Debate Over Control of Baylor University Divides Texas Baptists

As Texas Baptists prepare to vote on the future of Baylor University in Waco, the debate has grown increasingly nasty, with charges of deception and skulduggery being leveled on both sides.

The Baptist General Convention of Texas will hold its annual meeting next weekend on the campus of Baylor, the world’s largest Baptist university. School officials are convinced that fundamentalists are moving to get control.

Fundamentalists in the 15-million-member denomination have long contended that Baylor is a haven of liberals--where about 12,000 students in any given year are subjected to false teachings.

At stake in the Baptist controversy is interpretation of the Bible, with fundamentalists denouncing modern biblical scholarship.

The acrimony in recent weeks has been so public and bitter that Texas Monthly, a secular magazine, published an article on the controversy.

The magazine reported that the Rev. Herbert Reynolds, president of Baylor, had received telephoned death threats, and that the Rev. Winifred Moore, an opponent of fundamentalists, had discovered electronic bugs in his office’s air conditioning ducts.

Baptist Standard, the convention’s weekly newsmagazine, has denounced name-calling. And the Rev. William M. Pinson Jr., executive director of the convention’s executive board, has called for approaching the matter “factually, biblically and prayerfully.”

Threats from fundamentalists to impose controls on schools have become reality at the Southern Baptist Convention’s six seminaries around the United States. Because the Texas state convention has traditionally appointed Baylor trustees, fundamentalists aim to control the convention by ensuring the election of sympathizers to key posts.

Opponents of fundamentalists contend that on June 20, opening day for convention room reservations at Waco hotels, fundamentalists showed up at hotels across town and tied up reservations for nearly half the rooms.

Hoping to forestall a takeover, Baylor officials acted unilaterally last year to amend its charter and appoint a new board. Formerly, 48 trustees had been appointed by the state Baptist nvention. Under the new plan, the convention controls only one-fourth of the board.

In recent weeks, prominent Baptist pastors in the fundamentalist camp have denounced Baylor’s action, sometimes in dramatic ways. For example, the Rev. W.A. Criswell, pastor of First Baptist Church of Dallas, threw his Bible on the floor to demonstrate his view of how Reynolds, Baylor’s president, views the Bible.

The Rev. David Sweet, pastor of Hays Hills Mission in Buda, Tex., wrote that “if the Baylor trustees are scared of Texas Baptists and refuse to take the risks that democracy entails, then they should consider whether they are truly Baptists.”