C U R R E N T F E A T U R E S T O R Y by the Editors of ReligionToday

October 31, 2000

Moderate Baptists withhold their money

Jimmy Carter isn't the only Baptist upset with the Southern Baptist Convention. Texas Baptists have decided to no longer give $5 million annually to the SBC, saying the nation's largest denomination is too conservative.

...The 6,000 representatives of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (see link #1 below), meeting in Corpus Christi, approved the move by a large majority Oct. 30, according to news reports.

...The 2.7 million-member group will stop giving $4 million annually to six Southern Baptist seminaries, which it says are being required to teach the SBC's conservative doctrine. It also cut the $1 million it gives to SBC headquarters agencies and its social-issues agency. The money will be redistributed to three moderate Baptist seminaries within Texas.

...The Baptist General Convention of Texas still will send $19 million to the denomination, mostly for missionary work in the United States and abroad, according to the Associated Press.

...The cuts in Texas could encourage moderate Baptists in 13 other states to cut their funding to the SBC, too, some observers say.

...Baptists around the country who are unhappy with the SBC have been participating in an Atlanta-based group called the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship that consists of 1,800 congregations and provides parallels to many SBC missions and publishing programs. A group has incorporated as Baptist Convention of the Americas in case a new denominational structure is needed.

...The conservative-moderate dispute has been developing for years. Moderate Baptists in Texas have been distancing themselves from the national denomination, which has taken a sharp turn toward conservatism in the last 10 years. They have been at odds with national leaders over changes in the SBC faith statement, called the Baptist Faith and Message, including an addition declaring that wives should submit to the servant-leadership of their husbands. Texas conservatives say the moderates are misrepresenting the faith statement.

...The Bible is at the center of the dispute. Leaders who are in power in the SBC are strict biblical literalists. They say that the Bible contains no errors in spiritual teaching or historical detail and insist that those who teach at SBC schools uphold this doctrine in order to keep their jobs.

...Moderates say Baptists should have more freedom in interpreting Scripture. They say they do not believe in imposed creeds, but emphasize the priesthood of the believer and freedom of conscience. Differences between the factions exist on issues such as abortion, female pastors, and homosexuality.

..."It's not that we have drifted to the left but that the Southern Baptist Convention has roared to the right," James Somerville, a moderate Baptist who is pastor of First Baptist Church of Washington told The Washington Post.

...Cutting off the funds was inevitable, Jim Denison, pastor of Park Cities Baptist Church in Dallas told the Fort Worth Star-Telegram. "As some people have said, 'Texas Baptists are no longer willing to buy the gas for a national convention they disagree with,' " he said.

...The president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., said the school won't give in to the moderates' demands. "The money is significant, but Southern Baptist Seminary is not for sale," he told Baptist Press. About $1 million would disappear from the school's budget.

----------- RELATED LINKS: 1: http://www.bgct.org/