The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee president, Morris H. Chapman has responded to the recent meeting of moderate Southern Baptists where support was given to the Baptist World Alliance.

Chapman was part of the study committee that recommended that the SBC withdraw from the BWA, and was also vice-president of the BWA until the action to withdraw took effect.

"If there were any doubts in the minds of Southern Baptists about the moderate theological perspective embraced by BWA staff leadership, the latest action of the BWA general secretary is enough to dispel those doubts," Chapman said in a statement to Baptist Press. "He has enlisted the help of former SBC leaders, the Who's Who of Southern Baptist moderates, in an effort to generate individual and church funding for BWA activities."

The meeting of the SBC included at least two dozen former chief executives of Southern Baptist entities who declared themselves "advocates of the Baptist World Alliance."

McCall, a former BWA president, and a former president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary and former executive secretary-treasurer of the Executive Committee aid, "Our purpose is to retain Southern Baptist participation in and support of the Baptist World Alliance. We function within Baptist freedom and the autonomy of every Christian church."

The gathering reported their belief that the Southern Baptists are blessed by their BWA connection with other believers and even stated that they should be looking to "strengthen this family tie for our own benefit."

McCall concluded that the SBC churches may indeed now choose to reconcile with the BWA despite the convention's decision in June to withdraw from the BWA over doctrinal issues.

McCall said, "The SBC withdrawal from BWA membership does not require any individual or church, or Baptist association to sever that Christian relation to the BWA. We do not counsel any individual or church to withdraw from the SBC."

A member of the SBC's BWA study committee, James T. Draper Jr commented on the organisation’s decision to withdraw from the BWA earlier this year saying, "We just do not feel that the BWA is the only way or the best way for the SBC to relate to the larger Baptist family across the world."

He continued, "Several years ago the BWA began to appeal directly to Southern Baptist churches for financial support, in spite of repeated objections on the part of our leadership."

Draper went on to express his dismay at the move of the former SBC leaders, saying, "It is very sad to me that leaders who once championed the cause of our traditional strategy of cooperation would perpetuate this action."

Much disagreement arose in September, when the BWA President Billy Kim asked for donations since funding had been cut by over £150,000 after the SBC's departure.

Kim's letter suggested to churches that a donation of $250 would make a church an "associate member" of BWA, but a gift of $1,000 would make it a "Global Impact Church".

Chapman responded to this fundraising appeal by writing an open letter to Lotz and Kim requesting them to immediately stop the appeals to Southern Baptist Churches. He commented that the BWA were soliciting in ways that even SBC entities were restricted from doing.

This was followed in May 2003 by a BWA-sponsored global summit on Baptist missions. During this gathering Lotz declared that worldwide Baptists needed a new missions agency, and he offered for other Baptist mission agencies to work jointly in the effort or that a separate agency could be formed.

Chapman responded by saying, "It seems that at every turn, Denton Lotz is working to undermine the missions, ministries and theology of Southern Baptists. The Southern Baptist Convention supports the largest world missionary force -- 10,500 combined in the U.S. and abroad. Moreover, our missionaries focus on building churches by training pastors and disciplining lay leaders so that the spreading of the Gospel is multiplicative. Last year Southern Baptists were responsible for 600,000 baptisms overseas and the start of over 21,000 churches, from a force of about 5,400 international missionaries. Other BWA members, like the American Baptist Churches and the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, field only small numbers of missionaries, so Lotz's move to establish a new mission sending agency can only be viewed as an attempt to undermine the work of Southern Baptists -- especially in view of his appeal for funding from Southern Baptists with little indication that he is doing the same among churches of other member bodies."

This proposal was immediately followed by an announcement that the SBC would vote during its upcoming general meeting in June 2004 on whether to withdraw from the BWA.

Matters regarding the issue of homosexuality within the Church have also arisen to further pull apart the Southern Baptists and the BWA.

Chapman concluded, "When you connect the dots, it is clear that the BWA leadership will remain moderate-leaning in its relationships and theology and opposed to the best interests of Southern Baptists."