Trustees at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary overwhelmingly adopted a policy Oct. 17 that puts the school on record opposing charismatic expressions of the Holy Spirit, including so-called “private prayer languages.”
Trustees also heard news of one of the largest donations in the seminary's 98-year history. Long-time Southwestern benefactors Harold and Dottie Riley pledged $16 million for the lead gift in a campaign to build a 3,500-seat chapel on the seminary campus. Presently, the largest auditorium on campus at the 3,000-student school is the 1,100-seat Truett Auditorium.
The board of the Southern Baptist school in Fort Worth, Texas, voted 36-1 to adopt the policy on tongues-speaking. It states: “Southwestern will not knowingly endorse in any way, advertise, or commend the conclusions of the contemporary charismatic movement including 'private prayer language.' Neither will Southwestern knowingly employ professors or administrators who promote such practices.”
The board's lone dissenter on the decision was new trustee Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in nearby Arlington. McKissic delivered a chapel sermon at Southwestern Aug. 29, and since then the issue of prayer languages has been a hot topic on many Southern Baptist Convention blogs.
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.
Seminary officials, under the leadership of President Paige Patterson, partially censored the sermon by refraining from placing a recording of it on the school's website. The school usually makes such streaming audio available to the public free of charge.
At the time, Southwestern's communications office issued a statement saying Patterson had made the decision to suppress distribution of McKissic's sermon because seminary officials “reserve the right not to disseminate openly views which we fear may be harmful to the churches.”
In the sermon, McKissic also criticized a decision by trustees at a sister Southern Baptist Convention institution, the International Mission Board, banning appointment of missionaries who practice such prayer languages. That decision also fueled controversy in the SBC blogosphere and at the denomination's annual meeting in June.
With the latest decision, Southwestern becomes at least the third SBC agency to have a policy officially opposing extraordinary expressions of the gifts of the Holy Spirit. The other agency is the North American Mission Board.
McKissic, in his statement to fellow trustees about the policy, said the decision moves dangerously beyond the parameters required by the SBC's confessional statement.
“The issue we now face as a family of Southern Baptists is whether or not we will follow a narrowing path of confessional latitude on theological matters not included in our statement of faith, the Baptist Faith Message,” he said.
“The apostle Paul spoke in private tongues more than anybody. He wrote about it. We discuss it. There is no shame in this, and I do not understand the agenda of those who wish to drive into the shadows those of us who are open to this area of the Spirit's work, as clearly attested in Scripture,” McKissic said.
But Patterson, in his statement to trustees, said Baptists have also affirmed the scriptural command to “test the spirits to see if they are of God” and that some charismatic practices have been used improperly in churches, both in the modern day and in the apostolic era.
“Southern Baptists have always recognized true brothers and sisters in Christ within various charismatic groups and denominations,” Patterson said, according to a statement on the Baptist Blogger website. However, he added, “Neither in the past nor in the present have many Baptists believed that the Pentecostal or charismatic movements represented an accurate representation of New Testament doctrine and practice.”
Several younger Southern Baptist bloggers who were critical of the IMB prayer-tongue decision–seen by many as a slap at IMB president Jerry Rankin, who acknowledges using a prayer language–said the Southwestern decision elevates the controversy further across the denomination.
“Dr. Patterson has taken the 'private prayer language' issue from an isolated concern of one entity within the convention and turned it into the new battle for the heart and soul of the Southern Baptist Convention,” wrote Art Rogers, an Oklahoma pastor who runs the 12 Witnesses blog (twelvewitnesses.blogspot.com). “By staking out this issue and calling such attention to it, we no longer have an anomaly at the IMB but a systemic divide over the openness and ability to cooperate among conservative inerrantists that now make up the Southern Baptist Convention.”
He continued: “Will we allow cooperation with those who practice or even affirm the practice of [private prayer tongues] as biblical, or will we exclude everyone who does not openly reject any view other than the cessationist view?”
But Ben Stratton, in the blog's comments section, said the decision was justified. “How many Southern Baptist pastors do you think believe in a private prayer language? Five percent? Two percent? Less than 1 percent? I know that there is not even one in my association … . This is obviously a extreme minority belief among Southern Baptists.”