Baptist battles dominated news in 2006, editors say

Posted: 1/05/07

Baptist battles dominated
news in 2006, editors say

DALLAS (ABP)—The election of a pastor outside the fundamentalist power structure as president of the Southern Baptist Convention was chosen by Baptist journalists as the most important story in Baptist life in 2006—a year when denominational affairs outweighed world news in the minds of Baptists of the South.

The election of SBC President Frank Page by discontented conservatives and the resignation of Bob Reccord as head of the North American Mission Board, after a probe found ineffectiveness and extravagant spending, were the most important Baptist news stories of the past year, an annual survey of journalists conducted by Associated Baptist Press revealed.

Meanwhile, the controversy between “blogging trustee” Wade Burleson and the SBC International Mission Board and a scandal in the Rio Grande Valley over funding for phony church starts also commanded the attention of Baptists. The shift in power to a Democratic-controlled Congress was the only non-Baptist story to crack the top five.

Top five stories identified were:

1. An outsider president. In a major upset, Frank Page of South Carolina was elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention over two candidates closely tied to the SBC’s fundamentalist power structure. Page, who described his election as a victory for grassroots Baptists, won slightly more than 50 percent of the June vote by pledging more openness and power-sharing among SBC conservatives.

2. Reccord resigns. After a trustee investigation produced a scathing report of poor management, Bob Reccord resigned April 17 as president of the North Amer-ican Mission Board, Southern Baptists’ second-largest mission agency. Allega-tions first surfaced in a February expose by the Christian Index newspaper. NAMB’s trustees, after their own investigation, put Reccord under strict “executive-level controls” March 23, which many observers thought would prompt his resignation. With his possible ouster looming at the May 2 trustees meeting, Reccord met April 13 with several prominent Southern Baptist pastors seeking advice. Four days later, he resigned.

3. Wade Burleson. A Oklahoma pastor and rookie trustee used his Internet blog to speak against the decision by his fellow International Mission Board trustees not to appoint missionaries who use a “private prayer language”—a variation of tongues-speaking—in their personal devotions. Trustees threatened to dismiss Burleson for posting information about the board’s deliberations. After a closed-door session March 22, however, trustees decided not to seek Burleson’s removal, which would have required approval by the SBC. Instead, the board censured him and adopted new guidelines to prohibit and punish future criticism of IMB actions by trustees. Burleson used his experience to warn of “narrowing” within the SBC and bolster Page’s nomination for president.

4. Valleygate. A five-month investigation uncovered evidence that church-starting funds from the Baptist General Convention of Texas were misused between 1999 and 2005 in the Rio Grande Valley. Independent investigators discovered that 98 percent of the 258 new churches reported by three church planters in the Valley no longer exist, and some never existed. The BGCT gave more than $1.3 million to those 258 churches. Pastors Otto Arrango, Aaron De La Torre and Armando Vera were accused and face possible legal action. The BGCT was faulted for poor oversight, uneven management, failure to abide by internal guidelines and misplaced trust.

5. A Democratic Congress. In the Nov. 4 midterm elections, Democrats gained more than a 30-seat majority over Republicans in the House and a one-seat majority in the Senate, as voters objected to the Iraq war and congressional scandals. The power shift could refocus Congress’ culture wars from arguments over church-state issues and abortion rights to battles over gay rights, embryonic stem-cell research and federal judges. The new Congress includes 68 Baptists—61 in the House and seven in the Senate.