We’re told history repeats itself. We’re also told those who don’t know their history are doomed to repeat it.
Could the Southern Baptist Convention avoid further attrition if it studies its history ahead of the 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim, Calif., June 12-15? Maybe, but it doesn’t seem likely.
Let’s consider the history anyway.
Cooperative Baptist Fellowship
In response to the campaign waged by Southern Baptist fundamentalists during the 1970s and ’80s to gain control of SBC seminary and agency boards, “a group of moderate laymen” met in Dallas in 1988 to form Baptists Committed to the SBC.
Jesse Fletcher, in The Southern Baptist Convention: A Sesquicentennial History, stated: “Their goal was singular: to make a concerted effort to defeat candidates of the fundamentalists.”
After more than a decade of moderates and fundamentalists vying for leadership—some will say control—of the SBC and within two years of the formation of Baptists Committed, the moderates suffered a decisive defeat during the 1990 SBC annual meeting when their presidential candidate Daniel Vestal lost to Morris Chapman.
Two months later, as Pam Durso relates in A Short History of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship Movement, “Vestal called for a meeting of moderate Baptists.” The turnout greatly exceeded expectations, and with “more than 6,000 moderate Baptists representing 1,556 churches in 39 states,” the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship was formed in May 1991.
Messengers to the 1994 SBC annual meeting voted to cease receiving funds through the CBF, effectively separating the CBF from the SBC.
Conservative Baptist Network
Fast forward to 2020.
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In response to concerns about “social justice, Critical Race Theory, Intersectionality, and the redefining of biblical gender roles,” the Conservative Baptist Network launched Feb. 14, 2020.
The Conservative Baptist Network states on its webpage asking Southern Baptists if they will attend the 2022 SBC annual meeting in Anaheim: “The SBC is drifting in a liberal direction. Critical Race Theory has crept into our seminaries, women preaching is becoming more accepted, some have begun to soften on LGBTQ issues, and plummeting baptism numbers reveal that the Great Commission is no longer the central focus of our denomination.”
The proposed solution is “to turn the SBC back to the Bible,” and to accomplish that in part by attending the 2022 annual meeting and voting for candidates, motions and resolutions backed by the Conservative Baptist Network.
The Conservative Baptist Network believes the United States follows the SBC, seeing the SBC as “one of the few remaining roadblocks keeping liberalism from overtaking the United States.”
2021 SBC annual meeting
Twenty years after CBF formed within the SBC after moderates lost that decisive presidential bid, the Conservative Baptist Network backed a presidential candidate—Mike Stone. Stone is a former chair of the SBC Executive Committee, senior pastor of Emmanuel Baptist Church in Blackshear, Ga., and a member of the CBN steering committee.
The 2021 SBC presidential election was close. As I wrote then: “In the first vote … 14,300 (messengers) cast ballots. … Stone received 5,216 votes” to Ed Litton’s 4,630, precipitating a runoff. In the second round, “13,131 (messengers) cast ballots. … Stone received 6,278” votes to Litton’s 6,834.
Litton, the more moderate of the two candidates and the one favored by those hoping to smooth racial tension in the SBC, won narrowly, but only after receiving fewer votes in the first round.
From the numbers, it appears the Conservative Baptist Network’s and Stone’s supporters did not plan for a runoff or for enough of Mohler’s support to move to Litton for Stone to be defeated in a runoff. I do not expect the Conservative Baptist Network to make the same mistake twice.
Repeating history
In a statement released March 22, a group of Southern Baptist leaders—Mike Stone among them—announced their intent to nominate Tom Ascol for SBC president during the 2022 SBC annual meeting.
Ascol is pastor of Grace Baptist Church in Cape Coral, Fla., and president of Founders Ministries, which holds to the 1689 Second London Baptist Confession of Faith written by Particular—or Calvinist—Baptists. Over the last few years, he has skillfully used social media and video platforms to build a wide audience.
Robin Hadaway also will be nominated for SBC president, as announced March 23.
Willy Rice, a former candidate for SBC president, withdrew his nomination April 6.
The next day, Bart Barber was announced as another candidate for SBC president. Whether Hadaway’s or Barber’s candidacies are in response to the Conservative Baptist Network’s efforts, I do not know, but Barber’s announcement did follow Rice’s withdrawal, suggesting an effort to keep a strong candidate in the running to counterbalance Ascol.
Downsizing
I see similarities between the formation of CBF, and its separation from the SBC, and what is shaping up with the Conservative Baptist Network and the SBC now. The parallels aren’t exactly parallel. They rarely are, but they’re close.
Just as CBF included numerous prominent Southern Baptists in its early days, so does the Conservative Baptist Network. Like CBF, the Conservative Baptist Network includes churches throughout the United States. Also, like CBF early on, the Conservative Baptist Network does not currently identify itself as a new denomination.
Despite CBF hoping to hold the SBC together, it now exists outside the SBC, along with more than 1,500 former SBC churches. I see the same scenario ahead with respect to the Conservative Baptist Network, which also hopes to save the SBC. Already, churches have left the SBC over concerns with CBN.
In response to allegations of critical race theory in SBC seminaries, the six seminary presidents issued a statement Dec. 2, 2020, condemning racism and also declaring “affirmation of critical race theory, intersectionality and any version of critical theory is incompatible with the Baptist Faith & Message.” A number of African American churches left the SBC as a result of that statement.
Should Ascol be elected president of the SBC, there’s no reason to believe more African American churches will not leave the SBC. And they likely will not be alone. Other SBC churches uncomfortable with the Conservative Baptist Network will look for connections outside the SBC. What the numbers and timeframe will be is unknown.
Should Ascol not be elected, history may repeat itself, but on the other end of the theological and political spectrum from CBF. The Conservative Baptist Network may see its hope for the SBC thwarted and, should it lose enough elections, may separate as CBF did 20 years ago—taking all their supporting churches out of the SBC. The Conservative Baptist Network already has its own mission, network of churches, leadership structure, events, press and giving channel.
History is shaping up for a repeat. With principled positions so firmly in place, it seems the SBC will need miraculous intervention to keep it from downsizing again.
Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at [email protected] or on Twitter at @EricBlackBSP. The views expressed are those solely of the author.
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