Tennessee Baptists move to the right

Posted: 11/17/06

Tennessee Baptists move to the right

By Robert Marus

Associated Baptist Press

MEMPHIS, Tenn. (ABP)—Tennessee Baptists voted overwhelmingly Nov. 14 to publicize whether nominees to leadership posts in the convention affirm the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, a controversial confession of faith adopted by the national Southern Baptist Convention.

Messengers to Tennessee Baptist Convention’s annual meeting, held at Bellevue Baptist Church in suburban Memphis, also elected a conservative candidate as president and heard an update from a committee dealing with a dispute between the convention and one of its affiliated colleges.

On a show-of-ballots vote, a large majority of messengers approved a motion asking potential nominees to the boards and committees if they affirm the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith & Message.

The 2000 document, a more strict revision of the SBC’s confession of faith, includes views to which many moderate Baptists object, removing language that said Scripture should be interpreted in light of God’s revelation through Jesus Christ, restricting the office of pastor to men only and teaching that wives should be submissive to their husbands.

Jerry Sutton, pastor of Two Rivers Baptist Church in Nashville, proposed making the change to the questionnaire submitted by potential nominees. Sutton said messengers had a right to know if the convention’s leaders affirm the document.

Messengers amended Sutton’s motion to include a provision that the nominees’ answers to the Baptist Faith & Message question be included in the nominating committees’ report, published prior to the convention’s votes on the nominees.

Randall Adkisson, chairman of the convention’s committee on boards and pastor of First Baptist Church in Cookeville, asked if the motion was in order, since the convention had chosen in 2000 not to adopt the Baptist Faith & Message as its own statement of faith.

The convention’s parliamentarians said the motion was in order, since it was only to add a question to a questionnaire and not to require that nominees affirm the confession in order to be elected. But Bill Sherman, a messenger from First Baptist Church in Fairview, said the question and its publicized answer were intended to make adherence to the confession a de facto litmus test for service in Tennessee Baptist life. That, he said, makes it a creed—something Baptists historically opposed as a test of faith.

Sherman offered an amendment to Sutton’s motion that would replace the question about the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message with a the following question: “Do you affirm your belief in the Bible alone in matter(s) of faith and behavior?”

Sherman’s amendment failed on a show-of-ballots vote by a margin that appeared to be at least 2-1.