BAPTIST CHURCHES World alliance loses its largest member in rift over policies

Fundamentalists and moderates were at odds in the alliance.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- The Southern Baptist Convention voted today to quit the Baptist World Alliance following complaints that some members of the loose, global association had adopted liberal theology and "anti-American" thinking.
The SBC is the world's largest Baptist denomination and America's largest Protestant body, with 16.3 million members. It helped launch the alliance 99 years ago and was a strong supporter before shifting toward strict conservatism a quarter-century ago.
The pullout, proposed by the SBC executive committee on the basis of a negative December task force report, was approved overwhelmingly by a show of hands.
The alliance, based in Falls Church, Va., is a federation of 46 million Baptists in 211 denominations. The SBC pullout means the loss of a third of its income base.
"Our concern is not financial," said the Rev. Denton Lotz, general secretary of the world alliance. "Our concern is schism and division. Christians need to be a united voice."
Complaints
The December report complained that some in the alliance had questioned "the truthfulness of Holy Scripture," refused to affirm the necessity of conscious faith in Jesus Christ for salvation, promoted women preachers, criticized the SBC and its foreign mission board and adopted an "anti-American" tone.
The last straw came in 2003, when the alliance accepted as a member the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a rival group to the SBC formed by moderates who oppose denominational leaders' conservative policies.
When the executive committee decided to propose the pullout to the annual meeting, the moderate editor of the Texas convention newspaper charged that "fundamentalists must control. What they cannot control, they abandon and undermine."
Officials of the alliance and the SBC conferred in April and said if a pullout does occur, they'll continue regular talks to resolve issues so the SBC can rejoin "in the not too distant future."
But relations are so tense that the SBC denied the alliance exhibit space during this week's meeting.
New SBC leader
In other business today, thousands of attendees were to elect a new SBC president; the only announced candidate is the Rev. Bobby Welch of Daytona Beach, Fla. They also are expected to hear a video greeting from President Bush. And an evening program will urge Baptists to promote voter registration and work against gay marriage.
The annual meeting also may offer some new directions on various issues, with gay marriage among topics the resolutions committee could decide should be addressed.
One proposal, from two prominent hard-liners, would encourage Southern Baptists to remove their children from "officially Godless" public schools in favor of Christian day schools or home schooling. But observers expect any committee text about education to water down such language.
Another issue that could arise is outgoing SBC President Jack Graham's call for another study on whether the denomination should drop its "Southern" name to underscore its nationwide and international reach.
On Monday night, leaders celebrated the 25th anniversary of the campaign that moved the SBC rightward though electing a series of presidents whose appointees insisted on strict conservatism. The winning side calls it the "conservative resurgence." Moderates in the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship and elsewhere speak of the "fundamentalist takeover."
TV preacher Jerry Falwell prayed: "Our Father, we thank you for the 25-year miracle that achieved what most thought was impossible."
Richard Land, president of the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, told hundreds of believers that liberal scholarship on the Bible at Baptist schools was a "cancer" that "would have been lethal if it had been allowed to continue."
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