RICHMOND, Va. — For the first time in 30 years, Virginia Baptists Committed will not endorse a slate of nominees this fall for officers of the Baptist General Association of Virginia.
The decision, taken at the moderate advocacy group’s semi-annual meeting April 14, is an acknowledgment of changed dynamics in Virginia Baptist organizational life since the group’s founding in 1983, said co-chairs Michael Clingenpeel and Timothy Norman in a statement released April 25.
VBC was formed to counter attempts to shift the Southern Baptist Convention and the BGAV to the theological right. Though conservatives eventually prevailed in the SBC, they never gained traction among Virginia Baptists, largely due to VBC’s efforts. For nearly three decades every VBC-endorsed candidate for president won election at the BGAV’s annual meeting each November.
In 1996 conservatives ended their attempts and formed an alternative convention, the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia. Since then participation in VBC has dwindled and its membership’s interest in endorsing candidates has diminished.
“We are pleased that the threat of ultra-conservatives to the BGAV is no longer significant, because people with that ideology can support Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia,” said Clingenpeel, pastor of River Road Church, Baptist, in Richmond. “We also are pleased to see a renewed interest in BGAV work by others, as evidenced by multiple candidates at several recent annual meetings. This participation is a good thing in Virginia, and we do not believe it is necessary for VBC to take the lead in this effort any longer.”
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Robert Dilday is managing editor of the Religious Herald.