ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Sunday, June 16, 1996 TAG: 9606170020
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: B-2 EDITION: METRO
DATELINE: NEW ORLEANS
TYPE: ANALYSIS
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
THE CONSERVATIVE ARM of the Southern Baptists has gained majority control of the boards of trustees of every Southern Baptist Convention agency and institution.
Six years ago, Southern Baptists held the third largest annual meeting in their history as 38,500 "messengers" engorged the Louisiana Superdome.
That year, conservatives completed a process they began in 1979, gaining majority control on the boards of trustees of every Southern Baptist Convention agency and institution, including all six of its seminaries.
Jerry Vines was completing his second and final year as president of the denomination - a job he had won two years earlier by only 0.5 percent of the vote. As had previous convention presidents, Vines easily had been granted a second term, but 1990 was expected to be a showdown year for "moderates" who were seeking to derail almost a dozen years of "conservative" control of the denomination.
Instead, moderate Daniel Vestal could muster only 42 percent of the presidential vote, losing to the hand-picked candidate of the conservative power structure - and eventual CEO of the denomination's Executive Committee - Morris Chapman.
That marked the last election by the Southern Baptist Convention in which there was a serious challenge to the control of conservatives who were insisting on strict adherence to a set of doctrinal standards they believed the previous moderate leadership had abandoned.
Those doctrines centered on a commitment to the belief that the Bible is without errors of history, science or theology. It also included litmus tests for seminary professors and other denominational employees on issues such as the impermissibility of ordaining women to the ministry.
This year, in the denomination's first return to "The Big Easy" since 1990, only 13,700 messengers bothered to show up for the 151st anniversary meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention. That was despite the fact that this convention cast the deciding votes to complete the broadest restructuring of the denominational bureaucracy in its history, consolidating or eliminating seven of its 19 agencies.
Moderates not only didn't field a candidate for the presidency, they didn't even bother to show up. Even conservatives - confident that control of the denomination is not in jeopardy - obviously didn't feel any urgent need to be here.
Virginia churches - dominated by moderates and theoretically able to send thousands of messengers - sent only 400.
Many of the Old Dominion's Southern Baptist congregations may soon be worrying about denominational politics that are closer to home than this meeting's dominant issue - a threatened boycott of the Walt Disney Co. over its policies toward homosexuals.
In an apparently direct reference to conservative Southern Baptist congregations in Virginia, outgoing national President Jim Henry warned that attempts to split state associations could lead to irreparable damage to the national denomination. He urged, instead, that conservatives work to reform their existing state groups.
A few hours later, newly elected President Tom Elliff indicated an openness to challenging state associations - such as Virginia's - that send money to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - a rival for mission money from Southern Baptist churches. Any fault for splits at the state level rests with moderates, he said, not conservatives.
The moderate-dominated Baptist General Association of Virginia a year and a half ago moved to effectively freeze out participation - and thus avert any future attempts at taking control - by conservative congregations. Just over 200 churches that decline to give money to moderate causes supported by the state association lost significant numbers of messengers to the state association.
T.C. Pinckney, an Alexandria layman who has led the organization of conservative Southern Baptists in Virginia, said this week he appreciated Henry's spirit, but contended that conservatives no longer have the option of trying to reform the state group from within.
Consequently, Pinckney sees the formation of a rival to the Baptist General Association of Virginia as inevitable - probably before the end of the year.
Pinckney - who just rotated off the powerful Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention - said legal counsel for the national denomination has already informed him that all his group needs to do is declare itself a state association and send money to the Southern Baptist Convention's Cooperative Program of missions to gain recognition.
In the complex and sometimes confusing world of Southern Baptist politics, there are plenty of questions about how the existence of two rival state associations would work. But it now appears that those are going to have to be answered in practice soon.
It is yet to be seen if such a move would lead to a mass exodus of moderate Virginia churches from the Southern Baptist Convention.
As evidenced by Pinckney's careful examination of the proper procedures his group should follow in seeking recognition from the national denomination, Baptists have long been sticklers for "the rules."
Attend any meeting of Southern Baptists - from a 50-member local congregation to a 40,000-member national meeting - and you'll find a roomful of people who understand "Roberts Rules of Order" and how to use them.
Baptists also have been sticklers about the law - and particularly about the principle of separation of church and state - since Colonial days, when Baptists in Virginia and elsewhere were jailed for their religious beliefs.
This year's meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention, though, may have provided the strongest signal yet of a significant shift in those historic positions - as well as some fundamental misunderstandings of American history on the part of some program participants.
One speaker received a standing ovation after citing Thomas Jefferson - a deist who rejected the divinity of Jesus Christ and the inerrancy of Scripture - as a Founding Father whose opinions about religion should be revered. Another was applauded for suggesting tax money should be available for religious schools and that Bibles should be distributed in public schools. Another got an ovation after quoting Machiavelli - a man best known for teaching politicians that the end justifies the means. Those voting in favor of a resolution opposing the legalization of homosexual marriage promised to disobey any laws recognizing such unions.
One resolution was written in a way to make it appear that the federal document referring to an "inalienable, God-given right to life" is the Constitution - not the Declaration of Independence.
And a denomination that championed the theological doctrine of the "priesthood of the believer" passed a resolution questioning the prayer life of fellow Southern Baptist Bill Clinton.
The denomination's leadership - particularly its articulate and outspoken director of the Christian Life Commission, Richard Land - has led the way in re-forming Baptist thought on the relationship between church and state. They have traded a policy of strict separation - which they see the federal courts imposing in ways that are hostile to religion - for a policy of broad accommodation of religious practice in taxpayer-supported forums such as schools.
Land and the other leaders also have demonstrated a relentless pragmatism in asserting their conservative agenda both inside the denomination and outside in the broader society. They can exercise patience in their bid for a school-prayer or "religious-equality" amendment to the U.S. Constitution. Or they can flex their muscles and boldly threaten to immediately cut into the financial bottom line of one of the world's largest entertainment companies - Disney.
While 1990 was a fulcrum year in which conservatives locked their grip on the denominational steering wheel, 1996 may prove to be the year in which that faction actually re-created the Southern Baptist Convention, consolidating power in a streamlined bureaucracy beyond any threat of "liberal" foes.
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