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Sunday, Dec. 20, 1998

Harmony prevails among local Baptists

State groups split over issue of biblical fallibility

By RON GEORGE
Staff Writer

   Corpus Christi Baptists say controversy at the state level of their denomination will have little effect on local congregations.
   Harmony will prevail, local Baptists say, despite formation of a new state convention, founders of which claim that the established Baptist General Convention of Texas is not sufficiently conservative.
   Two of Corpus Christi's larger Baptist congregations are on opposite sides of the statewide controversy.
   First Baptist Church remains loyal to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, while Gardendale Baptist Church has begun supporting the new convention, Southern Baptists of Texas.
   "We believe in the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible," said the Rev. Ronnie Yarber of Dallas, former senior pastor of Meadowcreek Baptist Church and acting administrative director of Southern Baptists of Texas.
   Those who believe in the infallibility and inerrancy of the Bible believe it is literally true and without error, Yarber explained.
   "We're saying to the churches, `We have created an alternative that has the inerrancy of the Bible as its guide and evangelism as its purpose," Yarber said.
   The leadership of the Baptist General Convention of Texas has strayed from such strict interpretation of scripture as a guide for Christian faith and practice, Yarber said.
   "They say the Bible is authoritative, but that it's not necessarily (without error)."
   

Little difference in distinction

   Roger Hall, chief financial officer for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, said Yarber's distinction makes no difference.
   "The people with whom I have conversations, who have leadership roles in our convention, definitely believe the Bible and see it as the sole authority for faith and practice," Hall said. "I don't see how that represents a lesser commitment to scripture."
   Such is the debate that has raged through the national Southern Baptist Convention for two decades, said Curtis Freeman, an associate professor at Houston Baptist University and author of "Baptist Roots: A Reader in the Theology of a Christian People," to be published in the spring.
   Well-organized fundamentalists took over the Southern Baptist Convention by consistently winning its powerful presidency, which controls appointments to convention boards and agencies.
   Similar efforts at the state level have been less successful, which has created tension between the fundamentalist Southern Baptist Convention and moderate Baptist General Convention of Texas.
   

Rightward direction

   The Rev. Hulitt Gloer, pastor of First Baptist Church in Corpus Christi, said the new state convention was formed because fundamentalists have not been able to take over Texas' state convention.
   "It's not just about the Bible. I don't know anybody who believes the Bible more than I do," Gloer said. "In one sense, it is offensive to me for them to claim that they believe the Bible more than I believe the Bible."
   Controversy at the state level, he said, is over politics.
   "I think there are control issues with regard to agencies and institutions that are part of the whole complexity of things," Gloer said. "They felt that they needed to establish their own body to continue to move in a rightward direction."
   The Rev. Steve Bain, pastor of Gardendale, said the new convention was formed because the established group was drifting away from the Southern Baptist Convention.
   "We didn't leave the (state) convention. The convention left us," Bain said. "We didn't begin this new convention with a spirit of antagonism, resentfulness or anger."
   Bain said that in recent years the Baptist General Convention of Texas has taken steps that may lead to its severing connections with the Southern Baptist Convention.
   

Change of leadership

   The established state convention, he said, also alienated fundamentalists by being slow to take a stand against an Austin congregation that named an openly gay man to its board of deacons.
   When the convention finally did act, Bain said, "it was more like a slap on the wrist."
   Last year, he said, the convention adopted a report calling for the training of missionaries and development of Sunday School materials by state agencies not aligned with the Southern Baptist Convention.
   "We pray for people of the Baptist General Convention of Texas," Bain said. "We love them. We pray that one day they will have change of heart -- and a change of leadership."
   The Rev. Doug Jackson, pastor of Second Baptist Church, doesn't see it that way.
   "I would have to see a lack or a failure of the Baptist General Convention of Texas, a change in theology, or a failure of institutions, and I don't see that," Jackson said. "We've had no motivation to make a change."
   

Local discord

   Disagreement over state politics, however, doesn't make for discord locally, Jackson said.
   "Where people know one another, there's less confusion. A neighboring pastor is not going to think I'm a theological liberal if he ever sat down and talked with me," Jackson said.
   "At the local level, we cooperate through the Corpus Christi Baptist Association," Jackson said. "It is a free-standing association, and to my knowledge none of our churches on either side of the question statewide has any dissatisfaction with the association."
   The Rev. Harvey Kniesel, the association's Director of Missions, was out of the country and unavailable for comment.
   Baptist state politics will have even less impact among church members, said Herb Fondren, former chairman of Gardendale's board of deacons.
   "To the average person in the pew, it will make no difference whatsoever to them," Fondren said of his own congregation.
   "We have always been a very conservative church, interested in reaching the lost in our community. I don't see that there will be any change in our mission and ministry.
   "I have friends in many of the churches in the city, several of whom I know will remain with (the Baptist General Convention of Texas). We differ in this area, but our mission is still the same -- trying to reach the city for Christ."
   First Baptist Church has members across the spectrum of Southern Baptist life, fundamentalist to moderate, said Dr. Robert Mastin, a member since 1971.
   "But I think we're a loving congregation, and that's the main thing," he said. "Preaching the gospel and growing in our walk with Christ and bringing the gospel to ones who aren't saved -- I think that's the idea the fundamentalists have, and that's what we're looking for."
   Staff writer Ron George can be reached at 886-3758, or by e-mail at georger@scripps.com
   

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