The Baptist Standard, October 9, 2000
Integrity Committee assails SBC
mailing and website as biased
___An "all-out, obviously very expensive" effort by Southern Baptist Convention leaders to derail Texas Baptists' efforts to choose a new way to allocate Cooperative Program funds smacks of desperation, the Baptist General Convention of Texas' Committee on Baptist Integrity said Oct. 5.
___The SBC initiative also is a biased attempt to influence BGCT votes and is indicative of the SBC's willingness to crush any opposition, the committee charged.
___The SBC Executive Committee launched a new website, www.baptist2baptist.net, Oct.
2 and simultaneously mailed a brochure, "The Truth About the SBC & Texas," to pastors and lay leaders for distribution to congregations.
___The effort is aimed at stopping a BGCT budget proposal that would redirect more than $4 million from Southern Baptist seminaries to Texas Baptist seminaries. A companion proposal would virtually cut off funding to the SBC's Executive Committee and defund the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.
___The recommendations will be considered at the BGCT annual session in Corpus Christi Oct. 30-31.
___"It would be interesting to know how much Cooperative Program money went into such a broadside approach," said Lubbock layman John Wilkerson, chairman of the 15-member integrity committee authorized by the BGCT Executive Board to answer attacks on the BGCT and its leaders.
___"A mailing this slick with such massive distribution, not to mention the website development expense, must represent tens of thousands of dollars trying to sway messenger votes in Corpus Christi and the way churches respond after the convention," said Wilkerson. "That's money that could have been spent reaching the lost rather than serving a political agenda."
___In contrast, recent printed materials regarding the convention controversy that were distributed by the BGCT were funded by private donations, noted Glenn Majors, the BGCT's director of Cooperative Program services.
___Wilkerson said the "one-sided" SBC literature is an obvious attempt to dissuade the budget changes to be proposed in Corpus Christi.
___The 12-page brochure contains eight articles written by staff members of the SBC Executive Committee, presenting their views of the BGCT proposals and Texas Baptist leaders. The brochure does not provide space for responses from BGCT leaders.
___The new website includes collections of speeches by SBC leaders, information about the Cooperative Program and recent Baptist Press articles critical of the BGCT.
___The website also features a section titled "Reports and Papers" that includes such items as the report from a deacon committee to First Baptist Church of Dallas. That report prominently featured material collected by Missouri layman Roger Moran, which utilized guilt-by-association tactics to discredit BGCT leadership.
___August Boto, the SBC Executive Committee's vice president for convention policy, touted Baptists2Baptists' ability "to offer users the opportunity to 'attend' (by listening to audio files) such gatherings as the recent meeting between Texas associational directors of missions and the SBC entity presidents."
___"When users hear the answers given to some of the tough questions posed, they'll realize that the entities of our convention are in capable, God-honoring and trustworthy hands," Boto told Baptist Press, the convention's public relations arm.
___Like the brochure, the website does not provide space for BGCT leaders to respond to the charges.
___Wilkerson affirmed Baptists' right to voice opinions, but he criticized the SBC materials for their unfairness.
___"Please understand, I do not begrudge any Baptist for expressing his or her opinion--that's the Baptist way," he said. "But this biased and anti-BGCT leadership pamphlet in no manner presents a balanced analysis or perspective regarding these issues.
___"If I used this SBC document alone to base my opinion without seeking out the history and reasoning for the proposed BGCT budgetary changes, I would be left with the impression that the only cause of these unfortunate events is that Texas has 'anti-SBC leaders' who are less than adequate doctrinally and theologically. Nothing could be further from the truth."
___Even the title of the SBC brochure, "The Truth About the SBC & Texas," is indicative of the unfortunate stance of current SBC leadership--that only those who believe as they do know the real "truths" of the Bible, Wilkerson noted.
___The SBC's own acts led to the proposed budget changes, he countered.
___"The SBC has departed from several historic Baptist principles of polity and doctrine. It has embraced creedalism, rejected the centrality of Christ as the interpretive guide to Scripture and interfered with the autonomy of the local church" he said.
___"It was the unwanted, undeserved and very 'uncooperative' actions of the SBC over many years--particularly toward Texas and some of its leaders who have been accused, among other things, of not holding to a 'high view' of Scripture--that have led Texas to this action. It would be more appropriate to call us 'SBC rejects' than 'anti-SBC.'
___"Changes in the SBC have been debated and discussed publicly and privately for decades. Certainly one fact is clear--this battle has drained energies, divided churches, alienated friends, wasted millions of dollars, crippled missionary efforts and severely damaged our witness as Baptists.
___"It's time for Texas Baptists to move on," Wilkerson urged. "The BGCT is a free and autonomous convention, and it can determine which missionary and educational efforts its gifts and offerings will support.
___"It's time for us to quit spending precious resources countering bickering, finger-pointing, distortions and misinformation. The Lord has plenty of work for us yet to do."
___Texas Baptists need to seek the facts and then make the appropriate decisions, Wilkerson added.
___"Leadership of Texas Baptists--the Baptist General Convention of Texas--has truthfully presented the facts. Texas Baptists can trust and follow them.
___"I pray that churches will send messengers to the convention in Corpus Christi who will listen carefully, seek the truth and vote accordingly."
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©2000 The Baptist Standard
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