
                         Roanoke Times
                 Copyright (c) 1995, Landmark Communications, Inc.

DATE: SUNDAY, July 15, 1990                   TAG: 9007150076
SECTION: VIRGINIA                    PAGE: E12   EDITION: METRO 
SOURCE: Associated Press
DATELINE: FORT WORTH, TEXAS                                LENGTH: Short

BAPTIST MODERATES DISCUSS REROUTING FUNDS

Baptist moderates, incensed by what they call fundamentalist dominance in the Southern Baptist Convention, say they'll use financial clout to gain stature in the nation's largest Protestant group.

About 30 Baptist moderates from 27 states announced Friday during a meeting at a Dallas-Fort Worth Airport hotel that they will hold a national meeting Aug. 23-25 in Atlanta. There, they plan to formulate ways of rerouting funds away from causes too heavily dominated by fundamentalists, said the Rev. Jimmy Allen of Fort Worth, chairman of a group called Baptists Committed to the Southern Baptist Convention.

"The meeting will include a broad spectrum of Baptist Christians who have been frustrated and shut out of the system for some time," Allen said. "Where we will go from there will depend on what happens at the meeting."

Moderate and fundamentalist factions have battled for more than a decade over control of the denomination.

Both factions say the Bible is the true word of God. But fundamentalists insist that Baptist employees support biblical inerrancy, a belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible, the Fort Worth Star-Telegram reported.

The national gathering of moderates was first suggested after fundamentalists decisively won the Baptist presidency for the 12th year in a row during last month's Southern Baptists Convention in New Orleans.

Moderates concede that fundamentalists have full political control of the seminaries, mission boards and other agencies of Southern Baptists. Now moderates say they must fight with their money rather than with votes.

by CNB