January 13, 1999

SBC amendment makes year-end lists
___PROVIDENCE, R.I. (ABP) --The Southern Baptist Convention's declaration that wives should submit to their husbands ranked high on two groups of religion editors' lists of top stories for 1998.
___The SBC family statement, the first amendment to the convention's "Baptist Faith and Message" document since its adoption in 1963, topped the list for editors of Baptist state papers. It ranked fourth on the Top 5 list for the Religion Newswriters Association, a 50-member organization of secular reporters and editors.
___The family statement received widespread attention with its call for wives to "submit graciously" to "servant leadership" of husbands. The statement also affirms the family as "the foundational institution of human society" while criticizing divorce and rejecting homosexual unions.
___Other top stories included:
___ Creation of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, a conservative body that split from the Baptist General Convention of Texas in November, which ranked second on the Baptist state paper editors' poll.
___Leaders of Southern Baptists of Texas vowed to be more loyal to the conservative-led SBC than they perceive the BGCT has been. The BGCT has exerted autonomy in response to disagreements with SBC leadership in recent years.
___ President Bill Clinton and Pope John Paul II tied as the year's top newsmakers, according to the secular religion reporters.
___Clinton's affair with Monica Lewinsky "forced us to reflect on sin, broken promises and forgiveness," the nation's religion writers said.
___Clinton's affair ranked third among the Baptist editors. Several SBC leaders urged Clinton to resign in the wake of the scandal. The pope made the news numerous times in 1998, including his January trip to Cuba and a Vatican statement on the Holocaust.
___ The election of Paige Patterson--one of the architects of the so-called "conservative resurgence" of the SBC--as national convention president tied with rejection of the Religious Freedom Amendment in Congress for fourth among the Baptist editors.
___ The murder of Matthew Shepard, a homosexual student at the University of Wyoming, ranked fifth for the secular reporters. The crime caused some critics to link hate groups with others opposed to homosexuality, such as conservative Christians, and launched a national debate about whether homosexuals can change.
___ A mandate that faculty of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth must sign the SBC "Baptist Faith and Message" statement with its new family amendment ranked sixth among the Baptist editors.
___Southwestern professors long have been required to teach in accordance with and not contrary to the "Baptist Faith and Message."
___Seminary administrators announced present and future faculty also must abide by the family amendment. Three professors announced they were leaving the seminary, citing the new requirement as a factor in their decisions.

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