Top Ten Events for Baptists in 2004
The SBC-BWA split, murder of 4 SBC missionaries, re-election of President Bush, the legalization of gay marriages and the Passion of the Christ listed as some of chart toppers in the list of historic events for Baptists in 2004.
The Associated Baptist Press (ABP), an independent moderate Baptist news organization based in Jacksonville, Fla., the top Baptist news story for 2004 was the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC)’s withdrawal from the Baptist World Alliance. Next in line was the murder of four SBC missionaries in Iraq. Third was the re-election of President George W. Bush with the support of values voters.
The list, which was released by the ABP in a Dec. 16 report, was based on an annual survey of Baptist state newspaper editors conducted in the past few weeks.
The SBC-BWA split was also listed as the number one story by a poll conducted by the Religion News Service.
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The decision to split, which was actually a culmination of 2 years of tense debates between the two groups, finalized at the SBC’s annual conference in June. Some two-thirds of the messengers to the annual meeting voted in favor of the split.
One of the reasons why the SBC-BWA split was so prominent was because of the large role SBC played in the formation and maintenance of the BWA over the past 99 years. At one point in history, the SBC – one of the founding denominations of the BWA, provided most of the leadership and funding to the Alliance.
Conservatives within SBC pointed to theological differences and “questionable” uses of funds - $300,000 of which was given annually to the BWA prior to the break – in the Alliance as the reason for the split. Leaders at the BWA denied the charge, and instead pointed to the BWA’s recent acceptance of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship (a moderate fellowship of churches that split from the SBC in the early 1990s) as the main reason for the division.
Whatever the reason for the split, the event was undoubtedly historic – especially in light of the BWA’s upcoming Centennial celebration next year in London.
The second chart topper was the murder of the four SBC missionaries in Iraq late spring. The heartless shooting, which left four missionaries dead and one hospitalized for months, was the deadliest tragedy in the 157 years of Southern Baptist missions history. The relief worker/missionaries killed in the shooting were Larry T. Elliott, 60, and Jean Dover Elliott, 58, of Cary, N.C.; Karen Denise Watson, 38, of Bakersfield, Calif.; and David McDonnall, 29, of Fort Worth, Texas. McDonnall's wife, Carrie Taylor McDonnall, 26, was severely wounded but survived
The third chart-topper was the recent re-election of George W. Bush on Nov. 2. In what many conservatives viewed as a “clean sweep,” the evangelical Bush was elected over the more liberal Kerry. In the months leading up to the election, conservatives launched numerous voter-registration campaigns to get conservative “value-voters” out to the polls. According to statistics from exit polls, voters cited “moral issues” as the number one concern that made their decision.
The following is the list of the other top 2004 stories in Baptist life, as compiled by the Associated Baptist Press:
4. Gay marriage -- particularly its approval by the Massachusetts Supreme Court and gay marriages held in San Francisco and a couple of other municipalities -- prompted a nationwide outcry from conservatives and legislative attempts to prohibit it.
5. Four deadly hurricanes smashed into Florida, other Southern states and the Caribbean in late summer, killing more than 100 people, damaging dozens of churches and triggering Baptist disaster-relief work.
6. Mel Gibson's blockbuster movie "The Passion of the Christ" debuted in February amid charges of anti-Semitism, but pre-Easter audiences responded favorably, producing record ticket and DVD sales. While the movie made Jesus' death a topic of water-cooler conversation, evangelical Christians turned the box-office phenomenon into an outreach tool.
7. Constitutional amendments banning gay marriage were passed in 11 states Nov. 2 in reaction to legalization in some jurisdictions. Two other states approved bans earlier.
8. The SBC International Mission Board adopted guidelines in July requiring volunteer mission workers to endorse the more conservative 2000 version of the "Baptist Faith and Message" statement. The endorsement is already required of IMB missionaries.
9. Congress defeated the Federal Marriage Amendment on a procedural vote July 14. The defeat of the constitutional ban was hailed as a victory by gay-rights activists, but the vote triggered a cascade of state gay-marriage bans and energized a conservative electorate.
10. The SBC North American Mission Board voted Feb. 4 not to endorse female chaplains in cases "where the role and function of the chaplain would be seen the same as that of a pastor." The move brought an end to the SBC's endorsement of female chaplains for the military, but may not prevent women from serving as hospital chaplains.
