ON POLITICS & POLITICKING  

                                                                                                                    Vol. IX, No. 6, June/July 1996

[The Struggle for the Soul of the SEC, Moderate Responses to the Fundamentalist Movement, Mercer University Press, 1993, edited by Walter B. Shurden, is a very interesting book. Each chapter is written by a different "moderate" leader. As the subtitle indicates, the book describes "moderate” political efforts. The following excerpt is from pp 55-56 in the chapter titled "The History of the Political Network of the Moderate Movement" written by James H. Slatton, pastor of River Road Baptist Church in Richmond. As you read this passage, please recall the harsh "moderate" condemnations of conservative political efforts during the controversy, criticisms we now know were issued even while they themselves were doing the same type of things. Yet they so frequently tout their integrity! TCP]

"In North Carolina Henry Crouch continued to work as state chairperson. Dewey Hobbs as area captains. The state was divided into three areas with Harold Shirley, Lamar King, and Dewey Hobbs as area captains. Eight regions comprised the three areas, each with a captain. Virginia was organized along associational lines with an associational organizer in most of the district associations.

"At first Vernon Davis and I each took responsibility for twenty or so of Virginia's associations and recruited leaders for each association. We jointly represented Virginia in national meetings. For New Orleans [in June 1982], we were responsible for Maryland, the District of Columbia, and Virginia, and were asked to find 600 votes. In late May, our associational organizers turned in a vote count of 729.

“After Vernon Davis’ move to Midwestern Seminary in 1983, a group of three Richmond pastors, Tim Norman, Sherrill Stevens, and David White, shared with me the coordination of the state network by working with the associational coordinators. As career moves occurred, others like Ron Crawford, Edward Freeman, and Bill Wilson filled the ranks. I continued to work with the national committee. Tim Norman became chair of the state network, followed later by Ron Crawford.”

[Later Note: Just to clarify: The point is not to condemn the organizing efforts of the moderates. They had every right to work to bring out the vote for their point of view. Rather, the object is to highlight their lack of integrity in that while they were actively working politically, they were simultaneously condemning conservatives for doing so. TCP]