Georgia aligns with revised BF&M
___By Greg Warner
___Associated Baptist Press
___SAVANNAH, Ga. (ABP)--Georgia Baptists overwhelmingly endorsed the Southern Baptist Convention's new confession of faith Nov. 14 despite expressed fears that it might exclude those who disagree with its conservative doctrine.
___On a show-of-hands vote, the 3,447 messengers to the Georgia Baptist Convention meeting in Savannah overwhelmingly approved a resolution of support for recent changes in the statement of Baptist beliefs.
___The resolution has no binding effect on the convention's 3,500 churches. But opponents said it might be used to enforce doctrinal conformity in the churches and exclude moderates from serving as convention employees, trustees and appointees.
___In introducing the resolution, proposed by the convention's Executive Committee, Mike Minnix, pastor of First Baptist Church in Lilburn, said the Baptist Faith & Message is not a creed but a "consensus of opinion" about what Southern Baptists believe.
___Gene Wilder of First Baptist Church of Fitzgerald opposed the resolution, because it deletes language from the 1963 version that affirms Jesus Christ as the criterion for interpreting Scripture.
___"We can interpret the Scripture through the life and teachings of Jesus Christ or through the opinion of some less-than-perfect woman or man," he said. "If Jesus Christ is not the criterion for biblical interpretation, then who is?"
___Bill Harrell, pastor of Abilene Baptist Church near Augusta and a recent member of the SBC Executive Committee, said the new Baptist Faith & Message is necessary because the version adopted by the SBC in 1963 provided a loophole "as big as a barn gate." Moderate Baptists, he charged, used the earlier version "to interpret Scripture any way they want to."
___While Texas Baptists recently cited the 2000 statement as a reason to distance themselves from the SBC, Harrell said, "That's Texas; this is Georgia." He predicted the statement would "draw people to a better and better understanding of what Scripture is."
___Speaking to reporters after the vote, convention President William Ricketts, pastor of Prince Avenue Baptist Church in Athens, predicted convention employees would not be required to endorse the new faith statement. But he added, "I imagine it will have some effect" on the direction of Georgia Baptist life.
___Ricketts said he was pleased with the margin of support for the statement, which he and other leaders estimated to be about 2-to-1.



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