I read with interest two Baptist Press articles printed on the same page in the May 4 issue of the Herald. The first, headlined “ ‘Everyone Can' to be the focus of SBC meeting,” concerns the upcoming annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention.
The second, “Trustee nominations, committees named for SBC entities,” identifies nominees to be elected at the SBC annual meeting, June 13-14 in Greensboro, N.C. Am I the only one to note the irony in these two entries?
The “Everyone Can … I'm It!” SBC theme focuses on SBC President Bobby Welch's challenge to baptize a million persons this church year. But a reading of the second article regarding nominations makes it clear “Everyone Cannot!” Of the 11 nominees from Virginia, all but one are members of Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia churches.
The one sop to the Baptist General Association of Virginia is a nominee to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission from Bon Air Baptist Church, Richmond. Virginia nominees to the powerful Executive Committee (two) and the important Tellers Committee (five) all are members of SBCV churches!
Members of some 1,400 BGAV churches are virtually ignored in these appointments. Such has been the case over the past several years under different SBC presidents.
Furthermore, it is obvious that “Everyone Can” does not include Cooperative Baptist Fellowship members. This is referred to in Jim White's editorial in the same issue. Noting that he was in attendance at the press conference following Bobby Welch's election to a second term as SBC president, he cited Welch's emphasis on SBC's commitment to evangelism but his refusal to include fellow Baptists associated with the CBF in a cooperative effort.
How long will BGAV churches and their members continue to accept such rejection of every proffer of Christian cooperation in SBC efforts to spread the gospel and continue to fund the so-called “Cooperative Program” of the SBC?
Daniel A. Polk, Richmond