Pressler will be nominated as SBC's
1st vice president at annual meeting
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___HOUSTON--Paul Pressler of Houston will be nominated to become first vice president of the Southern Baptist Convention during the SBC annual meeting in St. Louis June 11-12.
___Pressler, a retired appeals court judge, is widely credited with being one of the two key architects of the fundamentalist movement that gained control of the SBC through the 1980s and early '90s. He and Paige Patterson, also a native Texan, devised a successful strategy to get conservative presidents elected who in turn appointed like-minded people to the boards of SBC agencies and institutions.
___Along the way, Pressler served on the SBC Executive Committee from 1984 to 1991 and as a trustee of the International Mission Board from 1992 to 2000.
___He led the charge against two editors of the Baptist Press news service who were fired by the Executive Committee in 1991. Pressler frequently accused Baptist Press of being "unfair" to fundamentalists.
___Baptist Press, now under the control of the denomination's new leadership, announced Pressler's nomination March 26. Richard Land, president of the SBC Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, said he would nominate Pressler.
___Land, also a native Texan, explained that he "wouldn't be in the ministry today" without the encouragement he received from Pressler and his wife, Nancy. "It is an opportunity to express my profound gratitude and debt to Judge Pressler to nominate him," Land said.
___Pressler, 71, is a longtime member of First Baptist Church of Houston, where he is a deacon, Sunday School teacher and member of the current pastor search committee.
___A 1957 graduate of Princeton University, he earned his law degree from the University of Texas and served a brief time as a member of the Texas House of Representatives before devoting his full career to a law practice. From 1970 to 1978, he served as judge of the 133rd Judicial District Court of Harris County. From 1978 to 1992 he served as a justice on the Texas Court of Appeals, 14th District.
___In addition to his leadership in the SBC, Pressler has been active in state and national Republican Party causes. In 1990, he was offered an appointment by President George H. Bush to lead the White House Office of Government Ethics but, by his own account, declined the offer after the White House received considerable opposition.
___Pressler has written about his religious and civic work in a memoir titled "A Hill on Which to Die," which recently was mailed to every pastor in the SBC.
___Pressler is the third Texan publicly identified as a candidate for SBC-related offices this year. Jack Graham, pastor of Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, will be nominated for the SBC presidency. Mac Brunson, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, will be nominated as president of the SBC Pastors' Conference.
___The SBC's first vice president serves largely an advisory and ceremonial role. However, the first vice president would be called upon to lead the convention if the president became unable to serve.
___Pressler's partner in planning the fundamentalist movement in the SBC, Patterson, already has served two terms as SBC president. This would be Pressler's first time to hold a convention office other than the agency trustee posts he has held.
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