October 21, 2002
CBF nixed merger, Hastey insists
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--Alliance of Baptists Executive Director Stan Hastey is challenging former Cooperative Baptist Fellowship leader Cecil Sherman's account of why the two groups failed to merge in the early 1990s.
___Speaking to a Mainstream Baptist group last summer, Sherman referred to "elitist groups" that are "not very smart" in advancing Baptist causes. Sherman recalled a conversation a decade ago when he said an Alliance leader said for a merger to work, "Every church in CBF should hold our position on the women's issue." Sherman responded, "Then we'll never merge."
___In a recent Alliance newsletter, however, Hastey wrote a column to "set the record straight." He accused Sherman of "reconstruct(ing) history to his own ends."
___"As one of the Alliance's delegates in those merger talks, I can say unequivocally that no such exchange took place during our negotiating sessions," Hastey wrote. "Nor is it true that the Alliance demands conformity of its own churches on women's issues or other matters, as if we could."
___Hastey said it was the CBF, and not the Alliance, that pulled the plug on a proposed merger over the course of 15 months in 1991 and 1992. He said talks broke down because the Alliance's promotion of women in ministry and welcoming of gays and lesbians "scared off other moderate Baptists."
___Citing accomplishments of the Alliance, including the founding of a seminary, membership in the National Council of Churches, fraternal relationships with other groups and groundbreaking statements on racism and Jewish/Christian relations, Hastey concluded, "We deserve better than to be dismissed as 'nuts' and 'fruitcakes.'"
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