April 24, 2000
Wade answers questions on
SBC, CBF, abortion, homosexuality
___By Dan Martin
___& Ken Camp
___Texas Baptist Communications
___Charles Wade affirmed his Southern Baptist heritage while expressing concerns about the national convention during a discussion meeting with directors of associational missions.
___Wade met for more than three hours April 19 with 69 of the 72 directors of associational missions who had requested the meeting with the new executive director of the Baptist General Convention.
___"I am a Southern Baptist," he said. "I intend to be a Southern Baptist. The BGCT intends to cooperate with the SBC. We will continue to work with them any way we can."
___Wade spent the majority of his time responding to questions sent in by e-mail before the meeting.
___"The biggest question has to do with where we are headed with the SBC," he conceded. "From your e-mails, that is the biggest issue on your minds.
___"I am going to work to try to help Texas Baptists work with anyone who wants to work with us and to do God's work. I never see a time when we will say we are no longer Southern Baptist. I do not foresee us doing that," he said.
___Wade addressed accusations that the BGCT is not working with the SBC. "We send more than 20 percent of the dollars received by the SBC and then get accused of not trying to be partners," he explained. "That is ludicrous. That is a red herring to threaten and frighten the churches."
___He also replied to questions as to whether he is leading Texas to affiliate with the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, created in 1990 by moderate Baptists dissatisfied with the direction of the SBC, and whether Texas is moving to form its own national convention.
___"You asked me, 'Are you going to lead us into the CBF?' My answer is 'No.' I am not hired to be a promoter of the CBF. I helped get it started. I support it. I give some of my offerings to the CBF, but the CBF does not want state conventions," Wade said.
___First Baptist Church of Arlington, where he was pastor for 23 years before becoming BGCT executive director, does send some of its mission dollars to the CBF.
___"But most of the mission dollars (of the Arlington church) go to the SBC. More of our dollars went to the SBC than went to the CBF. And we gave a lot more to SBC missions than some of those large churches who are so critical of us," he added.
___Directors of missions also asked about the proposed Baptist Convention of the Americas, suggested by Baylor University Chancellor Herb Reynolds in 1998.
___"I have been saying all along that the last thing we need is a new convention," Wade replied. "I haven't seen any great groundswell of churches to sign up for it.
___"Nobody has hired me to be an advocate for the Convention of the Americas. That is not on my agenda. I have a list of 30 things I have to work on, and that is not one of them."
___As to the future of the BGCT and its relationships with other entities, Wade said he intends to help Texas Baptists work with the SBC. But the ultimate decision is not up to him, he said.
___"It is not in my hands. The BGCT will vote whatever it chooses to vote. I have a vote, but I do not have the final word."
___At the same time, he said, "I cannot control what the SBC leaders will do. I have met with them ... and am open to meeting with them again. I am going to do whatever I can to help us work together better."
___Wade said he has written Adrian Rogers, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, Tenn., and chairman of the committee appointed to review and possibly revise the Baptist Faith & Message doctrinal statement. The committee is to report at the annual meeting of the SBC in June.
___In the letter, Wade said, he asked Rogers not to revise the last four paragraphs of the preamble to the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message which says the document is not intended to be a creed but rather a confession of commonly held beliefs.
___"I also urged him not to include the word 'inerrancy'" in the article on the Bible, Wade said. "Many of us do not use it. I think it is a political word. I love the Bible and the God of the Bible too much to use the word. Many of you might love the God of the Bible so much you do use it. But by including it in the Baptist Faith & Message, they would be writing off a whole host of loyal Baptists."
___The use of the term "inerrancy" was a point of difference during the decade of the 1980s, when the controversy afflicted the SBC.
___Wade urged DOMs to read the book on the Baptist Faith & Message written by the late Herschel Hobbs of Oklahoma City, who chaired the committee that prepared the 1963 version of the doctrinal statement. The 1963 committee's intention was to include as many people as possible, while use of the word "inerrancy" would exclude many people, Wade quoted Hobbs as explaining.
___Wade also said he is troubled by those who accuse him of not believing the Bible.
___He referred to a controversy shortly before he took office when he defended the BGCT action in reaffirming the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message statement rather than the version amended by the SBC in 1998, which now includes a controversial article on the family.
___Wade defended rejection of the article on family, saying it is not biblical enough. Yet Texas Baptists were accused of not believing the Bible because of their action, he noted.
___"The Bible is the inspired word of God from the first word to the last," Wade asserted. "I don't know how much I have to believe about the Bible to be acceptable" to critics.
___"The Baptist Faith & Message Statement of 1963 adequately expresses my belief. It is the best statement on the Bible we have, except for 2 Timothy 3, which is the best of all.
___"I believe in the virgin birth, that Jesus was the prophesied Messiah, that he was killed by hanging on a cross. He did it for our sin by his own free will and because it was the will of the Father. He was buried, he arose, he ascended and he is coming again some day. I don't know when, and I am suspicious of those who say they do.
___"I look forward to that day, but I want to be out doing what he told us to do, not sitting on some mountaintop somewhere."
___Accusations that he does not believe the Bible are hurtful, Wade admitted. "Someone couldn't say anything about me that would be more hurtful than questioning my faith in the word of God."
___Also participating in the meeting were members of the administrative staff of the BGCT as well as elected convention officers.
___President Clyde Glazener, pastor of Gambrell Street Baptist Church in Fort Worth, was asked by directors of missions to comment on his remark, quoted in a newspaper article last fall, that the SBC's family life amendment to the Baptist Faith & Message is "Neanderthal."
___Glazener said he remains concerned about the attitude of the SBC toward women but admitted, "If I had it to do again, I would not have used that word." ?Wade noted the controversy over whether the BGCT accepts abortion and homosexuality seems to have diminished somewhat and said several people had asked him to state his own personal views about the issues.
___"I have always been against abortion," he said, adding that "years ago" he made a speech at a BGCT annual meeting opposing abortion but allowing exceptions in the case of rape, incest or to save the life of the mother. "I accept those exceptions."
___Regarding homosexuality, Wade said: "I have always been against homosexuality. I believe gay marriage is wrong and that homosexual behavior is sinful." He also said that if churches condemn the practice of homosexuality, they need to offer ministries to help homosexuals leave that lifestyle.
___As for the BGCT, Wade said, "We have never been in favor of abortion, and we have taken stand after stand against abortion."
___One director of missions noted that abortion is still a "hot button issue" in his area of Texas, and he said critics are seizing on a Christian Life Commission position paper on abortion because it seems to have a more open stance regarding abortion.
___The impression being given is that the position paper offers no opportunity for churches to disagree and that the paper is the position of the BGCT, the director of missions said.
___Phil Strickland, director of the Texas CLC, agreed that abortion "has not gone away; ... it is still a huge issue."
___CLC papers, he said, are not adopted by the convention but are presented as statements on pressing ethical issues.
___"We believe it is a strong statement against abortion," he said of the paper in question.
___Wade noted the CLC has the responsibility of speaking to the convention, not speaking for the convention.
___Regarding homosexuality, Wade said that "long before the issue of the church in Austin (University Baptist Church) came up, the BGCT drafted a clear and concise statement that homosexuality is sinful, unscriptural, wrong. Use whatever word you want, we rejected homosexuality."
___He noted that many have misunderstood Baptist polity when they wonder why the convention did not "kick out" the church in Austin, which had ordained an openly gay man as a deacon and supported gay and lesbian lifestyles on its church web page.
___Baptist conventions do not disfellowship congregations but can only refuse to seat messengers from the churches at the annual meetings, he explained. Since University Baptist Church has not requested seating at the annual meeting since the convention's Executive Board declined to accept contributions from it, no other action has been taken.
___One director of missions suggested the BGCT make a "definitive statement" regarding the polity issue of "membership" in the convention.
___Another said he is "concerned about the rhetoric. And, out of that concern, I believe we have to learn to communicate with each other about the issues, not about individuals. I want to ask you to be very careful about this."
___Yet another director of missions raised the possibility of inviting representatives of other groups to appear before the group in the future. While noting the session with Wade had been helpful, he said the group should consider requesting representatives of the Southern Baptist Convention and Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to meet with them to discuss issues.
___Aside from the pressing political and theological concerns, Wade told the directors of missions he feels an urgent need to help Texas Baptist churches "be the presence of Jesus in their communities."
___The purpose of the convention "and therefore my goal, is to help churches be the presence of Jesus in their community and to fulfill the Great Commission and the Great Commandments," he said. "As a convention, we do together for the glory of God the things we cannot do alone."
___
Send this story to a friend
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!