                                ROANOKE TIMES 
                      Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times

DATE: Thursday, October 31, 1996             TAG: 9610310064
SECTION: VIRGINIA                 PAGE: C1   EDITION: METRO 
DATELINE: LYNCHBURG 
SOURCE: ASSOCIATED PRESS

FALWELL SAYS HE'S STILL INDEPENDENT HE'S ONLY `A BAPTIST IN THE SOUTH.'

The Rev. Jerry Falwell denied Wednesday night that he has become a Southern Baptist.

Instead, Falwell said he is ``a Baptist in the South. That is the whole story, the full story, and that's all there is.''

Nevertheless, Falwell has contributed funds to a conservative group of Virginia Baptists, a move that indirectly affiliates his 20,000-member Thomas Road Baptist Church with the Southern Baptist Convention, the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

``The Thomas Road Baptist Church and I are very sensitive to anyone thinking we may have abandoned our independent groups,'' Falwell said. ``We have not.''

During a service before his congregation, Falwell said he didn't know when he gave a $1,000 contribution to the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia that the gift earned his church voting rights within the convention.

The 40-year-old church recently sent the first of what will be modest monthly contributions to the Southern Baptist Conservatives, Falwell said.

Half the money will go directly to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Mark DeMoss, a spokesman for Falwell, said the contribution was misinterpreted. ``The church maintains its independence and did not join the convention,'' he said.

The convention does not have membership, said Bill Merrell, an SBC vice president.

``If a church sends money to the mission's enterprise and it is in friendly cooperation with the convention'' it can participate in convention meetings, he said.

In a statement issued last weekend, Falwell said his church would continue its support of other groups, such as the Bible Baptist Fellowship, but "we fully intend to take our permanent stand with the national and Virginia Bible-believing conservatives who have rescued the Southern Baptist Convention from theological liberalism."

Staff writer Cody Lowe contributed to this report.

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