Monday, June 12, 2000
Baptist revisions debated
By Peter Smith
The Courier-Journal
When Southern Baptist church representatives meet for their annual convention today in Orlando, Fla., they're expected to overwhelmingly approve the biggest changes in their statement of belief in nearly 40 years.
While a new sentence opposing the ordination of women has generated some controversy, a large majority of delegates is expected to approve the change, along with language reaffirming the authority of the Bible and condemning abortion, homosexuality and racism.
But one change in the proposed Baptist Faith and Message may face a floor fight, and it involves one of the most distinctive Baptist teachings: that everyone has a right and duty to approach God directly, without need of a priest or organization acting as a go-between.
A conservative viewpoint
The 15-member committee of prominent Southern Baptists that recommended the changes replaced the preamble to the Baptist Faith and Message, passed in 1963, and deleted its affirmation of “the priesthood of the believer” and “the soul's competency before God.”
Committee members, including R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Louisville's Southern Seminary, say those doctrines are stated elsewhere in the Baptist Faith and Message.
Mr. Mohler said the committee wrote its own preamble to respond to modern ideas that religious beliefs and moral values are relative.
“I do not believe the Bap tist concept of soul competency and the priesthood of believers is threatened in this time,” he said, but “the basic truths of the Christian faith” are.
But some moderates were dismayed, saying the revisions weaken their right to oppose the conservative viewpoint that has prevailed in the nation's largest Protestant denomination, with 15.8 million members.
“This proposed new statement goes much farther in the direction of coercion than any of us dreamed it would,” said the Rev. Ron Sisk, pastor of Crescent Hill Baptist Church in Louisville.
The Rev. Mr. Sisk urged his church in a May 28 sermon to consider leaving the Southern Baptist Convention if it approves the revisions to the Baptist Faith and Message in Orlando.
Although the changes are not binding on churches, which govern themselves, “any church that retains the Southern Baptist label will be assumed to agree with these kinds of theological and social positions,” The Rev. Mr. Sisk said.
Neutral views remain
Few, if any, other area churches have publicly considered breaking from the Southern Baptist Convention, and the Kentucky Baptist Convention as a whole has stayed neutral on denominational controversies.
But a leading Baptist official from Texas plans to propose reinstating the 1963 preamble in Orlando.
Charles Wade, executive director of the influential Baptist General Convention of Texas, says the words “soul competency” and “the priesthood of the believer” are essential.
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