BF&M 2000 as a Litmus Test for the Laity (7-21-04)

North Carolina's Biblical Recorder reports that the International Mission Board (IMB) of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) has decided that all groups working with the IMB must approve the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message (BF&M). Henceforth only members of Southern Baptist churches that have endorsed the 2000 BF&M can participate in overseas mission trips involving the IMB.

First the Fundamentalists lied and said they weren't trying to create a creed. Then they lied and said that the 2000 BF&M was a confession, not a creed. Then they lied and said that career missionaries would not have to sign the new creed. Then they said adoption of the 2000 BF&M would have no effect on the local church. Now denominational agencies are refusing to work with churches that refuse to adopt the creed.

In September 2000 Mainstream Baptists in Oklahoma organized forums to warn Oklahoma Baptists about the 2000 BF&M. At those forums, we warned Baptists that the 2000 BF&M was the mechanism by which Fundamentalists intended to takeover their churches. Affirming their creed is like handing the keys to your church over to Paige Patterson and Jerry Falwell. Pious, apolitical moderates in the crowd routinely belittled the idea that there was any way the 2000 BF&M could be imposed on them and their churches.

Where are those pious, apolitical moderates now?