THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Saturday, June 29, 1996 TAG: 9606290264
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BETSY MATHEWS WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 79 lines
Years of festering political and spiritual division between conservative and moderate Baptists will be put to the test this morning, as the moderate-led Cooperative Baptist Fellowship votes on whether to split from the much larger and more conservative Southern Baptist Convention.
Most of the fellowship's leadership - and if surveys are correct, most of the voting representatives - are not ready to form a separate denomination. Many at the annual meeting, which includes representatives from more than 1,400 churches in the nation, said they won't be ready for years.
But this vote signifies a major step in a continuing debate about a split. The discussion is forcing moderates to come to grips with some practical barriers to splitting from the convention, whose 15.6 million members make it the nation's largest Protestant denomination.
A 141-page committee report on a possible split, widely distributed at this year's meeting, lists some major problems:
A split could divide individual church congregations, which include both convention and fellowship members.
Missionaries would not get the broad financial support that they now receive from both the fellowship and the convention.
Some churches in the convention would lose property if they join a separate denomination formed by churches in the fellowship. A clause in many church charters specifies that buildings and land will revert to the convention if the congregation aligns itself with another denomination.
Pastors may lose insurance coverage, which is now provided through the convention. The annuities of retired pastors would also be affected.
For those reasons, and many others, fellowship leaders said it's important not to be hasty.
``The truth is that most of us haven't thought through the ramifications of (a split) enough to even have an intelligent conversation,'' said Patrick R. Anderson, moderator of the fellowship's meeting. ``I don't believe the fellowship is ready for a decision yet.''
The religious gulf between the two national groups erupted six years ago, in a struggle over the literal interpretation of the Bible and budgetary spending. The convention's recent votes to boycott Walt Disney Co. and intensify efforts to convert Jews to Christianity have only widened the spiritual rift.
When the meeting began on Thursday, Anderson and most participants predicted that the issue wouldn't come to a vote this year.
But on Friday morning, William F. Montgomery, a retired Air Force chaplain from San Antonio, Texas, made a motion for a vote. He did the same thing at last year's meeting, but was ruled out of order.
Montgomery argued for a split during an informal discussion Friday afternoon, attended by nearly 500 people.
``I want us to come out of the closet and quit being a secret society,'' he said. ``I want us to stand up and be counted.''
Montgomery cited the plight of Baptist women who wish to become pastors. He said their careers would be stunted by the Southern Baptist Convention, which discourages women from becoming ordained ministers. The fellowship favors ordaining women as pastors, but currently has no authority to do so.
Almost none of the other speakers agreed with Montgomery, whose passionate speech received only a tepid round of applause.
Portsmouth pastor Robert Forehand, of Parkview Baptist Church, agreed with Anderson's assessment of the mood of the fellowship.
``There are simply too few pressing reasons to split right now,'' he said.
The Rev. Mark Olson, of Thalia Lynn Baptist Church in Virginia Beach, said that many churches are content to continue with a dual alignment, sending representatives and funding to both the fellowship and the convention.
``The only thing that would make this come to a head is if the SBC would change its constitution to say that a church cannot be dually aligned, or if they just choose to pick on the fellowship,'' he said. ``I just don't think that will happen.''
However, the current situation of uneasy relations between the fellowship and the convention is creating problems for chaplains.
Currently, chaplains - ordained ministers who serve in businesses, the military and hospitals - must be endorsed by an acknowledged denomination.
Chaplains who align with the fellowship must be endorsed by the Home Missions Board of the Southern Baptist Convention, because the fellowship is not a recognized denomination. Though no fellowship-aligned chaplains have been denied endorsement by the convention, many fear it may happen in the future. by CNB