Resolution On the Role of the BF&M

I think that the most important issue that we face with the longest-lasting implications is the question of the appropriate role of The Baptist Faith & Message in our convention. I have submitted the following resolution out of my related concerns:

On the Role of The Baptist Faith & Message

WHEREAS, The various entities of the Southern Baptist Convention operated for the first eighty years of the convention’s existence according to their own internal theological parameters, including the Abstract of Principles at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary; and WHEREAS, The messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in Memphis, Tennessee, May 14-15, 1925, shaped the modern Southern Baptist Convention by adopting The Baptist Faith and Message as ”those articles of the Christian faith which are most surely held among us”; and WHEREAS, The Baptist Faith and Message did not become the statement of faith of any of the various entities of the Southern Baptist Convention until it was adopted as such by the boards of trustees that govern the entities; and WHEREAS, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, upon its adoption of The Baptist Faith and Message, nevertheless retained the Abstract of Principles as a body of additional binding theological parameters for the operation of the seminary, setting the precedent and demonstrating the propriety of individual Southern Baptist entities adopting and following additional binding theological parameters beyond The Baptist Faith and Message; and WHEREAS, Various trustee boards have made the wholehearted affirmation of The Baptist Faith and Message a minimum theological requirement for trustees governing those entities; now, therefore, be it RESOLVED, That the messengers to the Southern Baptist Convention meeting in San Antonio, Texas, June 12-13, 2007, regard The Baptist Faith and Message as the “instrument of doctrinal accountability” which we encourage all of our entities to employ as the minimum theological standard by which they operate; and be it further RESOLVED, That we acknowledge the appropriateness of entities adopting and enforcing additional theological standards such as the Abstract of Principles as a part of the unique responsibility of the board of trustees of each entity, operating in conscientious accountability to the convention, to govern the entity in its charge in all matters theological and otherwise; and be it further RESOLVED, That we consider public disagreement with The Baptist Faith and Message to constitute suitable grounds for the removal of trustees from service upon those boards which have made affirmation of The Baptist Faith & Message a minimum requirement for service; and be it finally RESOLVED, That we affirm the unabridged liberty of any individual who has not voluntarily entered a fiduciary or employee relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention or any of its entities to accept or reject, in part or in total, the tenets expressed in The Baptist Faith and Message.