SOUTHERN BAPTISTS Convention stays steadfast in its conservative policies

President Bush addressed the group via live video.
INDIANAPOLIS (AP) -- Twenty-five years after its rightward shift began, the Southern Baptist Convention confirmed its conservative values as it tackled everything from quitting the Baptist World Alliance to voter registration.
The need to lobby against gay marriage was frequently mentioned during the group's annual meeting.
More than 8,000 Southern Baptists cheered Tuesday as President Bush -- addressing the group through a live video link -- stressed his support for a constitutional amendment banning gay marriage.
He received the biggest applause when he said "I support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman."
Outgoing SBC President Jack Graham urged Southern Baptists to lobby Congress in favor of an anti-gay marriage amendment.
Alliance pullout
In religious terms, one of its more important decisions Tuesday was pulling out of the Baptist World Alliance, following complaints that members of the global federation had adopted liberal theology and "anti-American" thinking.
The Rev. Paige Patterson, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, said some in the group question the inerrancy of the Bible and that one U.S. member denomination, American Baptist Churches, includes a group of "gay-friendly congregations."
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 its move toward strict conservatism with the election of a right-leaning president a quarter-century ago.
Loss of funds
The alliance, based in Falls Church, Va., is a federation of 46 million Baptists in 211 denominations. The SBC's pullout means the alliance will lose $300,000 next year -- the alliance's current budget is $1.7 million.
Also, Richard Land of the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission presented the SBC's new voter registration campaign, calling it "a disgrace that 30 percent of the members of the average Southern Baptist church are not even registered to vote."
His commission has launched the ivotevalues.com Web site, which urges churchgoers to choose candidates based on values rather than party or economic benefit. A nationwide tour with an 18-wheel trailer will be used to promote registration.
Land said "we face issues of titanic importance. This is a life-changing election cycle in the history of the United States." He gave gay marriage top billing.
New president
The SBC elected the Rev. Bobby Welch of Dayton Beach, Fla., as Graham's successor. He easily defeated a last-minute challenge from the Rev. Al Jarrell, of Riverside Baptist Church in Merry Hill, N.C.
Welch, 61, will mark 30 years as senior pastor of the First Baptist Church in Daytona Beach this summer. A native of Fort Payne, Ala., he nearly died of a wound he sustained while serving as an Army Green Beret platoon leader in Vietnam. He felt the call to the ministry while recuperating.
The SBC's annual meeting turns today to issuing pronouncements on public issues. Pre-meeting discussion centered on opposition to gay marriage and a proposal that would encourage parents to remove their children from "officially Godless" public schools.