Missionaries express concern in e-mails
___By Dan Martin
___Texas Baptist Communications
___"We have had enough of this. This mandate to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message is the last straw."
___Comments such as these have been arriving by e-mail at the Baptist General Convention of Texas since Southern Baptist Convention International Mission Board President Jerry Rankin asked missionaries to sign an affirmation of the doctrinal statement adopted by the SBC in 2000.
___In the
first weeks since a BGCT missions study committee created a confidential e-mail address to receive comments from missionaries on the field, more than 70 IMB missionary couples have communicated with the BGCT.
___Their e-mails express sadness, grief, dismay and anger at being forced to sign an affirmation of the controversial faith statement, which BGCT leaders and others have called a non-Baptist creed.
___Due to pledges of confidentiality from the BGCT's Missions Review & Initiatives Committee, most of the communications from missionaries could not be reviewed for publication. However, portions of the comments have been released by the committee, with approval of the missionaries who wrote them.
___The couple who said Rankin's instruction to them to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message was the last straw, added: "This order ... is not baptistic. It is not Christian. It is evil. We will not sign their document because they are placing another doctrinal statement on an equal level with the Bible. Actually, they have placed the new Baptist Faith & Message on a level above the Bible, since they are using the Baptist Faith & Message, not the Bible, to be the criterial instrument of doctrinal accountability. We will not put them, nor their document, in the place of God in our lives."
___Among other excerpts:
___ "Let me summarize why we need ... prayers at this time. We have been asked by our mission board president to sign a document we believe to be a creed. We believe this creed is politically motivated and a definite step in the wrong direction. As Baptists, we have historically rejected creeds. ... (We) have prayed over this matter (and) have come to the conclusion that we cannot in good conscience sign this document."
___ "We cannot sign the Baptist Faith & Message 2000 without including a series of clarifications that amount to a reaffirmation of the 1963 Baptist Faith & Message and a rejection of changes introduced since 1998. While we have been willing to work with those with whom we disagree in order to remain faithful to God's call in our lives, we have no intention of selling our souls to those who demand monolithic conformity."
___ "For us, the signing of the new Baptist Faith & Message represents a trust issue. We were appointed in (year omitted) after a thorough interview process by men and women who trusted us. Somewhere along the way, the trust has eroded. If anything, after (number omitted) years of service, I would hope to be trusted even more."
___ "The idea of being required to sign a theological statement as an indication of our theological purity or loyalty to some human organization is totally against what we understand to be sound biblical theology. It opens the door to being told what to believe and to how to make application of that belief in life. It goes against the teachings of Baptist men and women of unquestionable integrity, sound biblical scholarship and lifetime commitment to our Lord Jesus Christ. We will not sign this statement."
___Rankin and other IMB leaders have said they do not perceive the request of missionaries to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message to be a departure from previous practices. The BGCT, by creating a transition fund to aid missionaries who won't sign the affirmation, has "manufactured a crisis where none exists," according to IMB Vice President Larry Cox.
___The confidential e-mail address through which missionaries may communicate with the BGCT's committee for more information about the transition fund is newmissions@bgct.org.
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