July 10, 2000
EDITORIAL:
'Will the BGCT split from the SBC?'
___Have you heard the one about the Baptist deacon who was marooned alone for 20 years on a deserted island? Finally, sailors discovered him. As they helped him board their ship, they asked about the three huts he had built.
___"Well, that one over there is my home," he explained. "And that one down there is my church."
___"But what about the one in the middle?" a sailor asked.
___"Oh, that," the man said, much annoyed. "That's where I used to go to church."
___Baptists seem to possess a unique facility for feuding and then splitting their churches. Occasionally we joke about it, just to keep from crying.
___But lately, talk of a big Baptist split has captured serious media attention nationwide. Newspaper articles and TV reports have left people asking, "Will the Baptist General Convention of Texas split from the Southern Baptist Convention?"
___The question prompts several answers.
___First, state and national conventions can't "split." According to Baptist polity--the way we conduct our business and relate to each other--neither group owns or controls the other. Baptist conventions voluntarily affiliate with one another to accomplish agreed-upon purposes. But neither is over or under the other in denominational hierarchy.
___Consequently, while groups may alter the status of their affiliation, they don't actually split. Even if, in the most extreme case, Baptist conventions cease to affiliate or cooperate, they do not actually split, because neither ever possessed the other. If that sounds complicated, it's because our polity is complicated.
___Second, the cooperative relationship between the BGCT and the SBC may be altered, but certainly not at the pace predicted in the secular media. Some stories make a Baptist schism sound both imminent and cataclysmic.
___Of course, several special BGCT committees are conducting studies that could impact the relationship between the Texas and national conventions. Two committees in particular were created because many Texas Baptists are concerned about recent changes in the SBC that impact mission activities and the training of ministers. Perhaps one of these committees will complete its work by this fall. But whenever their work is done, their reports will be channeled through the BGCT Administrative Committee and Executive Board, honoring a deliberate process that provides opportunity for reflection, discussion and consensus.
___Eventually, these committees could recommend changes in relationships the BGCT has with SBC's agencies. The most evident symbol of those relationships is the money Texas Baptists provide to SBC agencies. Some in the BGCT hope the special committees will recommend changes in the state convention's budget, which would reflect displeasure with the SBC. Others have expressed a desire to speed this change; they don't want to wait for the committees' final reports, as late as 2001.
___Either way, a change in BGCT funding for SBC causes could reflect a substantial alteration of the relationship between the two conventions. Still, the BGCT has demonstrated consistent concern for the autonomy of local congregations. Whatever form budget changes take, you can be sure individual Texans and local congregations will have an opportunity to support SBC causes if they so desire.
___Third, although the study committees are working and talk of change is rampant in the Lone Star State, many Texas Baptists believe any eventual distancing that occurs between the state and national conventions was instigated by the SBC.
___The SBC has set its seminaries on a fundamentalist course, aligned its ethics agency with partisan politics, reorganized its structure, revamped its missions strategy both domestically and abroad, significantly altered its faith statement and downplayed long-held Baptist principles. The way many Texas Baptists see it, the SBC is the one that is insisting on altering the relationship. It is the one that changed the rules of relationship and then cried foul when traditional Texas Baptists said they don't want to go along.
___Texas Baptists have stood to say they don't want to go along with this juggernaut to the right, even when many other state conventions have fallen in step. We can express thanks for the incisive leadership of people like Executive Director Charles Wade, the stalwart and supportive strategy of Texas Baptists Committed and the courageous conviction of scores of pastors who have refused to set self-preservation and so-called harmony ahead of seeking and speaking the truth.
___No, an absolute and cataclysmic split is not imminent. Texans who want to continue to support the SBC will have an opportunity to do so. And, given the recent initiatives taken by the SBC, a sobering and significant change in the relationship between the conventions seems ultimately probable.
___ Marv Knox
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
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