Critics Denounce ‘Denominational Dictatorship’ : Conservatives Maintain Power at Southern Baptist Convention

A fundamentalist pastor was elected president of the Southern Baptists by only a 2% margin this week, but that narrow victory did not seem to slow the 10-year, ever-more-conservative trend of the large denomination.

Only a day after the election of the Rev. Jerry Vines of Jacksonville, Fla., a resolution was passed to redefine a cherished Baptist doctrine by promoting the increased authority of pastors and restricting church members’ rights in interpreting Scripture.

That hallmark doctrine--called the “priesthood of the believers”--has stood as a hub of the 16th-Century Protestant Reformation. The modified interpretation espoused here was denounced by critics as reflecting a new clerical authoritarianism.

Two-Thirds Majority

After it was adopted by about a two-thirds majority of the 30,000 convention delegates, or messengers as they are called, about 200 people turned in their ballots and marched to the Alamo in protest. In the street in front of the Alamo, the protesters wrote the word heresy on their copies of the resolution, then tore them up.

The Rev. Buckner Fanning of Trinity Baptist Church in San Antonio, who did not participate in the protest, said the resolution was born of “denominational dictatorship” and is “poles apart to what Baptists have said historically.”

The action “repudiates the heritage of Baptists,” said the Rev. Randall Lolley, pressured out of the presidency of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary along with four academic colleagues by new rules imposed by fundamentalist trustees.

Resolutions adopted at Southern Baptist meetings are supposed to be non-binding on local congregations. The convention lacks a mechanism to enforce its resolutions, which are supposed to be only the opinions of each annual meeting.

“They can pass these things all day long, but it’s not going to change me or my church,” Fanning said.

However, the Rev. Lee Berg, a pastor from Houston, said the resolution troubles him because the fundamentalists have acted as if resolutions are binding since they began their campaign in 1979 to dominate the 14.7-million-member denomination, the largest among U.S. Protestant bodies.

Moderate efforts on the floor to amend the resolution failed. The resolution affirms the priesthood of believers but contains three paragraphs of limitations:

* One says the doctrine does not give “license to misinterpret, explain away, demythologize, or extrapolate out elements of the supernatural from the Bible.”

* The second paragraph says the doctrine does not contradict “the biblical understanding of the role, responsibility and authority of the pastor, which is seen in the command to the local church in Hebrews 13:17, ‘Obey your leaders, and submit to them; for they keep watch over your souls, as those who will give an account.’ ”

* The third paragraph affirms the truth that elders, or pastors, “are called of God to lead the local church.”

In the resolution, the convention declared that the idea of the equal “priesthood” of believers should not be applied contrary to the “authority of the pastor, which is seen in the command to the local church.”

The concept “has been used to justify wrongly the attitude that a Christian may believe whatever he so chooses and still be considered a loyal Southern Baptist.”

On Tuesday, the factionally divided convention had elected Jerry Vines to succeed the Rev. Adrian Rogers, a three-time Southern Baptist president. Vines took over at the meeting’s close Thursday.

Vines, 50, co-pastor of First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., won 50.53% of the votes cast by 31,291 delegates. The candidate of “moderate” Southern Baptists, the Rev. Richard Jackson, 49, of Phoenix, received 48.32%. Two surprise candidates--one an Alabama evangelist who nominated himself--divided a handful of votes, not enough to change the outcome.

Controversy erupted almost as soon as the convention opened Tuesday morning, with moderates objecting to a proposed 10.79% budget cut for the Baptist Joint Committee on Legislative Affairs while all other denominational agencies received increases. Fundamentalists have long targeted the committee, the Washington lobby for nine Baptist denominations, as too liberal.

Repeated efforts to restore the cuts failed or were ensnared in parliamentary confusion as leaders tried to impose Robert’s Rules of Order on the delegates divided among five separate arenas.

Rogers used his presidential address at the morning session to assail “liberalism” in the denomination, and some delegates interpreted the fiery sermon as electioneering for Vines.

Through presidential appointive powers, the fundamentalist wing has gradually brought the vast network of denominational operations under its control. The coalition has packed institutional boards, setting stricter rules for literal interpretations of the Bible and inaugurating screening processes to assure adherence.

While both moderate and fundamentalist Southern Baptists believe essentially the same things, observers have repeatedly noted, the difference is in style and emphasis--with the fundamentalists taking a harder line on nonconformity.

A regional interfaith director for the Southern Baptist missions board in New Jersey was ousted earlier this year by fundamentalist pressure because he held that God’s covenant with the Jews remains permanent and valid.

A resolution passed overwhelmingly here this week reaffirmed Baptist belief “that those without a personal commitment to Jesus Christ will be consigned to a literal hell, the place of everlasting separation from God.” Since the statement broke no new theological ground, it was seen by some as serving only to underline the determination of church leaders to permit no softening of doctrine.

Meanwhile, the denomination’s “peace committee,” set up to try to settle the prolonged factional conflict, went out of business, lamenting that peace has not been achieved.

“We deplore the divisive political activities and counter-activities by all sides this past year,” said the chairman, the Rev. Charles Fuller of Roanoke, Va.