Texas moderates may leave SBC to form new national Baptist group
                                                                                                              
by Todd Starnes                                                                                         Vol. XIII, No. 7, August 2000
 

The Baptist General Convention of Texas is openly discussing whether or not to sever ties with the Southern Baptist Convention, and leaders have raised the possibility that the BGCT could create a new Baptist denomination at its annual meeting in October.

Clyde Glazener, president of the BGCT and pastor at Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, TX, told the Dallas Morning News that he could not predict what would happen at the annual meeting, but many Texans were unhappy with the conservative leadership of the SBC. "The truth is that, for some time now, a true Baptist could not support some of the agencies in SBC life," Glazener said. The BGCT claims 2.7 million members and 6,600 churches.

Glazener said he did not know if he could support the work of the International Mission Board or NAMB. "I don't know if we can do it with integrity," he said. "If they won't accept missionaries who don't sign off on the Baptist Faith and Message it would be an interesting development."

Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Dallas, told Baptist Press he was not surprised by Glazener's statements. "It's something that we've been saying for a good while. That the BGCT is moving away from the SBC," Graham said. "Now, it's on the table, more publicly, and frankly, we're not surprised." While saddened by the possible break, Graham said it puts Texas Baptists in an awkward position. "The grassroots Baptists support the SBC," he said. "It's only a small core of moderate leadership that oppose the convention." "This is a wakeup call to churches all over Texas and I believe that once the moderates get out of the closet, they will find it difficult to take churches out of the SBC," he predicted.

Claude Thomas, chairman of the SBC executive committee and pastor of First Baptist Church, Euliss, said the issue for Texas Baptists is whether or not to remain a part of a convention that "believes the Bible is just a book." Thomas was referring to floor debate about the 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message during the annual SBC meeting in Orlando. Anthony Sisemore, pastor of First Baptist Church, Floydada, TX, argued passionately that the "Bible is just a book."

The BFM contained language that described the Bible as divinely inspired as well as true and trustworthy. Many of the messengers who argued against the BF&M were from Texas and had ties to the denomination-like Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, including Charles Wade, the executive director of the BGCT.

Thomas said the issue with the BGCT was clarified at the Orlando convention. "It's basically about a person's view of Scripture," Thomas said. "It appears from the [Orlando] convention discussion that some in leadership in the BGCT have a lower view of Scripture than our Southern Baptist forefathers," Thomas said. "And that appears to be the issue."

On the other hand, Thomas argued, the SBC has stepped forward with a clear definition or declaration of "our very high view of Scripture."

Jim Richards, the executive director of the conservative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, said Texas Baptists who want to affirm Biblical inerrancy have a home in their convention. "Texas churches that want to have a strong and positive relationship with the SBC and still carry out Texas missions and ministry need to know they have a home with us," he said. "We stand ready to minister to and facilitate churches who want to affiliate with us."

Currently, the SBTC has 377 affiliated churches. Richards said he expects that number to slowly increase. "As far as our convention is concerned, we believe the newspaper article about the BGCT will make it easier for people to make a prayerful and educated choice on whom they want to work with in the state of Texas."

Following, is a timetable that outlines key events in the battle between conservatives and moderates in the BGCT:

-- August 1997. A Texas Baptist study committee, created in 1995, releases a 20-page report that would make historic changes in the partnership between the state convention and the SBC. The report includes recommendations that Texas Baptists approve sending out "lay envoy" missionaries throughout the world, publish their own Sunday School and church literature, and create a "Texas Baptist Theological College."

--Nov. 10-11, 1997. Messengers to the BGCT convention in Austin approve the recommendation from the study committee.

-- November 20, 1997. A conservative group disenchanted with the BGCT begins the process of creating a new state convention, the Southern Baptists of Texas.

-- Oct. 16, 1998. Articles of Incorporation for "The Baptist Convention of the Americas" were quietly filed by former Baylor president Herbert Reynolds. The board of directors includes John F. Baugh of Houston, W. Winfred Moore of Waco, and Paul W. Powell of Tyler.

-- September 28, 1999. Charles Wade is elected as BGCT executive director by the BGCT executive board. Wade was among the organizers of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a denomination-like shadow organization formed in protest of the SBC's leadership.

-- November 8-9, 1999. Messengers to the BGCT meeting in El Paso rejected a move to affirm the 1998 SBC statement on marriage and family, which included wives submitting to their husbands in tandem with husbands loving their wives; the BGCT approved the formation of two study committees relating to the BGCT's relationship with the SBC.

-- November 1999. An in-depth study by a deacon committee at the First Baptist Church, Dallas, reveals that for 14 of the past 16 years, BGCT presidents have been linked in some capacity with the CBF. The report recommended the church join the new, more theologically conservative Southern Baptists of Texas.

-- November 17, 1999. First Baptist Church, Dallas, votes to loosen its nearly century-long relationship with the BGCT and join the Southern Baptists of Texas. The church remains duly aligned with both organizations.

-- February 28, 2000. A group of conservative pastors meet at Prestonwood Baptist Church to discuss doctrinal issues and the possibility that the BGCT is planning on creating a national "shadow" Baptist convention. Jack Graham, pastor at Prestonwood, predicted that more than 40 percent of the churches in the BGCT are unhappy with its current direction.

-- April 13, 2000. Leaders of the SBC and BGCT met in a closed-door meeting at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary to discuss relations between the two groups. Participants of the meeting called it friendly and helpful.

-- May 18, 2000. Houston Baptist University, a traditionally conservative school, voted to declare autonomy from the BGCT in an effort to stop the removal of some trustees who attend churches that "did not meet the threshold requirements of being a BGCT cooperating church."

-- May 23, 2000. The BGCT executive board votes to withhold $1.5 million in funding for Houston Baptist University.

-- June 14, 2000. A Texas Baptist pastor tells messengers to the SBC meeting in Orlando that the "Bible is just a book." The comment came during a floor discussion on the 2000 edition of the Baptist Faith and Message. The BFM contains language that acknowledges the Bible as divinely inspired without any mixture of error. The BFM is overwhelmingly approved by messengers.

-- June 24, 2000. Clyde Glazener, president of the BGCT, said the convention may leave the SBC. The issue will be discussed at the annual BGCT meeting in October.

However, the BGCT will not secede from the Southern Baptist Convention, despite remarks to the contrary by Glazener, according to Charles Wade, executive director of the BGCT. "Though there are those who would like to draw a dividing line as deep as the Grand Canyon, this is a time for redefining the relationship, not severing it," Wade said in a prepared statement. Wade said the recent revisions of the Baptist Faith and Message underscore the need for the BGCT to redefine its relationship with the SBC, not cut all ties or start an alternative national body.

While noting his support for the SBC, Wade also said Texas Baptists do not have to give to the SBC's causes, including the Cooperative Program. "Texas Baptist churches will continue to be able to give through the BGCT to support Southern Baptist programs. Likewise, churches still will be free to exclude Southern Baptist causes and channel all their missions dollars through the BGCT," Wade added.

Regardless of whether or not the BGCT leaves the convention, SBC President James Merritt said the key emphasis should be on evangelism. "I want us to open our arms to everyone in our entire convention and reach this world for Jesus Christ," Merritt told Baptist Press on June 26. "I would hope that all Texas Baptists would realize that we do need each other and we have a world that is lost and needs to be saved."

BGCT officials refused to be interviewed by Baptist Press and would not answer additional questions concerning the conflict between Glazener's comments and Wade's statement.

Outgoing national president Paige Patterson said, "The reason they have to talk in terms of redefining rather than exodus is for the simple reason they would lose too many churches." It is hard to predict what consequences a funding reduction from Texas would have, Patterson said. About 14 percent of the denomination's $159 million budget comes from Texas. "We would think that other state conventions would take up the slack," Patterson said. "But even if it hurt financially, we would not change what we believe is true and right."

The revised statement bans women pastors and includes earlier additions stating that women should submit to the "servant leadership" of their husbands. But greater arguments erupt over the removal of statements from the 1963 version, stating that Jesus "is the criterion by which the Bible is interpreted." Conservatives argue that the statement gave liberals a rationale for altering the meaning of the Bible.

Glazener, pastor of the Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, said removing Jesus as the highest revelation is putting the law above God. When the state convention meets in the fall, Glazener predicted, Texas Baptists will reject revisions in the 2000 faith statement and again reaffirm the 1963 declaration.

The Rev. Miles Seaborn of Fort Worth, founding president of the Southern Baptists of Texas, a conservative alternative to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said he believes the moderates are preparing to form a separate denomination. "The components are in place to do it sooner or later," Seaborn said. "They are doing it a step at a time. If they did it too abruptly too many would be shocked."

Meanwhile, the Henderson Southern Baptist Association affirmed its commitment to the Southern Baptist Convention during a special called meeting July 6, according to Casey Perry, the Texas association's moderator. All but two of the 25 churches represented at the meeting voted to support the SBC, said Perry, pastor of First Baptist Church, Malakoff. "We felt that as pastors we needed to affirm the SBC," Perry said. "We needed to let it be known there are Southern Baptists here in Texas who are in agreement and are supportive of the Baptist Faith and Message." The association's vote will be reaffirmed at its annual meeting on Oct. 22, Perry said.

"Dr. Wade had stated that Texas Baptists would not go with the Southern Baptists," Perry said. "He wasn't speaking for us."

The association gave $476,313 in mission gifts through the SBC's Cooperative Program last year. The Henderson Southern Baptist Association includes approximately 14,000 Baptists about 45 miles west of Tyler, Texas. "We aren't mega-churches," Perry said. "But this is about mainstream, grassroots Baptists who support the SBC."

"I think you are going to see a groundswell of support for the convention through small towns and country churches," he said. While Perry said the churches in the Henderson association do not plan on leaving the BGCT, he noted that some are dually aligned with the BGCT and the Southern Baptists of Texas, a conservative state convention that supports the SBC. [BP]