March 22, 2000
BP report on new convention inaccurate
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___DALLAS--A Baptist Press report claiming to have uncovered for the first time that articles of incorporation have been filed to reserve the name "Baptist Convention of the Americas" is inaccurate, according to the editor of the Baptist Standard.
___A March 1 article in Baptist Press, official news service of the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee, suggests the filing of these articles of incorporation had been kept quiet until reported by Baptist Press.
___However, the Baptist Standard reported the filing in an article written by Editor Marv Knox and published in the Nov. 24, 1999, issue. That article detailed comments by Baylor University Chancellor Herbert Reynolds, who was speaking to a group of "mainstream" leaders from state Baptist conventions gathered in Oklahoma City.
___In that speech, Reynolds noted he had filed articles of incorporation to secure the name "Baptist Convention of the Americas." Knox included that information in the Standard's story.
___Reynolds first proposed creation of a bi-continental convention during a speech to Texas Baptists Committed members in November 1998. He suggested Texas would be the natural center of such a convention, which could provide an alternative to existing national convention structures.
___Moderate Baptists in Texas and beyond appeared to find the idea intriguing, but no others have yet stepped forward to publicly endorse the idea or call for its enactment.
___Conservative Baptists, especially national leadership of the SBC and the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, have been highly critical of the proposal, however.
___Spurred by these criticisms, frequent questions have been raised by Texas pastors and lay leaders about whether the Baptist General Convention of Texas will endorse Reynolds' idea and establish itself as a broader-based convention competing directly with the SBC.
___New BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade, speaking last month to Texas Baptist directors of associational missions, discounted the notion. "It doesn't seem like a really good idea to me now," he said.
___In addition to Reynolds, others listed as an initial board of directors for the non-profit corporation are John Baugh, a prominent layman from Tallowood Baptist Church in Houston; Winfred Moore, former pastor of First Baptist Church of Amarillo; and Paul Powell, former Texas pastor and former president of the SBC Annuity Board.
___Both Baugh and Powell told Baptist Press the fact that articles of incorporation have been filed should not be interpreted to mean the new convention will become a reality.
___"There has been no move whatsoever to implement that possibility into reality," Baugh said.
___Powell added the incorporation was filed only to preserve a name. "That's all it was. Nothing has ever gone beyond that initial step. No plans, no schemes, just that the name has been preserved."
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