IMB trustees support Rankin's ultimatum by firing missionaries

May 12, 2003

IMB trustees support Rankin's
ultimatum by firing missionaries
___By Mark Wingfield and Craig Bird
___FFRAMINGHAM, Mass.--Firings and forced resignations, long a part of the conservative takeover at Southern Baptist seminaries and news organizations, made their way to the foreign mission field May 7.
___Trustees of the Southern Baptist Convention's International Mission Board, meeting in Framingham, Mass., terminated 13 missionaries who refused to affirm the SBC's new, more conservative faith statement, the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. This is believed to be the largest group of SBC missionaries ever fired at one time.
___At the May 5-7 meeting, IMB trustees also accepted the resignations of another 20 missionaries and early retirements of 10 missionaries who refused to affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message.
___The 43 miss

The terminations reportedly were carried out without public opposition within the trustee board, according to an IMB spokesman.

ionaries who parted ways with the IMB May 7 joined the ranks of at least 34 others who have resigned or retired rather than sign the document most of them considered to be a non-Baptist creed.
___In addition to these 77 missionaries, others who have resigned or retired within the last year are believed to have done so, at least in part, in protest of the faith statement without explicitly stating that as a reason in their letters of resignation.
___Critics of the revised faith statement question its blanket prohibition against woman pastors, consider it to weaken the traditional Baptist doctrines of the autonomy of the local church and priesthood of the believer and contend it places the Bible in higher esteem than Jesus as a guide to biblical interpretation. But the primary conflict cited by missionaries is a feeling that signing any faith statement amounts to affirming a creed--something historically anathema to Baptists.
___The missionary terminations reportedly were carried out without public opposition within the trustee board, according to an IMB spokesman.
___ Even though IMB trustees accepted the resignations and retirements and approved the firings, the board never officially called for missionaries to sign an affirmation of the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message. The mandate was given by President Jerry Rankin as an administrative action in January 2002.
___Trustees did, however, affirm Rankin's leadership, according to a news release from the IMB.
___"This is not a one-man decision," trustee Chairman Bob Claytor said. "The SBC family has been in strong agreement concerning our statement of faith. Our board reflects that agreement, and 99 percent of our missionaries are also in strong agreement."
___At the May board meeting, Rankin reiterated his position that signing the faith statement was necessary to hold missionaries accountable to the SBC.
___"These missionaries are supported by Southern Baptist churches and should at least be willing to conduct their work in basic agreement with what Southern Baptists confess they believe," Rankin said. "Although we regret that any missionary would choose to resign rather than affirm the faith statement, we feel it is time to move forward and keep our focus on sharing Christ with a lost world."
___ Missionaries who refused to sign the required affirmation uniformly see the situation differently, however. A recurring theme of written statements circulated by some of those missionaries is exemplified in a letter written April 28 by Don and Angie Finley of Brazil.
___After Rankin issued a final "sign or resign" ultimatum to non-signing missionaries in April, the Finleys determined to resign. In a letter explaining their decision to a regional IMB leader, they declared they were "not resigning because we have a problem with grassroots Southern Baptists" or "because we have done anything wrong or have something to hide."
___"When a Baptist missionary sending agency demands doctrinal accountability on the basis of a manmade document rather than on the basis of Scripture, something is wrong," they asserted. "When unnamed critics are taken seriously when they make vague, generalized and unsubstantiated accusations against doctrinally sound and spiritually committed missionaries, … something is wrong. When denominational politics takes precedence over mission priorities, and missionaries themselves are made pawns in a denominational political game, something is wrong."
___News of the IMB trustees' action also drew an expression of sadness from a subcommittee chairman of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Missions Review & Initiatives Committee. Dan Malone, an El Paso attorney, chaired the subcommittee that studied relations with the IMB last year.
___"Of the many disappointments and frustrations since the so-called 'conservative resurgence,' the firing of God-called missionaries is far and away the saddest day of all," Malone said. "I am particularly alarmed that it was President Rankin's request to his IMB trustees to take this action, because he had previously promised that missionaries would never be obligated to sign a doctrinal statement as long as he was president. The pressure placed on him and other IMB leaders must be intense."
___Names of the missionaries who were fired or who resigned or retired May 7 rather than sign the statement were not released by the IMB.
___ Going into the meeting, 31 missionaries faced possible termination. Twenty-five had been given a May 5 "sign or resign" ultimatum. Six were given no option but to resign or be fired.
___Those six--Ron Hankins and Lydia Barrow-Hankins of Japan, Rick and Nancy Dill of Germany and Leon and Kathy Johnson of Mozambique--told reporters prior to the meeting that they would not resign. Each of these couples has more than 20 years service with the IMB.
___The IMB employs about 5,500 missionaries, including career and short-term appointees.
___The revised SBC doctrinal statement was the sole public issue surrounding the May 7 firings. No criticism of the ministries of the dismissed missionaries and no suggestions of immoral or unethical behavior were offered by the IMB.
___Texas trustees of the IMB are David Evans of Amarillo, Kyle Cox of Houston, John Hatch of Lake Jackson, Skeet Workman of Ropesville, A.C. Halsell of Plano, Mike Smith of Jacksonville, Hal Kinkeade of Springtown, Albert Lee Green of Lancaster, Stephen Swofford of Rockwall, George Cook of Pasadena, Bob Pearle of Fort Worth and Bill Sutton of McAllen.

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