Fundamental Disagreement

By Richard N. Ostling

Since 1979, fundamentalists have inexorably gained power in the biggest and richest U.S. Protestant denomination, the 15 million-member Southern Baptist Convention. Last year the rightward tilt was affirmed when fundamentalist Morris Chapman of Texas was elected president over Georgia's Daniel Vestal, leader of the moderates. Fundamentalists (who prefer to be called conservatives) have since piled pressure on Baptist seminaries to teach the literal historical accuracy of the Bible. They have also sacked recalcitrant officials like Lloyd Elder, head of the Sunday School Board, the huge denominational publishing house based in Nashville.

This week in Atlanta, Vestal will preside as thousands of dissident Baptists plot resistance to the fundamentalist trend. Chapman, for one, thinks the three-day conclave will launch something akin to a schism. At the same time, the fundamentalist leader is confident that few of the 38,000 S.B.C. congregations will join any eventual breakaway.

In reality, something less than a full-blown schism is ahead. The Atlanta meeting will establish a new Baptist Fellowship as the organizational center for those who oppose fundamentalist-dominated programs. For starters, the fellowship will create an agency that could compete with denominational bodies that sponsor home and foreign missionaries. Other groups in the moderate resistance network are already running a news service and planning Sunday- school materials.

The most crucial battles for control are occurring on campuses where Baptist theology is taught. Last fall Baylor University in Texas and Furman University in South Carolina broke ties with state Baptist associations that formerly elected their boards, thus risking lawsuits and millions of dollars in church support. Reason: the universities fear that fundamentalists will soon launch takeovers at the state level and establish control over their curriculums. Last week Baylor backed off a bit, offering to let the Texas Baptist body elect one-quarter of its board members. In the meantime, Baylor and Wake Forest universities plan new theology schools to compete with the six seminaries now in the grip of fundamentalist boards. Another moderate group, the Southern Baptist Alliance, will open a seminary in Richmond next fall.

A fierce struggle is under way at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. Unhappy moderates dominate the faculty, while fundamentalists run the administration and board. The Association of Theological Schools, which grants accreditation to graduate seminaries, is threatening to put Southeastern on probation unless the two factions show they can work together on faculty hiring and academic policy.

At Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, meanwhile, a moderate administration and faculty have faced off against a conservative board. Under a compromise reached three weeks ago, tenured faculty will keep their jobs, but future teachers will be required to profess that the Bible is "free from all falsehood, fraud or deceit."

What the moderates need most for their resistance effort is money. Vestal's movement has set up a scheme to undercut the $137 million annual headquarters budget and siphon funds into moderate causes. But so far only 140 congregations have responded to the effort; their projected donations of $4 million this year hardly threaten the Baptist money machine. Whatever the long-term threat in Atlanta this week, fundamentalist president Chapman insists, "I feel very optimistic."

With reporting by Don Winbush/Wake Forest