Texas Baptists Committed:

Organizing the States

The Texas Baptists Committed political strategy of steering the states away from the SBC and toward the CBF has become an organized effort on the part of anti-SBC/pro-CBF moderates.  Thus, the formation of both Baptists Committed-type (“Mainstream”) organizations and CBF organizations in each state is viewed as essential.  According to John Baugh, an organizer of the March 1998 meeting in Nashville and a long-time member of the Texas Baptists Committed Executive Committee:  “It’s important to have [Mainstream/Baptists Committed-type and CBF] organizations in each state…”[i]  Also speaking at the Nashville meeting, Tony Woodell, Director of the Arkansas Baptists Committed, stated:  “The only way to have a strong Baptists Committed is to have a strong CBF, and the only way to have a strong CBF is to have a strong Baptists Committed.”[ii]   

Expressing support for this political strategy, CBF network coordinator Bill Bruster, also a  participant in the Nashville meeting and a former chairman of the Texas Baptists Committed Executive Committee,[iii] stated:  “The CBF is trying to focus on the future and be positive, because young adults are turned off by the sniping…  The CBF will support Baptists Committed groups whenever possible.”[iv]  Also speaking at the Nashville meeting, Texas Baptists Committed coordinator Dr. David Currie followed a similar line of thought:  “Having Baptists Committed and CBF is a help…because Baptists Committed can say some things CBF can’t…”[v]   

Following this same political strategy, the June 1999 issue of the Mainstream Missouri Baptists newsletter states: 

There are two organizations which can help…traditional Southern Baptists in Missouri.  One is the CBF of Missouri and the other is Mainstream Missouri Baptists.  CBF is designed to create new alternatives outside of the SBC through which Baptists can work together to fulfill the Great Commission.  Mainstream is designed to help Baptists join together to give a unified witness against the Fundamentalist agenda to “takeover”  the Missouri Baptist Convention.[vi] 

The relationship between CBF and Texas Baptists Committed has been very strong.  Identifying Texas Baptists Committed coordinator David Currie as a “contemporary Baptist prophet” and stating “I no longer consider myself a Southern Baptist,” CBF coordinator Daniel Vestal has been a strong supporter of Texas Baptists Committed.[vii]  In fact, Dr. Vestal is a former member of the Texas Baptists Committed Executive Committee.[viii]  Further reflecting CBF support for Texas Baptists Committed and the group’s political strategy of fighting against the SBC on the state level, the 1999 CBF General Assembly included  a “breakout session” led by Dr. Currie and Texas Baptists Committed associate coordinator Charles McLaughlin entitled: “How to Begin a Baptists Committed Organization.”[ix]  In 1998, McLaughlin led a “breakout session” entitled: “Starting and Growing a Baptists Committed Group in Your State.”[x] 

Numerous other members of the Texas Baptist Committed Executive Committee have served on the CBF Coordinating Council including: Michael Bell, Amelia Bishop, Dean Dickens, Paul Kenley, George Mason, Bruce Prescott, Scott Walker, Ophelia Humphrey, Noah Rodrequez, Charles Wade and Bill Bruster, who now serves as CBF network coordinator.  Executive Committee members John Baugh and Jerold McBride serve as trustees for the CBF Foundation.  Six of these same individuals are listed on the Texas CBF web site as members of the Texas CBF Steering Committee.[xi]  As mentioned earlier, Texas Baptists Committed associate coordinator Charles McLaughlin serves as coordinator for the Texas CBF.  

Texas Baptists Committed and The Interfaith Alliance

Re-defining “Mainstream:”

In addition to serving as coordinator of Texas Baptists Committed and on the Coordinating Council of the CBF, Dr. David Currie also serves on the board of directors and as treasurer of another “mainstream” organization called The Interfaith Alliance (TIA).  According to TIA, the organization was formed to “provide mainstream people of faith with a voice in civic life and the political process.”[xii] (emphasis ours)  Neither is Dr. Currie the only CBF leader serving in leadership positions with TIA. 

The executive director of TIA, Dr. C. Welton Gaddy, served as a member of the CBF Coordinating Council and led the opening worship session at the February, 1999 meeting of the Coordinating Council.[xiii]  Dr Gaddy is also a recent past president of Americans United for Separation of Church and State and is currently  president of the Alliance of Baptists, an organization claiming to have “provided much of the leadership for the [Cooperative Baptist] Fellowship.”[xiv]   

Another TIA board member is Dr. Foy Valentine, who for 28 years served as executive director of the SBC’s Christian Life Commission (Dr. Gaddy served as the CLC’s director of Christian Citizenship Development under Valentine.).[xv]  Dr. Valentine is also a former president of Americans United, a former “sponsor” for the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights,[xvi] and is currently president of the CBF-funded Center for Christian Ethics at Baylor.  (See article II)  Another TIA board member is Gardner Taylor, who serves with Dr. Valentine on the Religious Liberty Council of the CBF-funded Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs.[xvii] 

Likewise, numerous TIA board members and staff have led “breakout sessions” at annual CBF General Assemblies, including Currie, Gaddy and Valentine.  TIA staffers Ken Brooker Langston and Bill Golderer have also led CBF “breakout sessions.”[xviii]     

In the TIA Statement of Principles, the organization states: 

As a non-partisan organization, The Interfaith Alliance offers Americans a mainstream, faith-based agenda committed to the positive role of religion as a healing and constructive force in public life.  The Interfaith Alliance draws on shared religious principles to challenge those who manipulate religion to promote an extreme political agenda based on a false gospel of irresponsible individualism.  This false gospel threatens our families, our values and our future.  We believe we must not only give voice to mainstream values, but also take action to preserve and express our shared beliefs.  We are committed to supporting families, ensuring opportunity and honoring freedom.[xix]  (emphasis ours) 

Though claiming to be a “non-partisan,” “faith-based” organization formed in July of 1994, The Interfaith Alliance began with $25,000 in seed money from the Democratic Congressional Campaign Committee[xx] for the purpose of challenging “Radical right-wing extremists [who] have declared a holy war in America, promoting an agenda based on hate and intolerance.”[xxi]  The “Radical Right-wing extremists” TIA accuses of promoting an “extreme political agenda” based on hate, intolerance and a false gospel  has been consistently identified by TIA as Focus on the Family, Christian Coalition, Family Research Council and numerous other such conservative Christian organizations.  

The first executive director of TIA was Jill Hanauer, a “Democratic party operative” and leader in the abortion rights movement.  According to the Capital Research Center: 

Hanauer’s background is politics, not religion.  A long-time Democratic party operative, she was a staffer for former Senator Gary Hart and later worked on Rep. Patricia Schroeder’s 1988 presidential campaign.  According to National Journal, she raised more than $3 million for the Democratic National Committee before joining the National Abortion Rights Action League (NARAL) as its political action director in 1990.  In 1992, she joined Iowa Senator Tom Harkin’s presidential campaign.  All in all, these are hardly the sort of activities of someone in the mainstream.[xxii]  (emphasis ours) 

TIA’s commitment to abortion rights goes far beyond Ms. Hanauer’s involvement with NARAL.  Four members of the TIA board of directors signed an April 1996 letter to the members of Congress published by the Religious Coalition for Reproductive Choice (formerly the Religious Coalition for Abortion Rights) in support of keeping the partial-birth abortion procedure legal.  The letter states:  “As mainstream religious leaders, we write to express our agreement with President Clinton’s veto of HR 1833, the so-called ‘Partial Birth Abortion Ban,’ and urge Congress not to override that veto.”[xxiii] (emphasis ours)  TIA board members signing the RCRC letter were: Bishop Edmond Browning, Rev. Philip Wogaman, Rev. Meg Riley and Dr. John Swomley.

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