THE VIRGINIAN-PILOT
Copyright (c) 1996, Landmark Communications, Inc.
DATE: Sunday, June 30, 1996 TAG: 9606300134
SECTION: LOCAL PAGE: B3 EDITION: FINAL
SOURCE: BY BETSY WRIGHT, STAFF WRITER
DATELINE: RICHMOND LENGTH: 47 lines
By a near unanimous vote, nearly 4,000 moderate Baptists decided to stay in the fold of the conservative Southern Baptist Convention - at least for now.
The outcome surprised few attending the annual meeting of the cooperative Baptist Fellowship at the Richmond Coliseum complex. The vote came Saturday morning near the end of the final business session.
Fellowship members expressed their support for the outcome.
``I'm not surprised,'' said Don Rhoton, pastor of Smithfield Baptist Church.
``I would concur with the vote. Pastor Bill Sherman said it best, that we don't want to force people to choose (to leave their church) where there already exists a division within their church.''
Another widely sought decision came in the approval of a motion to investigate further how the Fellowship can become an endorsing agency for chaplains, without necessarily becoming a new Baptist denomination.
Currently, Fellowship-aligned chaplains can only be endorsed by the Southern Baptist Convention. To date, the Fellowship has recorded no incidents of a chaplain being rejected for Fellowship affiliation.
But many have expressed a fear that the convention's pressure for new chaplains to accept a theology that the Bible is without error will force moderate would-be chaplains to either lie about their beliefs or possibly be rejected for those beliefs in the future.
The decision by the Fellowship not to officially leave the Southern Baptist Convention also was predicted by noted American church historian Martin E. Marty, who delivered the keynote address at the opening general session Thursday evening.
After his address, Marty said he did not see a split forthcoming. He said many American religious groups are comfortable with being in a state of ``suspension.'' He said American Catholics have lived in such a state for years.
Like the Fellowship, American Catholics are a moderate-to-liberal group within a conservative institution.
``Americans as a whole have a great gift for living with the provisional,'' Marty said. ``We don't seem to anchor much.''
In other business, the Fellowship:
Appointed an interim coordinator, Atlanta banker Tommy Boland.
Approved a new budget of $14.1 million.
Named a new moderator, Martha Smith of Gastonia, N.C.
Introduced 41 new missionaries. by CNB