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Southern Baptist Convention

Although Baptists have been in America since colonial days, it was not until 1845 that a group of males from what would become the Confederate States organized the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) in Augusta, Georgia. They split from other Baptists over cultural issues, most notably slavery, and subsequently grew to become the largest protestant Christian denomination in the United States composed of some 42,000 churches and over 16 million members in local congregations. The Southern Baptist Convention is both more and less than a religious denomination: more in that it represents the bureaucratic agencies, staff, and media of the denomination and less in that Baptist doctrine bestows autonomy on the local church. Recent annual meetings of the SBC have been marred by very public doctrinal disagreements over the inerrancy of the Bible and position statements on marriage, the family, and women in the ministry. Voting members at these annual meetings are official “Messengers,” most of them pastors, who represent “friendly cooperating” congregations.

The Southern Baptist Faith and Message

The essence of Southern Baptist doctrine is contained in its “Faith and Message” (F&M), first written in 1925 and revised in 1963 and 2000. According to the SBC Website, this is the only “consensus statement” of doctrinal beliefs approved by the SBC. The latest revisions were the work of a 15-member committee composed of 10 white males, two white females, one Asian, one African American, and one Hispanic, a diverse committee in comparison with those of the past.

Faith and Message consists of 18 articles, ranging from affirmation of the Bible as God's inerrant truth to the last, and newest, on the family. Each article is followed by scriptural references suggesting biblical support. The 2000 revisions to the F&M reflect the culmination of what has become known as a “fundamentalist takeover” or a “conservative resurgence” that began in the late 1970s and was virtually completed over the next 20 years. Fundamentalist leaders replaced liberal or moderate agency heads and trustees of affiliated colleges, universities, and seminaries with those in concurrence on the major issues of the conservative movement, beginning with the inerrancy of the Bible.

The Southern Baptist Convention and Women

Not until 1918 could women serve as Messengers, and not until 1929 were they allowed to address the Convention. However, women's progress toward equality in the SBC was interrupted by the conservative resurgence. Three F&M articles are particularly revealing of the roles of women in the SBC. Revised article VI on the church states that, “the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture.” While local churches may choose to ordain women, few will defy the SBC by “calling” them as senior pastors, leaving them to serve as missionaries, assistant pastors, ministers of youth or education, or chaplains in various institutions. Article XV on the Christian and the Social Order was revised to affirm the sanctity of all human life, “… from conception to natural death.” Article VXIII on the Family, new in the 2000 F&M, proclaims, “Marriage is the uniting of one man and one woman,” and then seemingly affirms the equality of husband and wife-but not without qualification.

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