September 24, 2001
One Missouri committee backs
down on controversial recommendations
___JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.--One of the controversial changes proposed this summer by a committee of the Missouri Baptist Convention has been amended.
___The convention's committee on continuing review has reversed its earlier recommendation to require all churches affiliated with the state convention to affirm the 1963 or 2000 versions of the Baptist Faith & Message.
___Instead, the committee will recommend requiring churches to affirm any confession of faith "in harmony with historic Baptist confessions of faith."
___Also, the committee has backed off its earlier recommendation that churches affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention must be uniquely aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention. The proposal would have knocked out churches that also are aligned with the National Baptist Convention, American Baptist Churches in the USA or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
___Benny King, chairman of the continuing review committee, told the Missouri Baptist newspaper Word & Way that if the Baptist Faith & Message requirement were left intact, the entire amendment it was part of would have been defeated at the convention's annual meeting. Concern had been expressed from a number of conservative churches, he said.
___The items earlier proposed by the continuing review committee added fuel to a growing firestorm within the Missouri Baptist Convention, as fundamentalist leadership has moved quickly to solidify control and deny leadership roles to members of moderate churches.
___Still standing is the work of the fundamentalist-controlled nominating committee, however, which has drafted its own guidelines for service on state convention committees and boards and has bumped numerous individuals who were eligible to serve additional terms on those committees and boards.
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