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Baptist2Baptist
Sixth and Final Report of the SBC Funding Study
The Fifth and Final Report of the SBC
Stand For Marriage
Final Report of Ad Hoc CP Committee
Final Report of Ad Hoc CP Committee (Appendices)
Cooperative Program Advance Plan
Fourth Report of the SBC Funding Study Committee
Review of NOBTS's Sole Membership Charter Amend.
Response to reservations about sole membership
Reservations Concerning a Charter Amendment Prop.
Sole Membership - A Florida Layman’s Perspecti
A Letter to Dr. Denton Lotz
Letter from Albert W. Wardin
The Relation of the SBC to its Entities
SBC Funding Study - State of Giving
What is Sole Membership?
Sole Membership
Letter to Missouri Churches
Questions and Answers
Behind the Scenes at the SBC
Response by Morris H. Chapman to the BGCT
Does It Matter What Missionaries Believe?
Letter to the Baptist Standard
On Facts and Fallacies
Letter by SBC EC President to Dr. James L. Hill
A View from the Other Side
Carter's rift with SBC not a new development
SBTS Response to BGCT Seminary Study Committee
Response to BGCT Seminary Study Committee Report
SBTS Response to BGCT Seminary Study Committee
Exec. Comm. Interacts with BGCT Funding Proposal
The Pastor's Point of View on the BGCT
Feasibility Study for Name Change
Report of the SBC Peace Committee
Doctrine, Cooperation, and Association
Report to the Fellowship of Deacons
Too High a View of Scripture?
The Truth about the SBC and Texas
Christ, The Bible, and Human Experience
Bibliolatry — A Fraudulent Accusation
BFM - Still Thoroughly Baptist!
Texas First, Texas Only - Not the Spirit
Anti-SBC Leaders Threaten Cooperative Program
Southern Baptists and Women Pastors
The Root of the SBC Controversy
Your Church Reaching the World for Christ
Together We're Carrying Out the Great Commission
Doctrinal integrity paramount for Serminary
Have Baptists replaced Jesus with a book?
Why theology matters for the Great Commission task
A survey of the 2000 BFM
Baptists, the Bible and confessions
Southern Seminary and the Abstract of Principles
An Open Letter to Southern Baptists
A Statement About the Baptist Faith & Message
An Example of the Need to Change The BFM
Incredible Vanishing Corporations
Committee on Cooperation - Report and Findings
An Open Letter from Dr. Allen to Dr. Wade
Why Cooperate?
The Southern Baptist Convention is Alive and Well
Letter by SBCEC President to TX Church Leaders
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"There should be an 'Abstract of Principles', or careful statement of theological belief, which every professor in such an institution must sign when inaugurated, so as to guard against the rise of erroneous and injurious instruction in such a seat of sacred learning."

James P. Boyce
from "Three Changes in
Theological Institutions"
- summarized by John Broadus, 1856



Carter's rift with SBC not a new development, former president's views far from denomination's
by R. Albert Mohler Jr.
October 29, 2000

Former President Jimmy Carter's "resignation" from the Southern Baptist Convention was intended to draw public attention --- and it did. After all, it isn't every day that one of the world's most famous citizens denounces his denomination.

Carter has been America's most active former president. His efforts at peacemaking, international negotiation, home construction for the impoverished and the eradication of diseases in Africa have earned him the world's respect. Nearly 20 years after leaving office, Carter remains an actor on the world scene and at home.

News of Carter's denunciation of the Southern Baptist Convention made headlines because the former president has been publicly identified with the SBC ever since he ran for president in 1976. He had joined a Southern Baptist congregation as a boy and became the denomination's most famous Sunday School teacher, even as president of the United States.

What is going on here? Carter cited several reasons for leaving the SBC. All are related to one central fact. The former president is solidly identified with the liberal wing of the SBC and has opposed the conservative leadership elected by the convention for the past two decades.

On an entire spectrum of theological and moral issues, Carter has been estranged from the SBC. On issues ranging from homosexuality and abortion to the nature of the Gospel and the authority of Scripture, the former president is out of step with the majority of Southern Baptists.

The breaking point in Carter's relationship to the SBC came with the denomination's adoption of a revised statement of faith, the Baptist Faith and Message. Approved overwhelmingly by messengers to the convention, the statement clarified the SBC's convictions on theological issues such as the total truthfulness of the Bible and the sinfulness of abortion and homosexuality. The statement also affirms the nuclear family as the foundation of civilization.

Carter, whose favorite theologians are drawn from the left wing of Christianity, claims that the Baptist Faith and Message is now "an increasingly rigid SBC creed" that violates "the basic premises of my Christian faith." Thus, the Carters have shifted their allegiance to the liberal Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.

But this is not news. Carter made a similar announcement in 1993, declaring his identification with the CBF. "I pray that as Rosalynn and I cast our lot with this fellowship for the rest of our lives, we can be a part of a transcendent movement."

Without question, denominationalism is not what it used to be. Every major denomination has experienced controversy and division over critical issues.

American Protestantism is now divided into conservative and liberal movements. Unique among major denominations, the SBC has come under conservative leadership as grass-roots Southern Baptists demanded doctrinal accountability and championed biblical inerrancy.

Carter, on the other hand, is an advocate for more liberalized positions on the Bible, the Gospel and crucial moral issues. In recent years he has stated that he doubts the validity of some of the miracles recorded in Scripture. "But I now believe that, even if some of the more dramatic miracles recounted in the Gospels could be untrue, my faith in (Christ) would still be equally precious and unshaken." He has also denied that faith in Christ is necessary for salvation. "I cannot imagine innocent persons being deprived of God's eternal blessing because they don't have a chance to accept Christ." Carter has been unclear concerning other religions as avenues to salvation. In a startling affront to the SBC, Carter criticized witnessing to Mormons --- but seemed not to know that Mormons do not accept the Christian gospel.

The issue of women as pastors also drew Carter's ire. The SBC has stated its conviction that the office of pastor is limited by Scripture to men. This is the position shared by the vast majority of Christians throughout the world. Carter, whose pastor is a man, is outraged by this restriction and blames the "fallible human beings" who were the human authors of Scripture for this restriction.

The chasm between Carter and the Southern Baptist mainstream is most clear on moral issues. As president, Carter made abortion rights a priority and organized the infamous 1979 White House Conference on Families --- now recognized as a watershed event. Evangelical outrage prompted by the conference contributed to Carter's election defeat in 1980.

In his post-presidential years, Carter has supported the cause of homosexual rights and raised money for gay-rights groups. All this is in direct conflict with the beliefs of Southern Baptists, who refuse to compromise clear biblical teachings on these controversial issues.

The sad reality is that Carter has been estranged from the Southern Baptist Convention for decades. He shifted his identification to another denominational fellowship years ago.

His much-trumpeted denunciation of the SBC is a post-presidential publicity stunt, apparently timed for maximum assistance to the Baptist General Convention of Texas in its break with the SBC Cooperative Program. In the end, it says far more about Carter than about the Southern Baptist Convention.

Dr. Mohler is president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, KY.

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