ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160033
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
MEMO: ***CORRECTION***
Published correction ran on September 17, 1996.
A story in Monday's newspaper incorrectly listed a denominational
office held by the Rev. Michael Palmer of Green Ridge Baptist Church. He
is on the executive committee of the Southern Baptist Conservatives of
Virginia.
THERE IS ``NO GUARANTEE'' that a motion to form a new state association will pass, however.
For the first time, the two-decade battle for the soul of the Southern Baptist Convention appears likely to formally split a state association of affiliated churches.
At its annual meeting in Richmond today, members of an organization called Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia are considered likely to vote to break with the 173-year-old Baptist General Association of Virginia.
There is "no guarantee" that a motion to form a new state association will pass, said T.C. Pinckney, an Alexandria layman who has spearheaded conservative organizational efforts in the state for years.
"Any time you get two Baptists together, you will get a minimum of three opinions," Pinckney joked.
But he and other leaders of the conservative faction consider it "likely" that the measure will pass, giving Southern Baptist churches in the state a choice between two theologically distinct state associations.
Such a decision would add an unprecedented wrinkle to the relationships between Southern Baptist churches.
And no one is quite sure just what it is likely to mean.
A spokesman for the Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention in Nashville, Tenn., released a statement saying only that its legal counsel "advises us that the Southern Baptist Convention relates to local churches through the messengers [voting representatives] of those churches" attending the denomination's annual meeting.
"Our responsibility is to receive and distribute contributions from those churches as they give them for missions and evangelism. We are committed to faithfully carrying out that responsibility," the statement said.
The spokesman, who would be quoted only on condition of anonymity, would clarify that only to say that the statement described a "fairly well-defined relationship," which is "not to state conventions, but to local churches through the messengers."
Executive Committee President Morris Chapman was unavailable to comment on the development.
"To everybody's surprise, including my own," Pinckney said, the convention lawyers "found nothing in the SBC constitution or by-laws that would preclude having two conventions" in the same state or geographic area.
While not questioning that, Reginald M. McDonough, executive director of the Baptist General Association of Virginia, said, "I am hopeful the group will decide they can remain an organization that is involved together in a number of things that they find fulfilling to them, but not find that they have to form a separate state convention."
McDonough, acknowledging that "there are considerable political differences among Baptists in the state," said he still worries that a second association will "cause confusion and pain" in many congregations.
"In the long run, I think it hurts the Southern Baptist Convention because if it happens here, it's likely to happen in other states - both by conservatives who feel disenfranchised [at the state level] and by moderates who feel disenfranchised."
Despite "a diversity of conviction and opinion," McDonough said, " I think to splinter dilutes our ability to fulfill our mission, and our work for the kingdom of God suffers."
The Rev. Michael Palmer of Green Ridge Baptist Church in Roanoke, on the other hand, believes that the types of mission work he and his congregation support will be enhanced with the creation of a new state association.
"I feel like the Baptist State Association of Virginia has withdrawn its full-hearted support of Southern Baptist missions," said Palmer, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention's executive committee.
Churches still may designate how they want the Virginia association to pass on each dollar they give, but in recent years the overall state spending plan has reduced funding to some Southern Baptist agencies and institutions. At the same time, the state association increased funding to some agencies not funded by the Southern Baptist Convention.
Conservatives in Virginia have complained that the state association made it difficult for them to avoid giving to Virginia Baptist causes with which they had theological or philosophical differences.
And they say that recent rules changes in the Baptist General Association - which base voting privileges on financial contributions to state causes rather than state and national causes - effectively prevent them from ever having a voice in that body.
While it is hard to make this change, Pinckney and others believe churches dissatisfied with the Baptist General Association are ready to go their own way.
Many, such as Palmer's church, are likely to affiliate with both state groups "for the foreseeable short-term future. As long as we benefit from or utilize any program from the [Baptist General Association] we'll continue to belong and be responsible stewards," Palmer said.
Kirk Lashley, executive director of the 70-church Roanoke Valley Baptist Association, anticipates that, at best, the creation of a new state association is "going to create some confusion," but that "locally we could continue to cooperate in ways that we have for 175 years. That is possible."
But, even if congregations and individuals "have to make choices" regarding affiliation or loyalties to one group or the other, Lashley said, "that may be good in the long run. Maybe they'll be better satisfied with where their mission money is going and be less likely to keep it at home.
"People who are able to make choices generally are happier than those who feel they can't."
LENGTH: Long : 106 linesby CNB