Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: THURSDAY, November 17, 1994                   TAG: 9411170121
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: C3   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
DATELINE:                                 LENGTH: Medium

MODERATES LIMIT CONSERVATIVE PROTESTS

The moderate majority remained firmly in control, winning the presidency with more than 71 percent of the vote.

Moderates also passed - by a 73 percent margin - a constitutional amendment that effectively limits the voting participation of conservative congregations that protest the policies of the Baptist General Association of Virginia by withholding financial support.

More than 3,300 "messengers" registered for Wednesday's concluding meeting of the association at the Salem Civic Center. The state body includes 1,551 congregations claiming almost 600,000 members.

For the past 15 years, the Southern Baptist Convention has been involved in a power struggle between conservatives, who have insisted on the defense of doctrinal fundamentals such as the historical accuracy of Scripture and Virgin Birth of Christ, and moderates, who generally have eschewed the imposition of doctrinal tests for denominational leadership.

At the national level, the Southern Baptist Convention is controlled by the conservative faction. In Virginia, moderates constitute the controlling majority. There are no formal political parties inside the denomination, although both moderates and conservatives may belong to associations of doctrinally like-minded churches in addition to the Southern Baptist Convention.

The Baptist General Association of Virginia represents congregations that voluntarily choose to contribute financially to the mission work of the Southern Baptist Convention. The state group represents few predominantly black Baptist congregations, most of which belong to other state and national associations. Neither does it include the many other unaffiliated Baptist churches in the state - including, for instance, Shenandoah Baptist Church in Roanoke and Thomas Road Baptist Church in Lynchburg, where Jerry Falwell is pastor.

In most years, a plethora of resolutions and motions relating to controversial issues such as abortion and homosexuality have drawn impassioned speeches from the floor, which sometimes spilled out as partisan vitriol. This year there were no resolutions offered from the floor - at least none in a form to meet the provisions of the association's bylaws - and, therefore, no debate.

The only hint of discord came during the speeches related to the constitutional amendment that now allots voting representation according to donations to the state association.

Previously, congregations were granted votes according to a formula based on their total financial support of state and national Southern Baptist causes. That meant churches could protest the policies of the state group by denying it contributions, but theoretically still have large voting delegations to the annual convention.

The moderate leadership contended that situation was unfair to those who financially support the state association. In 1991 and 1993, similar measures failed to gain the necessary two-thirds support for passage, apparently because many moderates considered it too divisive.

T.C. Pinckney, an Alexandria layman who has been the most visible leader in the conservative cause, characterized Wednesday's vote as "very divisive and injurious" to the state association, although it did include some provisions to protect the number of delegates from small conservative churches.

He also speculated that many conservative churches had simply grown weary of the infighting and declined to send messengers to the convention.

Both Pinckney and Margaret Wayland, new president of the association, said it was too early to tell whether any churches are likely to bolt from the state association in protest of the amendment.

Wayland, of Danville, defeated a Roanoke Valley layman for the president's job, but another valley resident was elected to a statewide office. The Rev. Kirk Lashley, executive director of the Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, won the first vice president's seat.