Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: SUNDAY, June 17, 1990 TAG: 9006170254
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: D1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE RELIGION WRITER
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS LENGTH: Long
Izzie Hambrick's observation on a result of this year's Southern Baptist Convention meeting is widely held among Virginia's "moderate" members of the denomination.
Hambrick, a lay woman from Eagle Rock attending her first national convention, is resigned to change.
"I really, truly expect a split very soon. . . . Maybe a split is good. Maybe we can go on in another direction."
Hambrick and thousands of other Virginia Southern Baptists are resentful of assertions by some ultraconservatives that they "don't believe the Bible."
Indeed, this year's pre-convention rhetoric seemed hotter than ever in the 12-year battle for control of the denomination.
Some of the leadership of the "conservative resurgence" were for the first time openly saying that maybe those who don't hold the Bible to be the "inerrant, perfect, literal word of God" should affiliate themselves with some other group.
Houston Appeals Court Judge Paul Pressler, generally considered the leading architect of the ultraconservative bid for control, told reporters he hoped no one left the convention because of the election of yet another presidential candidate from his faction.
At the same time, he said, he couldn't understand how someone with "convictional" differences with the leadership and the apparent majority would stay.
Numerous other spokesmen were less inclined to preserve relationships with those who would not subscribe to the doctrine of inerrancy.
That doctrine is complicated and sometimes inconsistent. Generally, its adherents hold that each word of the Bible is the result of direct inspiration from God and therefore is unquestionable. They believe its transfer and translation through the ages has been divinely protected so that the original intent has been preserved.
Inerrantists, therefore, believe that Adam and Eve were real people, not part of an allegory on creation; that the miracles described in the Bible were supernatural events; that the books of the Bible were written by the people whose names are attached to them; and that the historical record of the Bible is correct, even where it differs with other records.
The doctrine also applies to an unquestioning belief in the virgin birth of Jesus Christ and his bodily resurrection after his death on the cross.
Many of those in the "moderate" camp subscribe to most if not all of those beliefs. They differ from their ultraconservative brethren, they say, in that they would allow those who question one or more of those items to call themselves Southern Baptists and to hold leadership roles in the convention.
The ultraconservatives claim that before they reasserted themselves, Southern Baptists were going the way of the nation's other mainline Protestant denominations. They feared that allowing seminary professors to say that the virgin birth was a subject open to debate would lead to other doctrinal infidelities and eventually "a place on the garbage dump of denominations," as outgoing convention president Jerry Vines put it in his annual sermon.
Despite some of the leadership's apparent indifference to the potential flight of churches from the denomination, new president Morris Chapman of Texas campaigned primarily on a platform of broadened inclusiveness in convention politics.
Under the slogan of "enlarging the tent," he pledged to seek out nominees for convention offices from a broader constituency, but only from other proclaimed inerrantists.
Some other leaders of the ultraconservative faction - even some such as Roanoke's Charles Fuller who have remained aloof from the politics - were particularly impressed by that call and said they would now be watching to see if Chapman fulfills his promise.
However, "I believe the hope of this convention lies not in political correction," Fuller said, " . . . but in spiritual restoration."
While he expressed overall satisfaction with the convention, Fuller said he was disappointed in a couple of actions by the current executive committee.
Fuller said he was embarrassed that the head of the committee on nominations - the powerful panel that nominates trustees to all the denomination's agencies and institutions - is pastor of a church that did not contribute to the Cooperative Program of mission's giving last year and was not even qualified to be a voting messenger to the convention.
When that issue was raised on the floor of the convention, it was roundly decried by those in the Superdome.
The pastor, the Rev. Roland Lopez, was later defended as having previously served a "cooperating" church and as a courageous builder of a new Hispanic congregation. His appointment nonetheless offended many, especially those who have criticized presidents of the recent past for their poor records of giving to the Cooperative Program.
Fuller said he was also disappointed that the nominating committee had chosen to reappoint Robert Tenery of North Carolina to the Sunday School board. Tenery, who edits a vociferous ultraconservative publication called the Southern Baptist Advocate, was only off the board for one year after having served eight.
Fuller said he had no problem with Tenery's theology, but felt that it was unwise to have reappointed someone who is now eligible to serve another eight years so soon from a state where there are thousands of other qualified people to nominate.
Fuller said he had communicated with the convention president his dismay over the proposed nomination earlier this year and had hoped that Tenery would voluntarily withdraw.
Appointments such as Tenery's were considered by some moderates to be routine payoffs for their loyalty to the ultraconservative movement.
Such political machinations go unnoticed in many congregations.
"People in local churches don't know what's going on here. They don't care," Hambrick said.
"We'll just do our own thing in our own church," she said.
Hambrick, who has served on the Baptist General Association of Virginia, said many church members are just apathetic to the political aspects of the convention.
And, in fact, its actions have only peripheral effects on the 38,000 churches and 15 million members of the denomination. Those effects are being felt in the institutions Southern Baptists seem to love the most, though: their six seminaries and Foreign and Home Missions boards.
In fact, the denomination's growth has sputtered during the past decade of controversy. Baptism growth has slowed, seminary enrollment is down, fewer people are volunteering to be missionaries, and churches that have been strong contributors to the Cooperative Program are withholding their funds or restricting their use.
Even ultraconservative leaders joke that there are perhaps millions of people counted on church rolls who could not be found "even by the FBI." Perhaps as few as 3.5 million of the 15 million are actually in church on any given Sunday, they say.
Some moderate pastors, such as Bill Ross of Vinton Baptist, say they will seek to find and strengthen new avenues of cooperative Christian missions while continuing to take their full complement of messengers to future Southern Baptist Convention meetings.
Others, such as Ridgewood Baptist minister Nelson Harris, say they will continue to lead churches to support home and foreign missions but will be seeking alternatives for personal theological support.
And a few others, such as Steven Teague of Calvary Baptist in Roanoke, have found more comfortable homes in dual affiliations with the American Baptist Churches.
For Izzie Hambrick, this year's convention was an unforgettable experience, "but I don't expect that I can come back to it, as it is now."
by CNB