FALLS CHURCH, Va. (ABP) — The head of the Baptist World Alliance says the organization was “slandered” by a Southern Baptist Convention leader during a June 15 debate about the SBC's relationship with the BWA.
“Baptists of the world, and the Baptist World Alliance in particular, were slandered by statements made to messengers at the annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention,” BWA general secretary Denton Lotz said in a sharply worded statement released June 21 to media agencies.
The SBC, meeting in Indianapolis, voted June 15 to withdraw its membership and support from BWA, a worldwide umbrella group for Baptists.
According to a BWA spokesperson, Lotz was referring specifically to a speech by Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, to SBC messengers.
Patterson, a member of the study committee that recommended the SBC's withdrawal from the alliance, cited what he called “a continual leftward drift” in BWA as justification for the SBC's breaking ties. As an example of the alleged drift, Patterson noted that BWA continues to be affiliated with the American Baptist Churches USA, which has accepted a new regional association in the Pacific Northwest that contains some gay-friendly churches.
Although American Baptists' general board is officially on record as opposing homosexuality, Patterson accused the ABC of being too open to gay-friendly churches.
The ABC defers to local churches' decisions on sexual-orientation issues. The SBC expels churches that it views as “affirming” or “promoting” homosexuality.
Saying the SBC can “no longer afford to be aligned in any way” with groups he considers gay-friendly, Patterson told messengers: “What you give your name and your money to, you give your tacit approval to.”
Lotz said statements by Patterson and other SBC leaders triggered “misrepresentations and misunderstandings” about the BWA in the secular press.
“The Washington Post on June 16 wrote an article that began, 'The Southern Baptist Convention voted to pull out of the Baptist World Alliance, accusing the worldwide organization of a drift toward liberalism that included growing tolerance of homosexuality, support for women in the clergy and “anti-American” pronouncements,'” Lotz said. “This statement summarizes, unfortunately, the false accusations that have been sent around the world and have appeared in newspapers all over the USA and the world.”
Lotz cited a 1994 BWA General Council resolution opposing same-sex marriage. “The BWA does not support homosexuality as an acceptable lifestyle, believing it to be incompatible with the teachings of Scripture,” he said. “[The BWA] affirms without reservation that marriage is a holy state and only between a man and a woman forever.”
Lotz said the group, which links more than 200 national and regional Baptist bodies in a loose global confederation, has not taken a stand in favor of or opposition to women as pastors, in deference to the Baptist tradition of local-church autonomy.
BWA spokesperson Wendy Ryan said she and Lotz were blindsided by Patterson's accusation about homosexuality, as well as the issues of women as pastors and anti-Americanism. Those issues were not part of April reconciliation discussions between leaders of the BWA and SBC, Ryan said, adding, “We didn't think that they would re-surface at the annual meeting.”
She also said that the issue of American Baptists and their acceptance of gay-friendly churches was “a real surprise” because SBC leaders had not mentioned it previously. “The first thing we ever heard about that was last Tuesday [June 15],” Ryan said. “That was the shock of all shocks.”
Ryan also said Lotz's statement was issued partially in rebuttal to an article the SBC's news service ran earlier in the year. Baptist Press carried a lengthy opinion piece by Don Hinkle, editor of the Missouri Baptist Convention's Pathway newspaper, in which Hinkle cited examples of what he considered a liberal drift in the BWA.
In justifying the charge of “anti-Americanism,” Hinkle cited a speech that Anglican Archbishop Desmond Tutu of South Africa delivered to the BWA General Council when that group met in Durban, South Africa. Tutu spoke about his efforts to end that nation's racist practice of apartheid. Hinkle cited Tutu's previous statements criticizing unrestrained capitalism as justifying the “anti-American” charge leveled against BWA.
Lotz said that was preposterous. “It is absurd to consider [Tutu's] invitation by South African Baptists as anti-American,” he said.
Patterson had not responded to a request for comment by press time June 22.
Morris Chapman, president of the Executive Committee, told Associated Baptist Press he asked Patterson to speak to messengers. He did not comment on Patterson's accusations, but added, “Obviously, each member of the committee, given the opportunity, likely would have stated to convention messengers the specific problems they he thought were was paramount in our final decision.
Neither did Chapman comment on Lotz's charge of slander. But he said Lotz's leadership of BWA was another reason for the decision to dissolve SBC ties.
Chapman cited the Executive Committee's earlier decision to reduce the SBC's contribution to the BWA by $125,000 a year. “While the BWA staff complained about the reduction, no real effort was made [on their part] to understand matters with which the SBC leadership was struggling,” he said, in an e-mail interview.
“The committee had hoped concerns would diminish during this time and the relationship with BWA leaders would improve. Much to the committee members' disappointment, the exact opposite occurred,” Chapman continued.
He went on to criticize Lotz's past statements on the SBC's decision to withdraw from BWA.
“His scathing denunciation of the Southern Baptist Convention … revealed his long-term attitude toward our convention's leadership,” Chapman said. “He erupted with accusations against SBC leadership that could hardly have been created on the spur of the moment. What he said and the way he said it came from deep within.”
However, Chapman had praise for BWA president, Billy Kim, a South Korean pastor, for the way Kim tried to understand SBC leaders' concerns. “We are grateful for the gracious Christian spirit with which he talked through issues with us,” Chapman said.
Kim has said he is still hopeful the SBC will return to the Baptist World Alliance.
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