People Who Screwed up the SBC

30 People, 7 Boards, 2 Committees, and 1 News Service
Who Screwed Up the Southern Baptist Convention

After reading Bernard Goldberg's book, 100 People Who Are Screwing Up America, I realized that something similar could be written about the Southern Baptist Convention. Goldberg's book deals primarily with people who are currently living. The book documents what contemporary people have done, and are still doing, to screw up America. This article focuses more on the past tense than the present. It deals with an American denomination rather than America itself.

The takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention formally began in June of 1979. In reality, however, the fundamentalists in the SBC were at work many years prior to 1979. This article reaches back into the early 1960s for examples of people and people groups who screwed up the Southern Baptist Convention. All the persons Goldberg's list are still alive. Some of the people on my list are deceased. One is in prison.

Goldberg said in his book, "...there won't be two people in the whole country that will agree with every name on my list." The same will be true with my list. There are many others who helped screw up the Southern Baptist Convention.

30 People

1. Paul Pressler - The chief architect of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. In 1964, Pressler, initiated a "liberal hunt" in the SBC. In 1978-1979 there were hundreds of liberal hunts across the SBC. Pressler pushed this liberal hunt and described his campaign as “going for the jugular.” Together with Paige Patterson, he hatched the grand plan that enabled the fundamentalists to grab absolute control of the denomination. The idea of the SBC takeover was largely his brainchild.
In 1976 Pressler, and Paige Patterson, then president of Criswell College in Dallas, met in New Orleans and planned a political strategy to elect a president who would nominate like-minded people to the Convention's Committee on Committees. This Committee would nominate like-minded people to the Committee on Nominations. The second committee would nominate like-minded trustees and directors to Southern Baptist agencies and institutions who would hire only like-minded staff. Pressler called this strategy "going for the jugular." Fundamentalist candidates have won the SBC presidency every year since 1979. By 1989, nearly every one of the SBC boards had a majority of takeover people on it.

2. W. A. Criswell - A co-architect of the of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. He was a harsh critic of "Higher Criticism" and loathed the fact that it was being taught in Southern Baptist seminaries. He was a two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention. He grouped "liberals" with "moderates" in the SBC, saying, "A skunk by any other name still stinks." He wrote the popular book, Why I Preach That the Bible Is Literally True. He was a strong proponent of biblical inerrancy. In 1987 he labeled any who opposed his views as being, “infidels and half infidels.” At the 1988 SBC Convention in San Antonio, a resolution was passed critical of the cardinal Baptist belief in the "priesthood of the believer" and "soul competency" and elevated the pastor to the position of authority in the church he serves. Criswell told a group of pastors that "the man of God who is the pastor of the church is the ruler."

3. Paige Patterson - A co-architect of the of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Patterson was a consument political climber, Patterson has been president of the Criswell Bible Institute, the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary, and is presently president of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. In 1985 Patterson attempted to persuade the SBC to exercise control over the WMU. Also in 1985 Patterson purportedly kept a “heresy file.” That, however, proved to be fictitious. He was a leader in disseminating lies about the Baptist World Alliance. The lies helped the SBC withdraw from the world organization. He was a behind the scenes influence on the committee that created the "Submissive Women" article (Article XVIII) to the 1998 Baptist Faith and Message. (His wife, Dorothy, was on the 1998 revision committee of the BF&M)

4. Adrian Rogers - A flashy, charismatic pastor of Belleview Baptist Church in Memphis, TN. He was the first of the fundamentalist SBC presidents to be elected as the takeover began (in 1979). He was president of the SBC again in 1986-87. In 1992 Rogers hosted a meeting of fundamentalist at which plans were made to seize control of the state Baptist conventions. In 1993 he declared that WMU must be "hardwired" into the convention structure. If not, the WMU would lose key positions on SBC policy-making bodies. "Hardwiring" meant that the SBC would select the WMU's board of directors instead of their being elected by the women in the various state WMU organizations.
Rogers is probably best known for his "pickles have souls" statement. The statement related to the hiring and firing of SBC seminary professors. He said, “If we say pickles have souls, they (seminary professors) better teach that pickles have souls.” Seminary professors who refused to comply to the convention's dictates were fired, sought employment elsewhere, or took early retirement.

5. Morris Chapman - President and CEO of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee. He was a two-time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('90-'91). He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. He was the author of the letter to Denton Lotz , General Secretary of the Baptist World Alliance. The letter announced the Southern Baptist withdrawal from the BWA. The reason for the withdrawal was because the BWA had accepted the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (CBF) as a full member of the world Baptist organization. It is no secret that the Southern Baptist leadership, including Chapman himself, hate all moderate Baptists.

6. Albert Mohler - A Calvinist who became president of Southern Baptist Seminary in 1993. In 1994, he forced Molly Marshall to resign from Southern Seminary faculty because she was female. In 1995, he fired Diana Garland, Dean of Carver School of Social Work also for being female. In 1997, he fired Paul Debusman, librarian at Southern for 35 years, over the content of a personal letter to SBC president, Tom Elliff. He was a behind the scenes influence on the committee that created the "Submissive Women" article (Article XVIII) to the 1998 Baptist Faith and Message. (His wife, Mary, was on the 1998 revision committee of the BF&M).

7. Richard Land - President of the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission of the Southern Baptist Convention. The ERLC was founded in 1992 after the fundamentalists defunded the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs. Land has been a leader in destroying support for separation of church and state among Southern Baptists.

8. T. C. Pinckney - A Virginian who published the Baptist Banner, a paper that sought to destroy anyone who did not agree with the fundamentalist agenda. The publication is no longer existent. Pinckney was best known for his 2004 resolution to get all officers and members of the Southern Baptist Convention and the churches associated with it to remove their children from the government schools and see to it that they receive a thoroughly Christian education, for the glory of God, the good of Christ's church, and the strength of their own commitment to Jesus.

9. Dorothy Patterson - Wife of Paige Patterson and adjunct faculty member of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dorothy was one of two women who served on committee that created the "Submissive Women" article (Article XVIII) to the 1998 revision of the Baptist Faith and Message.

10. Mary Mohler - Wife of Albert Mohler and Director of the Seminary Wives Institute of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Mary was one of two women who served on committee that created the "Submissive Women" article (Article XVIII) to the 1998 revision of the Baptist Faith and Message.

11. Jerry Rankin - International Mission Board president who, in 1995, sent a letter to 40,000 pastors and Women's Missionary Union (WMU) Directors urging them to pray that the National WMU would cease cooperating with the CBF. In 2002, Rankin and the IMB trustees undermined missionary morale by requiring them to sign the 2000 BF&M. The fall out was that many IMB missionaries, more than 100, refused to sign the document and were subsequently fired.

12. Jerry Falwell - The radical well known fundamentalist founder of the Moral Majority who has been an influential force among Southern Baptist fundamentalists for 30 years or more. Many prominent Southern Baptist leaders sent their children to his Liberty University. In 1998, Falwell and his people attended the Southern Baptist annual convention and voted as messengers. They gained voting status by donating to the Southern Baptist Conservatives of Virginia (SBCV). Fundamentalist Southern Baptists idolize Falwell despite his many follies.

13. William Powell - Left the Southern Baptist Convention Home Mission Board to launch the Baptist Faith and Message Fellowship, a publication to attack the so-called SBC "liberals." Powell was a close associate of Paul Pressler. Powell wrote many articles that attacked the liberals.

14. Bailey Smith - Two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('80-'81). He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. He was most famous for uttering, "God Almighty does not hear the prayer of a Jew," and "I don't know why God chose the Jew, they have such funny noses."

15. Jerry Vines - Two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('88-'89). He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. He was a member of the committee that created the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.

16. Jack Graham - Two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention (2002-03) and president when the SBC withdrew from the Baptist World Alliance. He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. He supported the Pinckney/Shortt resolution to remove Baptist children from public schools.

17. Charles Stanley - Was a two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('84-'85). He allowed himself to be used by the fundamentalist leadership to do, as previous takeover presidents, appoint only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. He served the SBC as president while contributing less than 2% of his church's finances to the Cooperative Program.

18. Jimmy Draper - Fundamentalist leader, who in 1991, became President of the SBC Sunday School Board. A total of 159 employees retired (voluntarily or involuntary) after he became president of the BSSB. He was president of the SBC in 1982-83 and joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. Draper strongly supported the SBC withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance.

19. Roger Moran - The firebrand layman from Missouri who traveled far and wide, spreading misinformation about national entities such as CBF, the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs and Americans United for Separation of Church and State. His Project 1000 campaign thrived on "guilt by association." Through it he attacked anyone who did not agree with the fundamentalist agenda.

20. Ed Young - Was a two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('92-93). He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. Was president when Southern Baptists defunded the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs

21. Tom Elliff - Was a two time president of the Southern Baptist Convention ('98-99). He joined previous takeover presidents in appointing only fundamentalists to denominational boards and agencies. In 1997, he sent a copy of a personal to Albert Mohler that resulted in getting Paul Debusman, librarian at Southern for 35 years, fired. In 1997, Elliff appointed the revision committee that gave Article XVIII of the BF&M (the Submissive Women article) to Southern Baptists. At the 1998 annual SBC convention in Denver, Elliff used the imagery of barnacles on a ship's hull to warn that "parasites," (barnacles) a reference to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and other moderate groups, were preying on the denomination.

22. Anthony Jordan - Executive Director of the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma. Jordan was the Chairman of the Committee that created the "Submissive Women" article (Article XVIII) to the Baptist Faith and Message. The article declares that men hold the superior position in family life while women hold the inferior position. It puts women in a second-class role in both family and church life. This revision was the major step toward a more radical revision, one that came in June of 2000.

23. Kenneth Barnett - The Oklahoma pastor who made the motion on the floor at the 1971 convention in St. Louis to scrap the original Volume 1 of the Broadman Bible Commentary.

24. Jerry Johnson - Southern Seminary trustee who accused Southern Seminary President Roy Honeycutt and many faculty of heresy. A denominational political climber, Johnson was elected the sixth President of The Criswell College in 2003.

25. Russell Moore - Is Dean of the School of Theology and Senior Vice President for Academic Administration of The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary. Among the things that Moore did to screw up Southern Baptists (the Southern Baptist theological Seminary) was end Southern Seminary's pioneering curriculum for "biblical counseling." Wayne Oats pioneered pastoral counseling at Southern and Moore, together with Albert Mohler, brought an end to the work Oats had done.

26. Larry Holly - A Texas physician who was recognized as the leading Southern Baptist critic of Freemasonry between 1985 and 1994. He is opposed Freemasonry because he believed it is a religion. His opposition led to Gary Leazer's dismissal as Assistant Director of the InterfaithWitness Department of the Home Mission Board in 1993.

27. Eldridge Miller - Deceased pastor of the First Baptist Church in Sallisaw, OK. Served on the SBC Executive Committee and was a prolific writer of hate material directed at the so-called "liberals" in the Southern Baptist Convention. His articles were frequently published by the Oklahoma Baptist Messenger and other state Baptist convention papers.

28. Sam Pace - Director of Missions for the Kiowa-Comanche Baptist Association in Oklahoma and served as Chairman of the SBC Executive Committee. Stirred up much hate toward those who opposed the fundamentalist agenda and takeover. He supported the firing of Russell Dilday.

29. Russell Kaemmerling - Brother-in-law of Paige Patterson and first editor of The Southern Baptist Advocate, a hate-filled sheet that hurt the cause of Christ and helped no one. While serving as a trustee for the International Mission Board (IMB) of the SBC, he was arrested on 19 counts of criminal fraud and now resides in a federal penitentiary in Beaumont, TX.

30. Robert Tenery - Second editor of The Southern Baptist Advocate, The Advocate was a hate-filled sheet that hurt the cause of Christ and helped no one. Tenery edited the Baptists United News for many years and did on the state level what the Advocate did on the national level. Both publications are gone; but some states now have a similar publication.

7 Boards

1. International Mission Board - At their October 1991 meeting, the IMB (then the Foreign Mission Board) trustees voted to defund the Baptist Theological Seminary in Ruschlikon, Switzerland, which broke a contract the SBC had with the seminary. In 1992, after years of trying to please Fundamentalist trustees, Keith Parks, president of the Foreign Mission Board, resigned under pressure. In his 13 years as president, missionaries entered 40 new countries with a total of 3,918 missionaries.

2. Sunday School Board - In 1992, the BSSB pressured Lloyd Elder to resign. He was replaced by Jimmy Draper. A total of 159 employees subsequently retired (voluntarily or involuntary) in November 1992 alone.

3. Southwestern Baptist Seminary Trustees - Fired Russell Dilday in 1994 after 15 years of faithful service to the seminary. The trustees changed the locks on the president's office immediately and denied him access, using armed guards. The day before he was fired, the same trustees gave Dilday a favorable job performance evaluation. The trustees sent 40,000 letters to pastors and directors of missions to explain their reason for firing Dilday. They said he failed to support the takeover in the Convention and that he "held liberal views of the scripture."

4. Southern Baptist Seminary Trustees - In 1990, the Southern Seminary Board of Trustees became controlled by fundamentalists. Trustees gave students permission to openly tape classes. Trustee Jerry Johnson of Colorado accused Southern Seminary President Roy Honeycutt and many faculty of heresy. The seminary hired Al Mohler as president in 1993 and hailed him as "a hero of SBC fundamentalism."

6. Midwestern Baptist Seminary Trustees - Fired Professor Temp Sparkman in 1991 for supposedly teaching universalism.

7. Southeastern Baptist Seminary Trustees - Forced Randall Lolley to resign after voting to only hire faculty who followed their interpretation of the Baptist Faith and Message.

2 Committees

1. 1998 Baptist Faith and Message Revision Committee - The committee, chaired by Anthony Jordan of Oklahoma, gave Article XVIII (the Submissive Women Article) to Southern Baptists. The article declares that women are to be totally submitted to their husbands in family and church life. Men are to be superior to women in both the church and home. The article declares that men hold the superior position in family life and women hold the inferior position. It puts women in a second-class role in both family and church life. This revision was the major step toward a more radical revision, one that came in June of 2000.
Committee members were: Chairman Anthony Jordan, Bill Elliff; Richard Land; Mary Mohler, Dorothy Patterson, Damon Shook, John Sullivan,

2. 2000 Baptist Faith and Message Revision Committee - The committee eliminated the preamble that had been part of the 1963 statement. The revision elevated the Bible to a position above that of Jesus himself. Downplays the doctrines of priesthood of each believer and local church autonomy. Used as a creedal statement by SBC agencies. Codifies the belief that women, though gifted for service in the church are not qualified for the office of pastor in local churches.
Committee members were: Chairman, Adrian Rogers, Max Barnett (OK), Steve Gaines (AL), Susie Hawkins (TX), Rudy A. Hernandez (TX), Charles S. Kelley, Jr. (LA), Heather King (IN), Richard D. Land (TN), Fred Luter (LA), R. Albert Mohler, Jr. (KY), T. C. Pinckney (VA), Nelson Price (GA), Adrian Rogers (TN), Roger Spradlin (CA), Simon Tsoi (AZ), Jerry Vines (FL).

1 News Service

The Baptist Press - After the fundamentalists gained control of the denomination, the fundamentalists transformed a decent news service into a propaganda organ. In 1990, Al Shackleford and Dan Martin were fired for "persecuting" the fundamentalists in their news coverage. Don McGregor, editor of the Baptist Record Of Mississippi, wrote, "Today we have seen the final destruction of freedom of the press among Southern Baptists." The BP has a 25 year history of spreading fundamentalist propaganda, printing so-called news stories designed to destroy the credibility of moderate Southern Baptists, specifically the credibility of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

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By David Flick
January 3, 2006

Written for BaptistLife.Com Discussion Forums