Review: Forged by Conviction: An Historical Overview of the SBCV

reviewed by Dr. Paige Patterson                                                                                                             Vol. XXIV, No. 5, May 2005

                   President, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary

Beginning in the late 1960s and continuing through the contested years of the Conservative Renaissance in Southern Baptist life and almost to the turn of the century, every meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention seemed to present an anomaly. Virginia was known politically and socially as one of the more conservative states on the eastern seaboard, but, when it came to meetings of the Southern Baptist Convention, a significant percent of the motions brought to the floor and the resolutions proposed by messengers from the churches of Virginia all seemed to favor a theological and ethical position considerably to the left of most Southern Baptists. A person can certainly vote in a conservative fashion in national politics while at the same time espousing a more liberal perspective theologically. No doubt, there were a fair number of instances of that precise phenomenon in the state of Virginia. . . .

Jeffrey Pinder, in Forged by Conviction: An Historical Overview of Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia, has provided a priceless assessment of how this apparent contradiction eventually resolved itself in the state of Virginia. Pinder’s book chronicles the fact that a significant number of Virginia Baptists were, in fact, theologically and ethically conservative but had long since been overwhelmed by the influences of their more liberal fellow Baptists who were in positions of leadership in Virginia. . . . [He] enlightens the reader concerning the events that led to an eventual decision on the part of the conservative Southern Baptists of Virginia to break with the older State Baptist Convention and establish a totally new entity, the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia.

Having chronicled the events and the significant people who gave rise to those events, Pinder traces the rapid and rather remarkable development of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia movement and its spread throughout the state, including its significant impact on the planting of new Southern Baptist churches in the state. The . . . history . . . chronicles the efforts of the opposition to discredit this new movement and the responsiveness of the people of Virginia to this new effort.

The second reason for the importance of the book lies in its guidance for other state conventions. While only Texas and Virginia experienced a split in the state conventions, the determination of both of those conservative splits to streamline the state convention entity and support as broadly as possible the entire worldwide effort of Southern Baptists was not only exemplary and informative but also is gradually becoming the way of the future even for those State Baptist Conventions that did not face the development of a totally new Convention within the state. These developments, which Pinder calls “the impact of decentralization,” have become increasingly important by the passing of the years.

[Every] Southern Baptist in the United States interested in the future of his own state convention will profit immensely from the reading of this slender volume. . . . The book is a story of men and women with faith in God, loyalty to Jesus Christ, and genuine love for the Word of God, who will be inspiring even to those who have no Baptist affiliation. Without reservation, I warmly commend the book to all who will enter through its door and read its story.

[Forged by Conviction is authored by Dr. Jeffrey R. Pinder, Senior Pastor, First Baptist Church, Port St. Joe, FL.]