November 6, 2000
BF&M proposal falls short in Arkansas
___By Charlie Warren
___Arkansas Baptist Newsmagazine
___LITTLE ROCK, Ark. (ABP) --A proposal to make the Southern Baptist Convention's 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statement the doctrinal guideline for Arkansas Baptists fell short of a required two-thirds vote at their state convention's annual meeting in Little Rock last week.
___Consequently, an earlier version of the statement adopted by the Southern Baptist Convention in 1963 will remain the Arkansas Baptist State Convention's doctrinal guideline.
___The statement cannot be changed for two years, the time required to amend the state convention's constitution.
___By a slim margin, the convention also adopted a resolution supporting the SBC Cooperative Program unified budget and denouncing the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. The resolution calls on Arkansas Baptists to "resist" the Atlanta-based Fellowship, which it says "distracts Arkansas Baptists from our joint commitment to the Cooperative Program."
___The Baptist Faith & Message vote came as a proposal from a charter-and-bylaws committee, which recommended updating the convention's Articles of Incorporation to reflect recent revisions to the faith statement.
___Some messengers said confusion over parliamentary procedure made it unclear what messengers were considering. While a majority voted for the proposal (53 percent to 47 percent), it fell more than 100 votes short of a required two-thirds majority.
___In an effort to minimize controversy about the statement, which is touted by conservatives but unpopular with moderates, the committee proposal included a phrase affirming "the autonomy of the local church and the priesthood of the believer."
___"We understand and recognize that there are substantive changes between the 1963 and 2000 Baptist Faith & Message statements," committee chairman Sam Roberts told messengers. "The articles of incorporation of the ABSC provide protections and safeguards that prevent any statement of faith from becoming an official creed carrying a mandatory authority."
___Despite a plea by Roberts to "lay aside the politics that have characterized Southern Baptists for far too long and support this amendment," Maurice Clark, a messenger from First Baptist Church of Centerton, offered an amendment to delete the phrase about church autonomy and priesthood. His amendment failed.
___Randy Hyde, pastor of Pulaski Heights Baptist Church in Little Rock, spoke against the committee's proposal. "Despite the words of the chairman of the committee, I fear the statement will become creedal in the life not only of the SBC at large but also Arkansas Baptists," he said.
___Glenn Hickey, retired former associational missionary for the Pulaski Baptist Association in Little Rock, also spoke against the change. "Anything that threatens local-church autonomy is not truly Baptist," he said. "A preamble does not repair a faulty document. Anything that fails to honor the lordship of Jesus Christ over churches and over Scripture is not truly Baptist. ... If Christ is not the criterion (for interpreting Scripture), who is? Would it be your pastor? Catholics have a pope. Do you want your pastor to start being infallible and interpret Scripture for you?"
___After the question was called, parliamentarian Tommy Hinson noted a call for the question requires a two-thirds majority vote. The vote on the question was done by raising ballots. That's when parliamentary confusion occurred. The chair ruled that the call for the question had passed, but that point was not made clear to messengers.
___Then messengers voted by ballot on the committee's proposal, even though some may have thought they were voting again on the call for the question. Nevertheless, the proposal failed.
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