November 17, 1999
BGCT affirms 1963 doctrinal statement
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___EL PASO--Texas Baptists will not go along with changes to the Baptist Faith & Message enacted by the Southern Baptist Convention.
___By an overwhelming majority, messengers to the annual session of the Baptist General Convention of Texas voted Nov. 9 to make the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message the "unifying statement of our common faith and practice."
___That action excludes from Texas Baptists' doctrinal statement a controversial addition on family adopted by the SBC in 1998 as well as further changes expected to be enacted by the SBC next June.
___Texas Baptists and the national SBC have been on divergent paths in recent years, as the SBC has come under control of more conservative leadership. As the gap betweennational and state positions has widened, BGCT leaders have claimed Texas Baptists have not moved.
BGCT MESSENGERS PAUSED during their annual session in El Paso to pray for members of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which broke away from the BGCT last year due to differences of opinion about the new conservative direction of the Southern Baptist Convention. Bubba Stahl (right), pastor of First Baptist Church of Boerne, made a motion asking that the BGCT pray for the new convention in a spirit of unity. David Currie (left), executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, the moderate organization routinely credited with keeping the BGCT from falling in line with changes made in the SBC since 1979, speaks on behalf of Stahl's motion, urging messengers to pray not only then but daily for the new convention. After approval of the motion by messengers, BGCT President Russell Dilday asked Stahl to lead the prayer. Stahl asked God to "complete the good work you have begun in our brothers and sisters ... give them unity, give them peace, give them a hunger and thirst for your word." (Photos by Dan Sutton/BGCT)
___"We haven't moved," said Clyde Glazener, newly elected BGCT president and pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth. "We're still where we've always been."
___The affirmation of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message is a "statement that as Texas Baptists we haven't changed," added David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed. "It is a simple statement of 'This is who we are as Texas Baptists.'"
___The SBC drew national attention in 1998 when it amended the Baptist Faith & Message for the first time in 35 years.
___That amendment added a section on family that says, among other things, that wives should "submit" to their husbands. Later that year, the BGCT adopted a resolution taking exception with the amendment.
___The SBC last summer authorized another committee to make a more thorough review of the doctrinal statement. That committee, chaired by Adrian Rogers of Memphis, Tenn., is expected to recommend additional changes in the statement when the SBC meets in Orlando, Fla., in June.
___The motion for the BGCT to affirm the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message--a document widely accepted by Southern Baptists nationwide before the so-called "conservative resurgence" swept the SBC--was made by Bob Newell of Memorial Drive Baptist Church in Houston.
___His motion not only called for the BGCT to affirm the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message in its entirety but for the BGCT to "distribute this statement to every BGCT-related church, encouraging its teaching and noting that it was affirmed by the messengers at this convention."
___Paul Taylor of First Baptist Church in Mauriceville, attempted to amend Newell's motion to encompass the SBC's 1998 addition on family.
___"The Southern Baptist Convention has amended the Baptist Faith & Message, and I believe it is a scriptural amendment," Taylor said. "I believe the BGCT should also follow the Scriptures."
___Newell, however, rose to speak against Taylor's amendment, saying the desire to be scriptural is "precisely the reason we want to reject this amendment."
___"Scripture speaks of mutual submission, and the addition to the Baptist Faith & Message does not," Newell said.
___Tom Roberson of Oakland Heights Baptist Church in Longview spoke in favor of Taylor's amendment, noting other denominations and para-church ministry leaders such as James Dobson have commended the SBC's statement on family.
___When finally put to messengers, the amendment failed by an overwhelming majority on a show-of-ballots vote. Without further debate, messengers then approved the original motion to embrace the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message.
___The action drew immediate criticism from three SBC leaders, who faxed statements into the news room at the El Paso Convention Center.
___"I am grateful the BGCT leadership has made crystal clear for the sake of Texas Baptist churches where they stand on family and church issues," said SBC President Paige Patterson, a native Texan who now is president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest N.C. "Now it is up to the churches to decide with whom they agree--with a liberal, culturally acceptable view of family and church or with a Christ-honoring, Bible-believing perspective."
___Al Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a frequent apologist on national TV for the SBC's conservative positions, called the BGCT's action "an intentional rejection of a clear teaching of the Bible."
___"This is another lamentable sign of the determination of some Texas Baptist leaders to alienate Texas Baptists" from the SBC, he said.
___Mohler, in his statement distributed to reporters in El Paso, accused Glazener of "denominational grandstanding" for telling the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that the SBC's statement on family was "Neanderthal."
___Richard Land, a former Texan who now heads the SBC's Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission in Nashville, Tenn., also weighed in with a statement defending the family amendment, which he helped draft.
___"Let it be clearly understood that Dr. Glazener and those who support him in the intent of the BGCT's motion have a disagreement with the Apostle Paul, not merely with the Southern Baptist Convention," Land said.
___"As for me and my house, we are going to stick with the Apostle Paul," he added.
___Glazener, when asked by reporters about Land's statement, said he didn't want to get into a confrontation with Land. However, he explained that not all Southern Baptists nor Texas Baptists concur with Land's interpretation of Paul's New Testament writings.
___"The finest Greek scholar Southern Baptists have ever produced, A.T. Robertson, ... believed the early church had women deacons," Glazener said. "He's probably as sharp as Richard."
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