ROANOKE TIMES
Copyright (c) 1996, Roanoke Times
DATE: Monday, September 16, 1996 TAG: 9609160034
SECTION: VIRGINIA PAGE: C-1 EDITION: METRO
SOURCE: CODY LOWE STAFF WRITER
The sometimes confusing world of Southern Baptist politics is likely to become a bit more complicated today.
The leadership of a relatively new association of conservative Southern Baptists in Virginia expects to write a new chapter in the denomination's history when it votes on whether to declare itself a new state convention affiliated with the Southern Baptist Convention.
If a motion to that effect passes at the group's annual meeting in Richmond, it would be the first time two organizations have attempted to represent Southern Baptists in the same geographic region.
Baptists in general, and Southern Baptists in particular, operate on a model of strict autonomy of association.
That is, individual Southern Baptist congregations are completely independent of any outside control. They can ordain, hire and fire whomever they please as pastor. They set their own standards for membership. Generally, the entire congregation of baptized members acts as an administrative arm, approving everything from the annual budget to ministerial appointments to the color of curtains in the fellowship hall.
Congregations may voluntarily associate with others, joining forces to fund and operate missionary projects.
There are small geographical units usually called associations that may include churches in one or more counties and cities. Then there are state associations or conventions. And, finally, there is the Southern Baptist Convention, which includes congregations from around the country.
Each of those bodies, like the local churches, are independent and controlled only by their own members, never by a "higher" or larger body.
Virginia's Southern Baptists have been represented for two centuries by the Baptist General Association of Virginia and its predecessor organizations.
Disagreements in recent years - focusing primarily on the nature and authority of the Bible - have split Southern Baptists across the state and nation into two camps, generally labeled moderate and conservative.
At the national level, conservatives are firmly in control of denominational agencies and institutions, such as its six seminaries. In Virginia, however, moderates have maintained power over the state association, which has lent its support to some non-Southern Baptist institutions, such as the Baptist Theological Seminary in Richmond.
Southern Baptist conservatives in Virginia say they have effectively been locked out of the decision-making processes in the Baptist General Association.
In 1993, conservative pastors and lay members first formally met to form a fellowship of like-minded Southern Baptists in the state.
The group includes about 120 participating congregations and a proposed annual budget for next year of almost three-quarters of a million dollars.
The conservatives' organization continues to be dwarfed by the Baptist General Association of Virginia, however, which includes 1,500 churches and an annual budget of more than $15 million.
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