Currie says he, too, hopes Mainstream won't have a future

April 14, 2003

Currie says he, too, hopes Mainstream won't have a future
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___SAN ANGELO--David Currie says he agrees with Daniel Vestal that there's no future for the Mainstream Baptists Network.
___Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, recently told a North Carolina audience he doesn't see a future for the Mainstream movement because "people are tired of fighting fundamentalists."
___Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed and a leader in the Mainstream movement, issued a response noting his agreement with Vestal's assessment but at the same time defending the work done by Texas Baptists Committed and the various Mainstream organizations.
___"There is no long-term future for the Mainstream Baptists Network, and there has never been any plan for a long-term future organizationally," Currie said. "I do hope and pray the biblical and Baptist principles we are working to preserve will last forever."
___The purpose of the Mainstream Baptists Network is "to provide a forum for the individual state organizations to share information with each other," not to create an institution, Currie said.
___A national Mainstream newsletter serves to educate people about "historic Baptist principles and the truth about what is happening in Baptist life," he added. "This is very important because no one else does this."
___The work of the Mainstream movement will be done when fundamentalism no longer threatens state Baptist conventions, Currie said.
___He cited South Carolina, Oklahoma, Arkansas, Missouri, Georgia and Florida as places where fundamentalists have "taken over" state conventions. "In these states, the role of the Mainstream organization is to tell the truth about the SBC (and sometimes their state convention), and encourage individual Baptist people and individual churches to stay true to Baptist principles.
___"This is an important role," he added, "because in all of these states, the local Baptist paper is either controlled by the fundamentalists or is not allowed to report on Mainstream or CBF work."
___He listed six other state conventions where "leadership is still riding the fence," causing Mainstream groups to play a more political role. These states are North Carolina, Alabama, Tennessee, Kentucky, Mississippi and Louisiana.
___State Mainstream organizations "are the only groups that stand up to the fundamentalist misrepresentations," he said, citing the publications and speeches of Missouri layman Roger Moran as a primary source of misrepresentation.
___"Well-meaning state convention leaders in several states say nothing because they are hoping against hope that they can keep everyone working together," he said. "CBF leaders nationally and in each state mostly say nothing because they have chosen to focus on their ministries. I do not fault them for this. But someone or some group has to keep telling the truth and this task, given to us by God, has fallen to the Mainstream organizations."

Get printer-friendly version of this story

Send this story to a friend

News of religion, faith, missions, Bible study and Christian ministry among Texas Baptist churches, in the BGCT, the Southern Baptist Convention ( SBC ) and around the world.
Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!/ Signup for FirstLook