BAPTIST GENERAL CONVENTION OF TEXAS
TURNING TO
"ETHNIC" BAPTISTS TO RECOVER LOSSES [02/28--2006]
The
"Texas Baptists Committed" elitist clique which politically dominates the
Baptist General Convention of Texas nominated a Black Baptist Pastor as
President of the Convention when it met in the Fall of 2005 (Baptist Standard,
11/14/05),
>http://www.bgct.org/TexasBaptists/Page.aspx?&pid=1905&srcid=178<
The
primary editorial mouthpiece of the "Committeds," who is the frontman for
Herbert Reynolds and multimillionaire John Baugh of Houston, is
David Currie, and he presented the nomination of Michael Bell, who
was elected. Bell is pastor of Greater St. Stephen First Baptist Church of Fort
Worth and also member of the "Texas Baptists Committed," founded by John Baugh
and friends. Members of the TBC clique have for all practical purposes
controlled the BGCT for several years.
Currie denied that he was
nominating Bell "just because he is an African-American pastor," according to
his article in the October, 2005 issue of "Texas Baptists Committed" newsletter.
It is obvious from Currie's article, however, that Bell is expected to use his
influence to secure greater financial support from Black Baptists for the BGCT.
In recent years Bell's own church has increased its contributions to the
BGCT, and evidently the TBC-affiliated leadership of the BGCT surmises from
Bell's example that there is an untapped source of income available in the Black
churches. Currie says that Bell has encouraged African-American pastors "to
increase their support" of the BGCT's budget, and he notes that
"African-American churches have not supported" the BGCT "in percentages
comparable to many other churches." Will Bell's election serve to motivate more
interest from the Baptist Baptists in the BGCT and bring in more
contributions?
Following the BGCT's political fiasco of battling against
Southern Baptists of whatever ethnicity who hold to the inerrancy of Holy
Spirit-inspired Scripture, culminated by the BGCT's defunding vote against
the Southern Baptist Convention's seminaries in 2000 at the Corpus Christi
convention, the BGCT has been on the downgrade in both its number of
affiliated churches and its financial resources. Several financial cutbacks
have since been made and various schemes have been devised to try to replenish
lost revenue.
The immediate past president of the BGCT was a Latino,
Albert Reyes, and his election was seen by many to be a pragmatic effort
by the BGCT overlords to possibly induce more money from Latino Baptists for the
BGCT's coffers. Currie admits that "Texas Baptists are striving
intentionally" to garner support for the BGCT from the "ethnic"
churches.
The BGCT has lost so many churches and so much income it
apparently is resorting to any possible means to try and replenish the number of
affiliating churches and finances. For example, it lost the Second Baptist
Church of Houston, the largest church in the convention, to the Southern
Baptists of Texas Convention. It also lost the large First Baptist
Houston and First Baptist Dallas, and a few years ago it lost the
large Sagemont Church of Houston.
Bible-believing Baptist
churches of all ethic identities in Texas continue to flee from the theological
downgrade path of the anti-inerrantists of the BGCT.
When the old
American Baptist Convention began to theologically degenerate in the 1900s in
its view of the Scriptures and their teachings, Baptist conservatives left the
ABC in droves to form new organizations for fellowship and financial
cooperation. Had it not been for some Black Baptist churches in northern states,
the ABC would have probably floundered worse than it did. The Black Baptists
have since more or less been the backbone of the ABC.
It seems that a
similar path lies ahead for the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Its
survival most likely will primarily be dependent upon the Latino and Black
Baptists in Texas who will tolerate the anti-inerrancy campaign of the "Texas
Baptist Committeds" clique. The predominantly conservative churches among the
Anglos, Latinos, and Blacks are more and more becoming aligned with the
Southern Baptists of Texas Convention which stands for the inerrancy of
Holy Spirit-inspired Scripture.
So far a convention affiliation is
concerned, the future for Bible believing Southern Baptist churches in Texas
apparently lies with the SBTC, not the BGCT. -- Bob L. Ross
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