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04090
February 19, 2004
Baptist leaders, criticizing theology, vote
to leave world alliance
99-year relationship coming to an end
by Adelle M. Banks
Religion News Service |
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WASHINGTON — The Executive
Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention voted overwhelmingly
Feb. 17 to recommend that the denomination withdraw its membership
and funding from the Baptist World Alliance.
A report from a study committee said the time has come “to
politely withdraw from an organization that, at least for us, no
longer efficiently communicates to the unsaved a crystal clear gospel
message that our Lord Jesus Christ is solely sufficient for salvation.”
The Rev. Denton Lotz, general secretary of the Falls Church, VA-based
alliance, said the 62-10 vote saddened his organization and the
description of its biblical stance was “a misrepresentation
of the truth.”
The Executive Committee’s recommendation will be considered
at the annual meeting of the denomination in June. If approved,
an official 99-year-old relationship between the two Baptist bodies
would come to an end Oct. 1.
“It’s a schism
and a schism against love,” said Lotz.
The move would unlock the longtime link between the nation’s
largest Protestant denomination and 210 other Baptist conventions
across the globe.
Last June, Southern Baptists voted to reduce annual funding of the
alliance from $425,000 to $300,000. Lotz said “thousands of
individuals and churches are already making up the difference.”
His organization, with a $1.6 million budget, has cut expenses but
he remains confident about its future.
“It’s
not a monetary question,” Lotz said. “It’s a question
of fellowship around the world.”
In a statement, Bill Merrell, the committee’s vice president
for convention relations, acknowledged the instrumental role the
denomination had in the formation of the alliance.
“However,
in recent years, it has become evident that key leaders and influences
within the BWA differ in essential areas that we can no longer ignore,”
he said.
The committee action was taken after a report in December made similar
recommendations. That report cited the alliance’s “leftward
drift” and said its participants “openly oppose many
of our most cherished beliefs.”
Lotz said the latest language approved by the committee’s
vote was “shocking” and an insult to his association,
which he said affirms a “classic definition of orthodoxy,”
from the Incarnation to the Second Coming of Jesus.
Some Southern Baptist leaders objected when the alliance accepted
the moderate Cooperative Baptist Fellowship as a member last year,
but the study committee’s report said that was not the sole
cause for the recommended departure.
“One soaked
by a rain need not blame the last raindrop,” the report reads.
The Tuesday vote included an additional request that the study committee
meet with alliance representatives before May.
“They
don’t anticipate a change but they do want to have an opportunity
to meet with the BWA leaders one more time before the convention,”
said John Revell, a spokesman for the Executive Committee.
Lotz said BWA officials proposed a “reconciliation meeting”
in a January letter.
“We want to be reconciled,”
he said. “We don’t want them to leave.”
While the vote had been expected, objecting arguments were heard
before and during the Executive Committee meeting. U.S. congregations
and Baptist bodies overseas had sent pleas to the committee to work
out its differences with the alliance.
Dr. Bob Casey, a retired physician from Gainesville, FL, spent the
week before the meeting fasting and doing a “prayer walk”
around the offices of the Executive Committee in Nashville. He delivered
an opposing resolution from his church, which permits its members
to support mission causes of either the Southern Baptist Convention
or the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
During the meeting, representatives of the Woman’s Missionary
Union, a denominational auxiliary, and a committee member from Pennsylvania
voiced views against the recommendation.
The Baptist Convention of Pennsylvania/South Jersey wrote in a resolution
that it urged Baptists worldwide “to pray fervently for God
to ... bring reconciliation between the BWA and the SBC for a unified
witness to a world in need of Christ.”
The approved recommendation calls for the funds currently sent to
the alliance to be used to enhance relationships with “conservative
evangelical Christians” across the globe.
“If
we can multiply the harvest by reapplying the funding, there is
no true Christian who should take issue,” the report concluded.
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