NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — A Southern Baptist trustee, whose recent seminary chapel sermon was partially censored over his comments on speaking in tongues, has asked that the denomination address the issue in its official confession of faith.
Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, Texas, and a trustee at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in nearby Fort Worth, publicized a letter Sept. 15 that he sent to members of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee, which meets Sept. 18-19 in Nashville, Tenn.
In it, he asks SBC President Frank Page and other leaders to study the issue of tongues among Southern Baptists.
“The purpose of this letter is to respectfully and prayerfully request that the president and Executive Committee of [the] SBC initiate a process of addressing and formally adopting a position sanctioned by the SBC in 2007 or 2008 annual meeting, to be included in the 'Baptist Faith & Message,' regarding our position(s) on spiritual gifts, private prayer language and speaking in tongues,” he wrote.
Page, asked by an Associated Baptist Press reporter during the Executive Committee meeting Sept. 19 if he had any reaction to McKissic's request, said he had not had sufficient time “to study it in any detail” and that “obviously, at this meeting, it was too soon to deal with it.” However, Page added, “we're going to take it seriously, because there are some concerns in it that I happen to share.”
The Baptist Faith and Message is the denomination's official confessional statement. It was last amended in 2000.
In his Aug. 29 chapel sermon at Southwestern, McKissic recounted how, while a student at the seminary in 1981, he had an experience of speaking in a “private prayer language” that he believes was evidence of the Holy Spirit helping him communicate with God. McKissic said he continues to have such experiences.
He also criticized a policy, recently established by trustees at the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, that bans the appointment of missionaries who practice such private versions of glossolalia, or speaking in tongues.
On orders from seminary president Paige Patterson, the school refrained from its normal practice of immediately placing a recording of the morning chapel sermon on its website. In the early evening hours, school officials released a statement saying they made the decision because McKissic had criticized actions by the trustees of a sister SBC institution and because seminary leaders “reserve the right not to disseminate openly views which we fear may be harmful to the churches.”
McKissic's statements — and Patterson's reaction — caused a whirl of activity among Southern Baptist bloggers, many of whom accused Patterson of hypocrisy. They noted he had earlier used his office to circulate a “white paper,” written by a former colleague, criticizing the SBC's International Mission Board and its president, Jerry Rankin, on strategy issues.
McKissic's request for official SBC action came on the eve of the SBC Executive Committee's fall meeting. That body is expected to address several concerns raised about the denomination at the convention's annual meeting in June.
In his letter, McKissic said the denomination and its institutions need doctrinal clarification on the issue of speaking in tongues because some SBC leaders appear to hold to a “cessationist” view of tongues and other extraordinary gifts of the Holy Spirit outlined in Scripture. Cessationists believe tongues and other such gifts ceased after the apostolic era.
“There is clearly a lack of consensus and clarity on these issues among Southern Baptist[s],” McKissic wrote. “Because some in our convention are 'cessationist' and semi-cessationists who hold powerful positions of authority, they are defining Southern Baptist[s] in the public square as cessationist or semi-cessationist, and this position has never been sanctioned in the 'Baptist Faith & Message.' It is an assumption by many that the majority of Southern Baptist are cessationist, but many of our leading professors and preachers do not hold a cessationist viewpoint.”
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