BWA considers granting recognition to CBF; SBC leaders oppose action

July 22, 2002

BWA considers granting recognition to CBF;
SBC leaders oppose action
___By Trennis Henderson
___Kentucky Western Recorder
___SEVILLE, Spain (ABP)--The 11-year conflict between the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and the Southern Baptist Convention has reached the international stage in a dispute over membership in the Baptist World Alliance.
___After evaluating the CBF's application for membership in the BWA, the BWA's membership committee issued a three-page report outlining the criteria for CBF to be recommended next year for membership. Several members of the SBC delegation, who ardently oppose the CBF, responded by voting against receiving the committee's report.
___Despite SBC leaders' opposition, the 290-member BWA General Council voted overwhelmingly to receive the committee report. The action came during the BWA's annual General Council meeting July 9-13 in Seville.
___BWA is an international umbrella organization of Baptists that represents more than 200 Baptist unions and conventions of 44.5 million baptized believers in 193,000 Baptist churches. The SBC, one of BWA's founding members, is the group's largest member body. It also funds approximately 20 percent of BWA's $2.1 million annual budget.
___The CBF was established in 1991 by Southern Baptist moderates in response to fundamentalist control of the SBC.
___The CBF-SBC debate overshadowed other actions at the five-day BWA meeting, including resolutions addressing such issues as terrorism, violence in the Middle East and evangelism. BWA President Billy Kim of Korea, completing the second year of his five-year term, even offered to resign if he could not help resolve the Southern Baptist stalemate in the coming year.
___CBF officials first applied for BWA membership a year ago. The membership committee deferred action on the request at that time. CBF leaders reapplied this year with additional supporting documentation, gaining a favorable hearing from the 20-member committee.
___The committee asked for further evidence of CBF's separate identity "given the overlapping constituencies between their fellowship and that of the SBC." The committee also expressed concern about "the public nature of the deep differences which still mark the relationship between the CBF and the SBC."
___The committee added, however, that it believes the CBF's application can be recommended to the General Council next year if the CBF will "affirm publicly ... that they have separated themselves from the structures and organization of the SBC and have a distinctly diverse understanding to the SBC of what it means to be an organized body of Baptist churches and individuals in covenant relationship."
___The committee also called on Kim and BWA General Secretary Denton Lotz "to work with others toward enabling better understanding and respect between the CBF and the SBC."
___CBF Coordinator Daniel Vestal expressed appreciation for the committee's consideration of CBF's application. "We want to pledge to you our willingness to cooperate in all ways to fulfill the requests of the committee," he said.
___However, Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, expressed criticism of the committee's decision and opposition to CBF gaining membership. Chapman said in an interview that his concerns include the committee's view of CBF's organizational status.
___"I differed with the statement by the committee that the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship had already with great clarity expressed its separation from the Southern Baptist Convention," he said. "That just has not happened."
___In a statement issued to Baptist Press, Chapman labeled the committee's decision a "swift and needless action." He said the SBC's "valued relationship" with the BWA "may have been damaged beyond repair."
___The SBC "historically has existed alongside Baptists who have differences, but this is totally different," Chapman emphasized. "It does not seem like there is a closing of a gap but a widening" between the SBC and CBF.
___Despite Chapman's concerns, Vestal expressed hope for a positive outcome. "I would hope that the SBC would accept us as brothers and sisters in Christ," he said. "We accept them as brothers and sisters in Christ and desire fellowship, partnership and serving God together in the Baptist World Alliance."
___Citing the committee's criteria for membership, Vestal said, "They've asked us to declare ourselves as a Baptist body that is not an integral part of the Southern Baptist Convention. That's not a problem because we're not and we feel like we haven't been since the beginning."
___While the CBF Coordinating Council, the group's governing body, will need to take formal action on the issue, Vestal added, "I'm comfortable that the Coordinating Council will draft a document that will satisfy the requests of the membership committee."
___Membership committee Chairman Ian Hawley of Australia said the committee is "desperate to see brothers in Christ able to coexist with one another."
___"If we are brothers and sisters in Jesus, we ought to be able to accept one another and accept differences," he said. "We're not asking for reconciliation but for respect and understanding and agreeing to disagree on some of the big issues."

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