Proof? Look at twisted words, trampled reputations
By Beth Pratt,
writer, Lubbock Avalanche-Journal

No one was more surprised than I to find my young pastor's remarks the focus of attention in June at the Southern Baptist Convention, which met in Orlando.

The Rev. Anthony Sisemore spoke against one of the changes in a statement of faith called The Baptist Faith & Message.

A member of the group that rewrote the document jumped on Sisemore's comments with a vengeance, taking one remark totally out of context as "proof" that those who oppose the changes do not believe the Bible.

It is proof, all right.

At least it was for the nine other folks who attended from the Floydada church, a small-town congregation struggling with the details of rebuilding after a massive fire.

The proof these church members found was in how today's fundamentalist Southern Baptist leaders twist words and trample reputations, a 20-year strategy that brought them into total control of the convention 10 years ago.

It was not the disagreement over the language in the document that rankled the Floydada group. It was the attitude they encountered from the platform and from those around them who actually jeered Sisemore's legitimate concerns.

Reluctant until then Ñ and rightly so Ñ to believe that the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention would engage in such cynical and perverse behavior, these folks had their eyes opened. They came home with heavy hearts.

They are grieved because they have been invested in the world-wide mission programs funded by the denomination's Cooperative Program. Trust is the basis of that cooperative effort. They saw their trust badly abused, their pastor attacked and a prevailing attitude of arrogance displayed.

One couple, about as conservative in the true sense of conservatism as anyone you will ever meet, have a daughter and son-in-law preparing for the mission field. They are stunned at the cavalier way that doctrinal changes were made in the Baptist Faith & Message document.

Churches cannot be coerced to adopt this revised document. But what about their son-in-law?

Will he be forced to sign that document as a condition of employment with the denomination's mission-sending agency?

Yes he will.

In Southern Baptist circles, church contributions and church associations with other groups are entirely voluntary, the decision of the local church. I don't see that changing. Churches will do what they will do, mine included. So will individual members.

Some will channel their offerings through the state to groups other than the SBC, as they are allowed to do by the Baptist General Convention of Texas, conduit for the portion of Cooperative Program funds that go to the SBC.

Others will continue to send their contributions through standard denominational channels.

Messengers from local churches, voting on the state budget, tell the Baptist General Convention of Texas what percentage of Cooperative Program contributions is sent on to the national convention. Whether that will change remains to be seen. The BGCT meets this year in late October at Corpus Christi.

 Sisemore's remark, "... the Bible is still just a book," has been touted as an example of so-called moderates' disregard for the Bible. Nonsense. It was lifted out of the context of preceding remarks that the Bible is a book that we can trust. "The Bible is a book that points toward the Truth ... Jesus Christ redeems us, not a book."

Disagreement is one thing, but deliberately misrepresenting what your opponent has said is a tactic used when your defense is weak. Lying by omission is no less a lie.

Even when it is done on the floor of the convention by a seminary president who isolates a single phrase, giving it his own sinister spin. The shame is that the majority bought into it.

But then, this kind of "us vs. them" political spin-doctoring has gone on so long in the Southern Baptist Convention that many of the younger preachers don't know anything else.

That is what happens when you follow a political model to gain power. Sisemore, who has no ties to any of the "moderate" groups, has no ambition to be in the spotlight, whether on a convention floor or as a member of the elite "super-church" pastors controlling the convention. He had told his congregation before the convention that he had no right to complain if he did not attend to make his concerns known.

The concern was a shift in the revised document that he believes elevates the Bible to an object of worship. Yes, the fundamentalists have won the "battle for the Bible."

September 2000