DALLAS (BP)–For 14 of the past 16 years, the presidents of the Baptist General Convention of Texas have been linked in some capacity with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, an organization born out of its opposition to the conservative resurgence in the Southern Baptist Convention, according to an in-depth study by a deacon committee at First Baptist Church, Dallas.
The study’s findings detail the connection between nearly 100 leaders in the BGCT, the CBF and a plethora of theologically and politically liberal organizations.
“I was surprised and the committee was surprised at what we found,” said Jim Bolton, chairman of the deacon panel that conducted the year-long study, prepared an in-depth report and offered recommendations that led First Baptist, Dallas, to join the new, more theologically conservative Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
“Our congregation was surprised as well. The average Southern Baptist in Texas has no idea of the interlocking relationships between the elected leadership of the BGCT and these other organizations,” Bolton said.
Bolton was quick to point out that the action by First Dallas should not be viewed as a negative reflection on all Southern Baptists who work for the BGCT, but rather was taken because of the general direction of the state convention as a whole.
The report pointed out that during the past eight years every president of the BGCT has been identified with the CBF or Texas Baptists Committed, another moderate organization, in a supporting and leadership role. The deacon committee was particularly concerned about the TBC, an organization regarded by conservatives as the political arm of the CBF and one that has offered grant money to states willing to form likeminded operations.
With 100 footnotes to substantiate its findings, the report provides a revealing look at the theological views and elaborate relationships between some BGCT leaders and organizations at odds with the SBC’s conservative biblical and moral stands. The report is not accusatory in tone, but features direct quotations from those mentioned.
The report also features a chart that traces the number of BGCT leaders involved with the CBF and TBC. For example, from 1998-1999, 70 members of the BGCT executive committee or the committee to nominate executive committee members had some connection with the CBF or TBC.
“The view and approach to Scripture of a leader,” the deacon report states, “is reflected in the actions of the leader, is reflected in those with whom the leader chooses to associate, is reflected in those things which the leader votes to support through a budget and is reflected in those organizations with which the leader chooses to partner.”
. Some of the more controversial statements and actions by CBF members found by the deacon committee included:
— Feminist theologian Jann Aldredge-Clanton, who wrote a book linking Christ with Sophia, a feminist goddess. Clanton led breakout sessions at the 1992 and 1995 CBF general assemblies.
— Paul Simmons, a former ethics professor at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kentucky who has written a book that claims, among other things, that “God is truly pro-choice” and that “the Bible holds open the possibility, therefore, that abortion may be consistent with the will of God.” Simmons is presently chairman of the theological education committee of the Kentucky CBF and has been a CBF general assembly breakout leader.
— Seven members of the CBF Coordinating Council signed a statement published by the Center for Christian Ethics attacking conservative Christian leaders like James Dobson, D. James Kennedy, Tim and Beverly LaHaye and Charles Stanley as being a threat to “our American way of life.” The center receives funding from the CBF and is run by Foy Valentine, a past president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State, a liberal organization that has fought against school prayer.
Some of the more controversial statements contained in the deacon report made by BGCT and CBF leaders include:
— The chancellor of Baylor University, Herbert Reynolds, who served on the search committee for a new executive director of the BGCT, has urged Texas Baptists to leave the SBC saying, “Why should we send $43.3 million in tribute each year to the fundamentalists?”
— David Currie, a member of the Coordinating Council of the CBF and coordinator of the TBC, said: “Texas Baptists continue to make clear that they have no intention of following the path of the SBC. Year after year messengers to the BGCT have rejected fundamentalist candidates for convention leadership. We are distancing ourselves from the SBC and rightly so.”
— Jerold McBride, president of the BGCT in 1994-1995, and a CBF breakout leader in 1998 who served as co-chair of TBC, said, “The BGCT will not be safe until the majority of churches in Texas know what has happened and is happening and no longer feel an emotional connection nor have a strong financial tie to the SBC. We need a full alternative literature program to replace the SBC Sunday School Board literature.” The BGCT is scheduled to publish its first Sunday school material this spring.
The report also concludes that the BGCT’s five-option giving plan undermines the foundation of Southern Baptists’ Cooperative Program giving channel for missions and ministry.
“The committee agrees that a church is free to choose how to exercise the stewardship of its tithes and offerings but has concluded that to call an optional societal method of giving “‘The Cooperative Program'” is deceiving the Baptists of Texas at worst and in the words of James Sullivan ‘unwise’ at best.”
Mac Brunson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, said while all these are reasons for concern among Southern Baptists, the BGCT’s rejection of the 1998 amended Baptist Faith and Message confessional statement may prompt more churches to re-evaluate their relationship with the convention and perhaps even leave it.
“I think the BGCT’s action to reject the 1998 amendment to the Baptist Faith and Message on the family speaks volumes to lots of people,” Brunson said. “I’ve been preaching in Tennessee, Georgia and Florida and people are finding it hard to believe. I think it’s going to have greater repercussions than they ever thought. People are beginning to see that they’ve become more interested in trying to appease the culture than they are in being biblical. I think people see that for what it is.”
