the reason for changing the direction of the SBC and confirms yet again that theology is at the heart of the issue. As Walter Shurden said, "Moderates . . . . do not view the Bible as an inerrant book . . ." Moderate leaders are still holding to their "higher critical" view of scripture. If the BGCT and the CBF cannot support the theology pledged by the presidents of these six Southern Baptist seminaries, one need only to look at the past to observe the theology that will be supported.97
Enough evidence is now available to reveal a picture that is unrecognizable and foreign to this congregation and the direction chosen by the elected leadership of the Baptist General Convention of Texas is not, in the judgement of the Committee, "in spiritual harmony" with the First Baptist Church of Dallas Article of Faith on Cooperation.
Southern Baptists of Texas
The committee is further charged with determining the status of other denominational conventions or organizations and any issues relating to these entities which affect our church.
One such entity is the Southern Baptists of Texas convention which:
"embraces without hesitation or compromise the philosophy and direction of the Southern Baptist Convention. The Southern Baptists of Texas Convention has as its primary ministry evangelism and missions and sees no need to duplicate SBC services. We believe in the inerrancy of Scripture. "The Southern Baptist Convention fully recognizes SBTC as a state convention. The Annuity Board gives equal standing to participants through the SBTC. The North American Mission Board, the International Mission Board and Lifeway Christian Resources are in a working relationship with SBTC. The SBTC participates with the Executive Committee and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission in ministry endeavors. "99 Conclusions and Recommendations
Based upon the accumulated statements of the elected BGCT leaders, together with the abundance of evidence and information contained in this report (and other such evidence and information gathered by the committee but not included because of time and space), the committee has no choice but to conclude:
(1) The elected leadership of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, by their own admission, has intentionally turned away from the Southern Baptist Convention and is now moving in a direction of their own choosing;
(2) For its own purposes, the BGCT has changed the historic definition of the Cooperative Program and thus the spirit of cooperation for missions and evangelism; and
(3) The action to effectively defund certain SBC agencies is evidence that the doctrinal positions of the SBC, its seminaries and the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission are no longer held by those now leading the BGCT. Believing that adherence to the principals of scriptural integrity and belief in the inerrant and infallible word of God are of infinitely more value than the association with any particular convention, and believing that the grass will wither, the flower will fade and conventions will pass away, but the Word of our God shall stand forever, the Committee makes these recommendations:
(1) Until such time as the BGCT might return to supporting the historical definition of the SBC Cooperative Program for missions and evangelism and it can be determined that the BGCT is once again in "spiritual harmony" with the First Baptist Church of Dallas Article of Faith on Cooperation, that First Baptist Church of Dallas maintain its voice within the BGCT by continuing to send $24,000 annually of its cooperative program gifts to the BGCT.
(2) That First Baptist Church of Dallas support the Southern Baptist Convention and missions and evangelism in Texas by affiliating with the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention, whose stated doctrinal positions are in complete harmony with the Church Article of Faith on Cooperation by sending all other cooperative program gifts through the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, designating $24,000 to be retained by the SBT, and the balance to be forwarded to the Southern Baptist Convention.
(3) That $24,000 heretofore sent through the BGCT and designated $12,000 each to Southwestern Seminary and Criswell College be sent directly to those institutions.
(4) After reviewing Article XIII, Section 3 of the bylaws100 concerning church messengers, the committee feels that the subject bylaw is currently adequate to meet the needs of the church, when the bylaw is followed and implemented as written. However, the Committee recommends that meetings be held prior to conventions to inform messengers of any issues that might arise. Subsequently, the messengers and/or the pastor should make a report to the deacons and to the church on all convention activities. A Final Thought
Finally, when there is a call for "unity" despite unrestrained "diversity" let us never fall prey to the idea that being united in error is more honorable than being divided by truth because all that is required for error to prevail is for good men to do nothing.
Respectively submitted,
Jim M. Bolton
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