Arlington pastor charges Standard editors are racist
___By Bob Allen
___Associated Baptist Press
___DALLAS (ABP)--An African-American pastor has accused the Baptist Standard of racism in its reporting of his attempt to get the Baptist General Convention of Texas on record as affirming the "inerrancy" of the Bible.
___Officials at the Standard called the racism charge "ludicrous."
___Dwight McKissic, pastor of Cornerstone Baptist Church in Arlington, took offense to a question about whether he was influenced to introduce his motion at a Sept. 25 meeting of the BGCT Executive Board by critics of the state convention hoping to create a "lose-lose" situation by forcing a debate on the inspiration of Scripture.
___According to a report of the meeting published in the Standard's Oct. 1 issue: "Some Executive Board members wondered aloud after the meeting whether McKissic's controversial motion had been originated by BGCT critics, namely leaders of the competing Southern Baptists of Texas Convention."
___According to an article released Oct. 3 by Baptist Press, news service of the Southern Baptist Convention, McKissic said that question was raised because of his race.
___"The roots of that question are racist," BP quoted him as saying. "I don't think they would have asked that question of Jack Graham, Mac Brunson or Ed Young," three well-known white conservative pastors of Texas churches.
___"It's a question that asks, 'Who's thinking for you?' as if I'm not capable of thinking for myself or that I can have an independent thought process. That gives me insight into the mindset of the writer" of the Standard article, BP quoted McKissic as saying.
___Leroy Fenton, chairman of the Baptist Standard's board of directors, said he read the Standard article and has received no calls of complaint about it.
___"Any such charge of racism is ludicrous, and anybody who would make that charge has no idea what they're talking about," said Fenton, who is white.
___"The Baptist Standard does every possible thing we can do to be fair and inclusive. It's hardly tenable that anybody would have the gall to make such a charge," said Fenton, pastor of First Baptist Church of Waxahachie.
___Kyle Brown, a member of the Standard's board of directors and an African-American, said he never has found either of the paper's two editors to be racially insensitive.
___"The vast majority of African-American pastors and churches in the BGCT understand that this issue is not racial but political in nature," said Brown, pastor of Victory Park Baptist Church in Rowlett.
___Mark Wingfield, managing editor of the Standard and lead writer of the Executive Board story, said the Baptist Press story quoting McKissic--in addition to the racism charge he also termed "ludicrous"--contained factual errors.
___The lead of the BP story describes McKissic's surprise at shouts of "No!" when he "asked the Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Board to take a stand on the inerrancy of Scripture."
___Wingfield confirmed that individuals shouted, but only when McKissic tried to speak after his motion was tabled, not when he proposed it, as the BP story implies. Wingfield called the BP report "not only misleading" but "a flat-out lie."
___Standard Editor Marv Knox, who also covered the meeting for the newspaper, said he asked McKissic if he had discussed his motion beforehand with leaders of the SBTC, specifying three individuals by name. According to the Standard report, McKissic refused to say with whom he had discussed the matter.
___"I've discussed this with people on all sides of Texas life," the Standard story quoted him as saying. "I'm not going to discuss personal conversations I've had. ... I resent the insinuation that anyone would think I was put up for this. These are my beliefs, period."
___Knox defended the line of questioning as "entirely appropriate and not the least based on race."
___Knox said while McKissic served on the BGCT Executive Board, his church voted to dually align with the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. On top of that, sources told the paper that McKissic recently had gone on a fishing trip with three leaders of the rival state convention.
___"Don't you think Baptist Standard readers deserve to know if he had discussed this divisive action with those three men whose new convention has much to gain by sowing discord within the BGCT?" Knox asked in response to the BP story.
___Knox said action by McKissic's church to pull out of the BGCT since Sept. 25 "reveals where his loyalty resides" and that the pastor's "haste to condemn the BGCT illustrates his desire to destroy this fine convention rather than bring peace."
___Knox criticized the BP story, written by the wife of an SBTC employee who didn't attend the Executive Board meeting. "This story, like too many before it, illustrates Baptist Press' utter lack of credibility," Knox said. "The charge of racism is slanderous in the secular context, much less as it is leveled against Christian ministers. And yet Tammi Ledbetter and the editors of Baptist Press chose to disseminate the charge without even contacting Mark or me or anyone affiliated with the Standard for a response."
___Baptist Press director Will Hall did not respond to a request for comment prior to Associated Baptist Press' deadline Oct. 4.
___At the Sept. 25 meeting, McKissic recommended that the Executive Board place on the agenda for the state convention an "addendum" to the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message stating: "We believe in the divine inspiration of the whole Bible and the inerrancy of the original manuscripts."
___According to the Baptist Press story, after the Executive Board meeting, McKissic's church voted to become uniquely aligned with the SBTC, and he resigned from the Executive Board.
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