Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: THURSDAY, May 24, 1990 TAG: 9005240254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: MARTINSVILLE LENGTH: Medium
Carolyn Weatherford Crumpler, a candidate for the first vice presidency, said the Rev. Daniel Vestal will be nominated at the New Orleans meeting June 12.
Vestal, pastor of an Atlanta church, is running for the second time for the denomination's top office in a self-described attempt to wrest control from an ultraconservative faction whose leadership has been re-elected for each of the last 11 years.
Both sides claim their views on scripture, pastoral authority and other theological issues reflect the majority of the denomination's 14.8 million members.
The president appoints boards that, in turn, nominate trustees of denominational agencies and institutions. In the past decade, those boards of trustees have virtually all come under the control of nominees of the ultraconservative leadership.
Answering a question from the audience of about 115 at Chatham Heights Baptist Church, Crumpler said Vestal would not step aside in favor of some unspecified "reconciliation" candidate.
Crumpler, who was president of the denomination's Women's Missionary Union from 1974 until last year, said rumors - mostly proven false - are springing up about candidates of both factions as the date for the annual meeting of the denomination nears.
She said she has a "sense of hopefulness I have not felt before" about the moderates' chances of regaining denominational offices.
Crumpler, who received an enthusiastic reception from the crowd composed mostly of residents of Martinsville and Henry County, said she has not suffered much personally from attacks on her candidacy in a couple of ultraconservative publications aimed at Southern Baptists.
Nevertheless, she denied those publications' claims that she "doesn't believe the Bible" or does not have the best interests of the denomination at heart.
In describing her denominational work, she told the audience she was reared as a Southern Baptist, has spent all her life in service to the Home Mission Board and Women's Missionary Union and less than a year ago married a Southern Baptist minister whose church sends 27 percent of its income - much higher than the average Southern Baptist congregation - to the national Cooperative Program of the denomination.
Crumpler said in an interview after her address that she is not running on a platform of women's issues and is not specifically advocating any cause related to women. Her high profile as head of the Women's Missionary Union for 15 years meant she has higher name recognition than Vestal in many states and, Crumpler said, she felt led to join the struggle to reshape the denomination.
by CNB