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I WOV* 2 4 1986 NATIONAL OFFICE SBC Executive Comm~ttee 901 Commerce 1750 Nashville. Tennessee 3720: (81 5) 244-2355 W~lrnerC Fields, D~rector Nowa &nice of the Southrm BaptlSl ComnUoII Dan Martin, News Ed~tol Maw Knox, Feature Ed~tor BUREAUS AflANTA Jim Newton, Chiel. 1350 Spring St. N.W.. Atlanta, On. 30387, Telephone (404) 873-4041 DALLAS Thomas J. Brannon, Chief. 103 Baptist Building, Dallaa Texas 75201, Telephone (214) 741-lgW NASHVILLE (Baptist Sunday School Board) Lloyd f. Householder, Chiel, 127 Ninth Awe., N.. Nashville, Tenn 37232, Telephone (615) 251-2300 RICHMOND (Foreign) Robert L Slanley. Chlel. 3806 Monument Ave.. Richmond, Va, 23230, Telaphone (804) 353-0151 WASHINGTON Stan L Hastey, Chlel, 2M) Maryland Ava, N.E. Washington, D.C. 20002, Telephone (202) 544-4228 Nwember 21, 1986 86-174 'Very Best Baptists' Sought By President By Dan Martin MEMPHIS, Tan. (W)--Southern Baptist Cxwventim President Adrian Rogers has issued a call for reccxnmendations of the "very best Baptistsu to serve on amnittees at the 1987 annual meeting. In an "wn Letter to Southern Baptistsn issued through Baptist Press, Rogers said: "The imprtant task of chming the naninees for the 1987 Caranittee on Cdttees, Resolutions Cumnittee, CredentiaLs Camittee and Tellers Camittee is under way. "It is my desire to choose the very best Southern Raptists for these msitions. This will be accomplished most effectively with your ~ayerfulsupport.and prmnal recomnendations under the guidance of the Holy Spirit. "We welme rmendations fran every corner of Southern Baptist wrk." Under the constitution of the Southern Baptist Convention, the p-esident appoints the Ccdttee on Cdttees, Resolutions Cannittee and Credentials Cdttee "in conference with1' the two vice presidents and the Tellers Carunittee "in wnsultation with" the anvention's rqistration sezretary. ~irstvice president is Jack Stanton of Bolivar, Mo. ; second vice president is Ray Roberts of Asheville, N.C. ; and registration secretary is Lee Porter of Nashville, Tenn. Rogers, who was elected to the presidency first in 1979 and then again at the 1986 annual meeting in Atlanta, is pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in Memphis. The aminbent process has been at the center of the seven-year controversy in the nation's largest non-Catholic denanination. The president ap~ointsthe Carsnittee on Cmittees, which nominates the Caranittee on Boards, which, in turn, nminates the persuns who will be trustees and mittee members of the 20 national agencies of the SBC. Several efforts have been made in recent years to force the president to minate the Caranittee on Cmittees fran a pool of persons suggested by state Baptist convention executives or to select the sitting presidents of state mnventions and presidents of state wanan's Missionary Unions as orrranittee members. Each of the efforts has failed. An effort to substitute state convention and W pesidents, which was ruled out of order at the 1985 annual meeting, is at the center of a federal court lawsuit that was won by the SRll but is m in a federal appeals oourt. Recently, mderatemnservatives challenged Rogers to appoint state presidents and state W presidents as the Caranittee on Cmittees. The challenge was made by Jmes Slatton, pastor of ~iverRoad Baptist Church in Richmond, Va. ; Norman Cavender , a layman fran Claxton, Ga. ; and Winfred Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church of Amarillo, Texas, and the twice unsuccessful moderateconservative candidate for SRC president. Rogers told Baptist Press he wrote a letter to the three men "thanking them for their suggestion" and saying it was one of many he has received from "ad-hoc groups across the convent ion. " ---re- mrr-arrkrb -Y 4 '- . *.rl- nYodoJ-= ---hhb*'' ---*---- L ‘ 11/21/86 Page 2 Baptist Press the . ,lac "There has been a nlrmber of r-ndatioms and suggestions made about appointments," Rogers said. "What I plan to do is to wrk with the mnvention-elected Peace Cdttee, but ultimately in the appinbnents I will follcw the dictates of my am heart." Rogers, who is a member of the SBC Peace Cannittee that is hgedwith finding the sources of the controversy in the mnvention and making recamendations about ways' to sol? that has said on several occasions he plans to appoint the "very bestw Southern Baptists to the mi ttees. During a September meeting with editors of Baptist state newspapers, Rogers said: "I do not intend to make appointments that are overtly political. I'm going to try to make appointmats £ran those that I consider to be the best Southern baptist^.^ At that meting he said the "~aptistFaith and Messagew statement, especially its seztion on the Scriptures, will be central for his appointments. He said: "If he doesn' t believe that, I wouldnt t appoint him. I wuld make appointments Erm people who hold tbat kind of theological perspective, and so obviously, that wldexclude sane people, but it muld not exlude people on a political basis. ft wuld exlclude them on a theolqical basis, and theology is only one issue. I want to appoint people who would be the best Baptists, not only tbologieally, but ccoperatively and intellectually and spiritually. He added he would not appoint persons to the Cmittee on Ccmnittes who, although believing as he does, would appoint to the Cannittee on Boards people who believe differently. "I dont t see that as political.," he said. "I see that as consistent." In his Open Letter, Rogers asked persons who wish to naninate persons for appointment to the conunittees to provide him with specific information. Name, address, hane and business telephone nlrmbers, church name and address, and whether the person naninated is a pastor or a layman should be included. He also asked that recommendations include information on how long the naninee has been in the state and church, the size of the church, the munt the church gave to the Cmprative Prqram in the last associational year and what percentage of the total church budget that munt represented . He also asked that the number of baptisms of the church be included, as well as information on other pertinent matters such as the basic mnvictions of the naminee. Rogers enmuraged persons to sutmit the ramnnendations to him in an envelope marked, "SBC: Cmittee Recamendat ions, " and mailed to Rellevue Baptist Church, 70 N. Bellevue Rlvd ., Memphis, Tenn. 38104. Re asked that the reccmmendations be suhnitted by Feb. 1, 1987. Under SBC rules, the president is rquired to announce his appointments through Raptist Press at least- 45 days in advance of the annual meeting, which for 1987 is scheduled June 16-18 in Cervantes Convention Center in St. Louis. In the letter, Rogers thanked Southern Baptists in advance for wpayetful and diligent participation in helping to select God's choice servants for the next year." -30- Moder ate-Conservat ives Baptist Press ' Dismayedt By Rej&ion By Marv Kmx ll/21/86 MISMIILm, Tenn. (BP)--Mderatemmervative Southern Eaptist leaders have responded with 'sadness and dismaytt to what they describe as rejection of their popsals for pace in the beleaguered demination. Norman Cavender, Winfred Moore and James Slatton offered a "moderateside popsal" for Southern ~aptistConvention peace in late October. Their action follcwed the six Southern Baptist seminary presidents' Glorieta Statment, a peace document of phi105ophical statements and mitments presented to and aff inned by the SBC Peace ('-.-.ittee in Glorieta, N.M. s 11/21/86 page 3 Baptist Press Moore, pastor of First Baptist Church of Amarillo, Texas, is a former SBC first: vice ,I president and was the moderateconservative candidate for mnvention president the past two years. Cavender, a layman fran Claxton, Ga., and Slatton, pastor of River Road Baptist Church in Richmnd, Va., presented moderatmnservative mrnsto the Peace Camittee's submittee on denaninational plitics this smer. Cavender , Moore and Slatton' s pace praposal urges that: Moderate leader Cecil Shennan, who resigned the Peace Carsni ttee, be replaced with a "clearly, openly and mnpletely identified moderate leader; " the SBC Forum and Pastors' Conference be united into me nor-political meeting; SBC President Adrian Rogers appoint sitting presidents of the Southern Baptist state conventions and state Wcman's Missionary Union organizations ta the pmerful Cmittee on Cmittees; fundmental-conservatives "stand down" on political organizing and both sides refrain Erm partisan pli tics; Also, the Southern Ehptist Advocate stop attacking SBC institutions and their empLoyees; both SBC factions get wether to choose an agreeable candidate for SBCJ president in 1988, or 1987 if Rogers does not seek reelection; the Peace Carmittee convene a peace conference to refine the proposal; and fundamentalists respond inmediately to the praposal. "We have set no conditions, asking only for a system of basic fairness to all our views and roan for all our mnsciences," Caverader said of the ~oposals. "We mntinue seekinq this spirit of fairness. " Slatton told Baptist Press Roqers respnded with a letter dated Nov. 10. "Dr. P-qers specifically dealt with only one of the prapsals-the one dealinq with the appointment of the Cmittee on Cmittees-which he reject&," he said. "The other seven were ignored completely. Dr. Rqers made no offers whatever which wuld dismantle the political plarization of the presidential elections, ccarani ttee aminbents and annual pastors' mnferences ." Cavender said Rogers "offered us no alternative plan for mrrecting the political poblems. We fear this rejection means continued strife wer politics and appointments." Sl-atton added fundmental-conservative leaders Paige Patterson, president of the Criswell Center for ~iblicalStudies in Dallas, and Paul Pressler, a Houston judge, also wrote letters rejecting the proposal. The moderates' wopsal was sent to Rcqers, Patterson and Pressler, as well as memters of the Peace Cmittee and the SJ3C stecutive Cmittee and the six seminary presidents.