Roanoke Times
Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: TUESDAY, November 15, 1994 TAG: 9411150116
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-3 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: LENGTH: Medium
In fact, the minority conservative faction might even lose a fight to maintain the number of representatives its churches now can send to such meetings.
But conservatives were encouraged Monday to look for victories for causes they support in the new Republican-controlled Congress, including abortion limitations and a constitutional amendment to guarantee a student's right to pray in school.
Virginia Baptists begin their annual meeting today at the Salem Civic Center, but pastors - divided into moderate and conservative camps - held preliminary conferences Monday.
The key issue at this year's state meeting is expected to be a proposed constitutional amendment that would change the way voting representatives - called "messengers" - are allotted to the state's 1,557 affiliated churches.
Now, the number of messengers any congregation can send - up to a maximum of 15 - is determined by financial contributions to both state and national Southern Baptist causes.
The proposed amendment would base the number of messengers on donations to state causes only. It effectively would limit the number of messengers from the several hundred congregations that bypass the state association entirely in favor of funding missions through the conservative-controlled Southern Baptist Convention.
A similar amendment, which must receive a two-thirds vote to pass, was defeated when only 60 percent of the messengers endorsed it at last year's meeting.
Though conservatives have yet to show the strength to significantly influence state denominational policy making, many of the public-policy and moral causes they support should be advanced at the congressional level, they were told.
The president of the conservative Virginia Baptist Bible Conference wanted to make clear that Monday's meeting of his group was not an exercise in partisan politics.
"This is not a Republican gathering," said the Rev. Gary Burden, but he defended political discussion by saying, "Christ called us to get involved in politics."
His clarification - aimed particularly at the media - followed a denunciation of fellow Southern Baptist Bill Clinton by a national denominational lobbyist.
Jim Smith, director of government relations for the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission, called Clinton's pro-abortion rights position "radical" and "outrageous."
Smith told the conference he wasn't espousing a political party, but that "the righteous did some things in this last election."
In particular, Smith said, by his agency's count, the next Congress will have 40 more representatives and five more senators in the anti-abortion camp.
In an interview after his address, Smith said he focused on the abortion issue because he considers it a "barometer of change" that is likely in the next Congress.
He said Georgia Rep. Newt Gingrich, expected to be the next speaker of the house, recently promised a congressional vote on a school-prayer amendment by July 4. That is a promise, Smith said, he and others will pressure Gingrich to keep.
The state Baptist meeting will conclude Wednesday with the election of new officers.
by CNB