c. 1998 Religion News Service

RALEIGH, N.C. _ After months of often agonizing debate, Raleigh’s oldest Baptist church _ a congregation known for elevating the role of women _ voted this week to end its 153-year relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention.

The 264-23 vote at First Baptist Church came just three months after the convention issued a statement telling women to”submit … graciously”to their husbands, but members said the vote was as much a rejection of what they called”authoritarian trends”that have emerged since conservatives seized power nearly 20 years ago.

The resolution reflects a growing willingness among independent-minded Baptist churches to challenge the conservative leadership of the denomination after years of disapproving silence.”What this is really about is our identity,”said Mary Jon Roach, chairwoman of the church’s denominational relations committee.”It’s a matter of us saying to people around us, `We don’t approve of what the SBC is doing.'” In the vote Wednesday (Sept. 23), the 1,350-member church stopped short of using the term”disassociate.”Instead it said in its resolution,”…regretfully, we no longer identify our church with the Southern Baptist Convention.” Founded in 1812, First Baptist Church has been a state leader in building the Baptist faith. It helped create the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina; it gave Wake Forest University in Winston-Salem and Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest many of their early leaders and established 38 Baptist churches in and around Raleigh. It is also a church where women have served as deacons since 1874, and as ministers since 1982.”These churches represent a liberal direction that has been running against Southern Baptist conviction for the latter half of this century,” said Albert Mohler, president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., and a rising leader in the SBC.”I am greatly saddened by churches that move away from Holy Scripture and evangelistic convictions.”

Mohler predicted that only a few churches would follow First Baptist’s lead.”This is historically significant, but it’s not statistically significant,” he said.”The vast majority of Southern Baptist churches have made their convictions absolutely clear.”

With about 16 million members and 40,000 churches, the Southern Baptist Convention is the nation’s largest Protestant denomination.

But at First Baptist, the denominational affiliation was embarrassing and had begun to prevent them from attracting new members.”We’re not ashamed of being Baptists. We’re proud of being Baptists,”said Matt Bullard, a deacon.”But we want people to understand what it truly means. I’m afraid a lot of people who come to town with no affiliation will probably say, `I’m not going to a Baptist church. They’re crazy.'” Yet in interviews conducted in recent weeks, church members agonized over whether they should break away.”This has been a very difficult decision,” said Steve Sumerel, a member of the committee that drafted the resolution.”People have cried at these meetings. I still get choked up. It’s like saying we’re not a member of the family.”

At First Baptist Church of Raleigh, women were never asked to submit graciously. In fact, they were asked to lead.

Among its early members was Thomas Meredith, who founded the Baptist Female Seminary that eventually became Meredith College in Raleigh.

In the late 1800s, Fannie Heck formed the Women’s Missionary Union, an auxiliary group of the Southern Baptist Convention that has provided crucial financial and educational support for missionaries.

And in 1874, the Rev. Thomas Pritchard decided four women should serve on the board of deacons _ a bold move even by today’s standards. Today, by church law, half the board must be female.

The current leadership of the convention says women cannot serve as deacons or ministers because the Apostle Paul instructed them to remain silent at church.

In June, that same leadership amended the Baptist statement of faith, a 19-page booklet that reads:”A wife is to submit herself graciously to the servant leadership of her husband even as the church willingly submits to the headship of Christ.”The amendment spells out what Baptists say is”God’s order for the home,”an order that goes back to Genesis, in which Eve is created as Adam’s”helper.” The denomination says the amendment is based on a statement by Paul in Ephesians 5:22-23:”You wives will submit to your husband as you do to the Lord. For a husband is the head of his wife as Christ is the head of his body, the church; he gave his life to be her Savior.” But to Carolyn Dickens, chairwoman of the church’s board of deacons, that passage is meant to be understood in the context in which it was written: first-century Christianity. The Bible, she says, has a lot more to say about women than that verse alone.”My husband and I feel very strongly that we work together,”she said.”We both give and take. Our children can see we don’t always agree. I don’t think it’s harmful to them. I want my children to know you can love someone and disagree with them.” (BEGIN OPTIONAL TRIM)

For the Rev. Daniel Day, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, the convention’s decision on women’s submission was the last straw. He suggested the church hold discussions on its identity and the board of deacons responded cautiously.

First, the church voted to highlight its affiliation with a rival group _ the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship _ in all bulletins, newsletters and stationery. The church has been actively involved in the fellowship since its creation in 1991 as a”moderate”Southern Baptist group.

Then the deacons voted to ask a committee to investigate ways the church could further distance itself from the denomination.

In three congregational hearings in August, church members told the committee that breaking from the denomination would be hard. To many, the Southern Baptist Convention has been like a parent: It helped shape their lives and gave them an identity _ often at a young age.

But however difficult, these members said it was time to go.

Others said there were good reasons to stay. Some didn’t want to drop beloved Southern Baptist programs that had tied one generation to the next _ programs such as Royal Ambassadors, the boys’ missionary program, and Girls in Action, its counterpart.

Then came an even more difficult question: Would people leave if the church took this vote? Leaders had no easy answer. Some might, they said, but a mass exodus was unlikely.

Finally, there were those who said it was important to stay and fight.

But most church members felt the battle had already been lost. The Southern Baptist Convention they knew and loved had died a long time ago.

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On one level, the resolution to break with the SBC was about the role of women; on another level, it had nothing to do with it.

As a so-called”moderate”church, members of First Baptist had a long list of grievances with the conservative convention. There was the 1984 resolution opposing the ordination of women. There was the 1988 resolution defining the pastor as the”ruler of the church.”There was the 1997 resolution to boycott the Walt Disney Co. for extending benefits to partners of gay employees.

But although the church has stopped sending money to the denomination and has not attended its yearly conventions since 1991, many felt it needed to publicly acknowledge its new identity.”There are some parallels between where this congregation is and the family around the bed of a beloved aunt on a respirator,”explained Bullard, the deacon.”The family says, `Surely, she’s going to live, she’s going to get better.’ Then it dawns on them: She won’t get better. So they decide to disconnect her from the respirator and permit her to pass away. And then, and only then, do they say, `She’s passed away now, but really we lost her two months ago.’ The Southern Baptist Convention has passed away. It’s not going to get any better.” DEA END SHIMRON