Will SBC drop BWA membership in wake of vote to admit CBF?_72803

Will SBC drop BWA membership
in wake of vote to admit CBF?

By Trennis Henderson

Kentucky Western Recorder

RIO DE JANEIRO, Brazil (ABP)–The Southern Baptist Convention is a founding member of the Baptist World Alliance, a global Baptist organization established in 1905. With this summer’s vote to grant BWA membership to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, however, the SBC’s future involvement in the BWA is in doubt.

Paul Pressler and Paige Patterson, the chief strategists in the SBC’s fundamentalist shift since 1979, were among SBC representatives at the BWA General Council meeting in Rio de Janeiro.

During debate on CBF’s membership, Pressler accused CBF leaders of repeated statements critical of the SBC. "That is not the rhetoric that promotes harmony and promotes peace," he declared.

"If you want them and their theology, that’s your decision," Pressler told General Council members, "but it is not our decision to accept them."

In an interview moments after the 75-28 vote to accept CBF as BWA’s newest member body, Pressler described CBF as "a small, dissident, liberal group."

Patterson, a former SBC president and newly elected president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, said after the vote, "If I had to make a guess, I would say that what probably happened today is they probably accepted 150 (CBF-affiliated) churches in order to bid goodbye to 42,000 (SBC churches). I would be surprised if that’s not the eventual result."

The CBF reports contributions from about 1,700 churches, most of which also support the SBC. About 150 churches affiliate with the CBF alone.

"The BWA has been drifting left now for 20 years," Patterson claimed, adding, "What you have here is a huge affirmation of their intention to continue in that direction."

"The BWA has a right to accept as a member whomever it wishes," he noted. "I affirm their right to do so. But I also say as the leftward drift goes on, Southern Baptists are going to find the compromise involved to be too much."

Those views stand in sharp contrast to perspectives voiced by CBF and BWA leaders.

"My sincere hope is that the SBC will not leave the BWA," said Daniel Vestal, coordinator of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. "CBF desires very much to work alongside the SBC in BWA as well as other Baptist bodies."

The relationship between the SBC and BWA is "much more complex than just saying CBF being admitted to membership will cause them to leave," Vestal said. "I think that would be too simplistic. If the SBC leaves BWA, I don’t see it as our fault. … Baptists have had disagreements about a lot of things in the past and still worked together."

Denton Lotz, BWA general secretary, said BWA leaders "regret any separation in the body and pray for unity."

"We continue to want to engage our Southern Baptist brothers and sisters in the world body which they were instrumental in forming," he added. "I believe we will continue to have a good relationship with millions of Southern Baptists in the U.S.A. and their mission around the world."