March 4, 2002
TEXAS BAPTIST FORUM:
Satan laughs
___As a Sunday School teacher of the 12th grade department in my church, I try to keep the youth abreast of what is going on in the "world" of Baptists. Lately I have been somewhat embarrassed to expose them to yet another black eye in our denomination.
___They do not understand the squabbling, and they question where our "leaders'" childlike faith has gone. They also ask if our "leaders" expect our missionaries to lead people to the gospel of Christ or lead people to the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. They half-jokingly say that perhaps we should require new Christians to sign something as well.
___It frightens me that if we continue this disunion and continue to play out our discord in the national media, this next generation will turn their backs on the Baptist faith altogether.
E-mail the editor at marvknox@baptiststandard.com
___Satan laughs as we argue. I pray that we can build up our faith and denomination to something our children can be proud of.
___ Michael Westbrooks
___ Richardson
Sign every page
___I have pastored Southern Baptist churches for over 25 years now, most in Texas. Best I can recall, every church that has considered me as their pastor (even the ones I did not go to) asked me if my doctrinal belief was in line with the Baptist Faith & Message. I have always agreed that it was a concise statement of my doctrinal belief. It's always been on my resume. It's certainly not exhaustive.
___If a church is supplying my salary package and wants me to agree with the doctrinal statement of the Southern Baptist Convention, I would sign every page of it.
___I once heard a charismatic televangelist say he would sign every page of the Bible because he believed all of it. When Baptists return to that type of mentality, we open ourselves up, once again, for a deluge of interpretations.
___Grassroots Baptists requested the first BF&M to help committees understand what their prospective pastors believed in. The BF&M is not a perfect, exhaustive interpretation of all Baptist doctrine, but it is enough to allow the average person to discern what Baptists believe.
___Any missionary that has a problem with their salary supplier asking for allegiance to a concise doctrinal statement needs to get out of the SBC and call someone else for financial assistance.
___ Johnnie Jones
___ Blue Ridge
Baptists & freedom
___I have been a Sunday School teacher for over 30 years. If I were told to sign anything, I would feel betrayed and rejected by the church I had spent my life serving.
___I am a "Baptist" because I have the freedom Jesus gave us to be all we can be--a part of the priesthood of the believer and a person whom God loves.
___If the criterion is that each of us must conform to what someone else says, rather than what Jesus Christ said or rather than what the Lord says to us, then maybe we need to seek another way or seek another word from the Lord. Maybe we need to find another "label" to represent us.
___We are free. We are God's children. We are his by adoption, "male or female, slave or free." Therefore, who has the right to demand that we sign a statement affirming what "they" say is the way?
___I am a Baptist and have been all my life (over 55 years) because Baptists (in the past) have allowed us to be free and to believe each of us can go to God individually to speak to him regarding our needs. I am not a Baptist because I signed a creed or someone told me how to believe.
___God made me an individual, male or female, free to choose and to worship him. I cannot believe otherwise. If I have to, I will not be a "Baptist." I will be a Christian.
___ Pete Sadler
___ Henderson
Unity candidate
___As I read the Feb. 11 Standard, I was shocked and deeply saddened. Cooperative Program giving is down more than $10 million.
___Since I am a conservative SBC supporter, one might think I would be celebrating more churches and money going to the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention. This is not so! I support a policy of patience.
___Southwestern Seminary is putting out great Bible-believing pastors. There is no need to cut funding for valid and potential ministries. I know Dallas Baptist University, my alma mater, will lose much-needed funding, and I know God's work will be hindered. I know what students will experience, for I personally feel the financial squeeze as a student at Southern Seminary. Every student feels the effect of the Baptist General Convention of Texas' significant cut in our budget.
___There are no winners in our slow separation, which, if nothing changes, will lead to a full divorce between the BGCT and the SBC. What is the common Baptist to do? Do we not feel powerless; are we not, in a sense, powerless?
___Talk to your pastor. Let him talk to other pastors, and so on. Let the common Baptist men and women nominate a reconciliation candidate at the next BGCT convention. I truly believe the common Texas Baptist longs for reconciliation, but love will never triumph if good men do nothing. Act! Get involved, I pray! Stop this painful divorce that defunds valid ministries that God himself supports.
___ Tim Overton
___ Louisville, Ky.
'Soul-searching'
___There seems to be much "soul-searching" among many Texas Baptists concerning the SBC's continued acceptance of BGCT Cooperative Program funds when Texas Baptists have less and less say as to how it is spent.
___It is time--quit sending money to Nashville.
___ David Huebner
___ Sugar Land
Successful merger
___The article on the merger between High Plains Baptist Health System and St. Anthony's Hospital (Feb. 11) states both hospitals "faced crises in the mid-1990s. High Plains Baptist Hospital was licensed for 360 beds and was struggling to keep half of them occupied. It was a similar story at 250-bed St. Anthony's."
___This statement is only partially correct and could be misleading. In 1995, High Plains Baptist Health System was a financially strong, viable and highly diversified health care system. The hospital side of our operations was very successful as evidenced by dominant market share and a positive bottom line for the past 20 years. In 1995, our last full year of operations, the hospital produced a bottom line of $6.4 million, with the system having a little over $10 million bottom line. At the time of the merger, our financial strength and health was stronger than it had ever been.
___While we were licensed for 360 beds, we had open and staffed about 275 beds. Of those beds, we had opened and staffed, we ran an average of 225 patients, many times going on "emergency" beds because we were so full.
___This merger has been successful. However, it was born not out of any necessity on our part, but was born out of the desire to build an even stronger Christian health care provider for the good people of the Panhandle of Texas.
___ T.H. Holloway
___ Former president (1977-96)
___ High Plains Baptist Health System
___ Amarillo
Compelling emotion, but off point
___Regarding "Missionaries will agonize over being asked to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message" (Feb. 4): Powerful writing, but mistaken in claiming that anyone is saying missionaries "are not faithful followers of Jesus Christ." The father's emotion is compelling, but off point.
___Noone is forcing missionaries to affirm a document they do not believe in, but Southern Baptists do have a right to know that the people they support as missionaries are on the same page when it comes to beliefs, teaching and practice.
___Since you brought up the issue of conscience and integrity, perhaps you'd care to editorialize about this question: Should missionaries who have real disagreements with the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message be serving through the mission board of a convention that overwhelmingly approved it?
___What the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship faction will be shocked to discover is how few missionaries have the real disagreements with the 2000 BF&M that you imply they have—and how many of them do see this as an accountability issue, not a creedal issue. They've signed affirmations like this before they were appointed, and they didn't see it as a violation of conscience then any more than they do now.
___And if missionaries have been signing affirmations like this for many years, why wasn't it a violation of conscience under Cauthen and Parks?
___Eileen Carroll
___ Richmond, Va.
Disappointed in Edelman article
___I am disappointed that you would include in your publication an article penned by Marian Wright Edelman (Jan. 28).
___Although she had some nice things to say and even quoted Scripture, I'd like to think that you would do a little more research
___Look around at who else endorses someone, please, before you endorse them by printing their material. Should we look for an article from Patsy Ireland or Ted Turner next?
___Billy Ingalls
___Houston
Agree with editorial
___The editorial on missionaries and the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message (Feb. 25) is powerful, compelling, well-written. I
___You have stated why Jerry Rankin's demand that all International Mission Board missionaries sign the 2000 BF&M is the most asinine thing the current leadership of the SBC has done to date.
___ Lamar Wadsworth
___Baltimore, Md.
___What do you think? Submit letters to marvknox@baptiststandard.com or Box 660267, Dallas 75266-0267. Letters must be no longer than 250 words.
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