The surprise in the Conservative Southern Baptist Convention

The Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) just elected a surprise new President, Rev. Frank Page. He is the candidate not supported by the ultra-conservative and combatative right-wingers who took over the denomination in 1979. I haven't been sure what this really meant, so I haven't written about it yet. But now E. J. Dionne, Jr provides some hints in today's Washington Post.

"In the Southern Baptist election, Page, pastor of First Baptist Church in Taylors, S.C., defeated two candidates more closely associated with the convention's conservative leadership, the Rev. Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark., and the Rev. Jerry Sutton of Nashville. The election was important because the Southern Baptist Convention has been the locus of fierce struggles between moderates and conservatives in which the right emerged triumphant.

In response to the resulting purges and acrimony, moderate and progressive Baptists formed new organizations such as the Nashville-based Baptist Center for Ethics. Robert Parham, the center's executive director, argues that it would be a mistake to read too much into Page's triumph. "This was a race between the right and the far right," Parham said. "One election neither makes a positive trend nor unmakes the essence of fundamentalism." [Snip]

The election, he said, indicates that "the leadership of the denomination that pushed it hard to the right on theological and social issues is aging or passing from the scene and is unable to rally the troops as they once did." [Snip]

One other force was at work in this year's Baptist voting: the rise of the blogosphere.

Over the past several years, an active network of Baptist bloggers has opened up discussion in the convention and given reformers and moderates avenues around what Parham called "the Baptist establishment papers" and other means of communication controlled by the convention's leadership. Thus may some of our oldest and most traditional institutions be transformed by new technologies."

I am not and never could be a Baptist, but I graduated from High School along with Rev. Paige Patterson, now President of the Southwestern Baptist Seminary in Fort Worth, TX. Patterson, along with retired Judge Paul Pressler of Houston, led the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, including any of the Seminaries, and ramrodded the purge of Moderate Baptists. [Yes, the conservative SBC takeover was also driven by Texans.]

While I am not a Baptist, I always appreciated the Baptist doctrine of the "Priesthood of the Believer." That doctrine says that each man reads the Bible and interprets it for himself with the help of God. No other man can stand intermediary and tell the believer what to believe. The purges of Seminaries and Missionaries were conducted by forcing professors and Missionaries to sign a very conservative statement of faith or be fired. That approved statement of faith destroys the doctrine of "The Priesthood of the Believer."

This may mean that the wave of conservatives in both politics and religion which has been growing in America since the late 1970's has peaked and is beginning to roll back a little. They aren't going to become less conservative, but I think they will begin to not automatically bristle around those of us who are not conservative Christians.

Of course, it may not mean that, either. Still, according to the Fort Worth Star-Telegram, Paige Patterson endorsed Arkansas Pastor Rev. Ronnie Floyd while Paul Pressler supported Nashville Pastor Rev. Jerry Sutton. Rev Frank Page, Pastor of a megachurch in Taylors, S.C. won the election. At the very least there will be some change in the personalities who are leading the SBC.

The New York Times reported that the election like this:

"The new president, Frank S. Page, is the pastor of a megachurch in Taylors, S.C. He won more than 50 percent of the vote in a three-way contest that he entered late. His opponents were Ronnie Floyd of Springdale, Ark., and Dr. Jerry Sutton of Nashville.

Generally, the president of the Southern Baptist Convention is elected unopposed.

Dr. Page and his supporters said his election, on the first ballot on the first full day of the annual meeting of convention, did not mean that the nation's largest Protestant denomination would change its views on social issues like same-sex marriage and abortion that the three candidates generally opposed. "I do not want anyone to think I am out to undo a conservative movement," Dr. Page told reporters after his election. "

I would say that the fact that he is a late candidate, yet won on the first ballot with over 50% of the vote is quite significant. It's a big change. How, I am not yet sure. But I suspect it is positive for both the SBC and for America in general.

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Technorati shows these blogs referring to E. J. Dionne's editorial.