INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) — In an eventful first day of their annual meeting, Southern Baptists heard a rousing speech from President George W. Bush, broke ties with the Baptist World Alliance, and elected a new convention president June 15.
During the meeting that marked the 25th anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention's historic conservative swing, messengers heard a warning from their top official that the conservative movement is in danger of going too far to the right. “We cannot let this convention be driven by politics,” said Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, who warned of “lifeless orthodoxy parading as true faith.”
President Bush supplied the emotional climax for the convention's first day, addressing messengers live via satellite.
When SBC President Jack Graham of Dallas introduced Bush, messengers greeted him with uproarious applause. Bush thanked the messengers five times, chuckling toward the end, before their greeting died down so that he could begin his speech. Then, once he started, they interrupted him more than 20 times with applause, sometimes punctuated by cheers and whistles.
The president emphasized themes that resonated with the convention's conservative core — the battle against terrorism and the struggle to bring democracy to the Middle East, his record on tax cuts and job creation, as well as education and Medicare. He called on the U.S. Senate to allow him to appoint conservative judges and on Congress to pass laws supporting government funding for faith-based initiatives.
Bush generated the strongest response as he emphasized moral issues.
“I will keep working to build a culture of life in America,” he pledged, citing his support for three anti-abortion bills, as well as promising more funding for crisis-pregnancy centers, support for adoption as an alternative to abortion, and a law that requires parental notification before a minor girl can have an abortion.
The president vowed to support a ban on human cloning, insisting, “Life is a creation of God.”
He stressed his administration would defend “the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage forever,” a line that generated sustained applause. “The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution honored in all cultures,” he added assuring that he would “support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman.”
“These years have brought trials we did not ask for and challenges we did not expect to face,” Bush acknowledged. “Now we look forward with confidence and faith. … We pray always for God's guidance and strength, for our lives and for this great nation.”
As expected, messengers voted overwhelmingly to end the denomination's 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance, an international network of Baptist groups. Paige Patterson, speaking for the committee that recommended the break, told messengers some of the 200-plus denominations worldwide that affiliate with BWA “do not believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture and regularly call it into question.”
Denton Lotz, BWA executive director, said afterward, “There are 211 confessions or statements of faith” among BWA's 211 member bodies around the world. “We certainly are not liberal. We're all conservative evangelicals.” Lotz said the departure of Southern Baptists was a sad occasion.
As Southern Baptist conservatives marked the 25th anniversary of their rise to power in 1979, Chapman warned the SBC could now “fall into the error of Pharisaism … lifeless orthodoxy parading as true faith.”
“If Southern Baptists steer sharply to the right, we will end up on the road of separatism and independence,” said Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee and one of the candidates elected SBC president during the conservative rise to power.
He urged the convention “to return to some sense of normalcy.”
“The crusade phase of the conservative resurgence has passed,” he said. “…The battle has been won.” Southern Baptists now “cannot linger at the base camp” of biblical authority, he added. “We are people not only compelled to believe the Book, we are compelled to live the Book.” True biblical faith should result in righteousness, holiness, church-planting and missions, he said. “This is our biblical mandate.”
Chapman said conservatives have not made good on their pledge to bring a broader range of Southern Baptists into leadership positions. While those in trustee positions must be inerrantists, endorse the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement, and support the Cooperative Program, leadership should be open to those “who listen to God's Spirit, not trustees who are susceptible to politics.”
“We cannot let this convention be driven by politics,” he said.
Messengers elected Bobby Welch, pastor of First Baptist Church of Daytona Beach, Fla., as convention president to succeed Graham. Welch, supported by the SBC's conservative leaders, defeated Al Jarrell, pastor of Riverside Baptist Church in Merry Hill, N.C., on a ballot vote of 80 percent to 20 percent.
Messengers also approved a motion requesting New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary make the SBC “sole member” of its corporation, following the lead of all other SBC agencies and institutions. Chuck Kelley, seminary president, asked messengers to postpone the action for a year so the seminary could present an alternative “more in keeping with Louisiana law and Baptist polity.” However, messengers adopted the motion from the Executive Committee to make the request now. The measure passed on a 64 percent to 36 percent ballot vote.
A motion to study a name change for the Southern Baptist Convention was introduced into business and scheduled for debate later in the meeting. The motion was introduced by Claude Thomas, pastor of First Baptist Church of Euless, Texas. Jack Graham, SBC president, has endorsed the study, which some say is necessary to reflect the SBC's growth beyond the South.
Messengers approved a name change for the Annuity Board, the SBC's retirement and insurance agency, to GuideStone Financial Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention. O.S. Hawkins said the change would allow the agency to market its products to other evangelical ministry organizations. The change must be affirmed again at next year's SBC meeting, but the Annuity Board is permitted to use the name in the meantime.
A motion to boycott Carnival Cruise Lines and to ask the Annuity Board to sell its Carnival stock was referred to the Annuity Board for consideration. Carnival has been criticized for on-board gambling and hosting gay-themed cruises. The Annuity Board has defended its ownership of Carnival stock, saying divesting of questionable companies would be unwise.
Resolutions, usually a lively matter of debate at the SBC, will be handled by messengers on Wednesday, June 16, the second and last day of their meeting.
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