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Southern Baptists' conflict over the revised Baptist Faith and Message, adopted in 2000, has gone global. Southern Baptists in Texas and career missionaries are among those expressing outrage about a letter that International Mission Board (IMB) President Jerry Rankin sent to overseas personnel.

The January 31 letter asks that missionaries affirm the latest revision of the Baptist Faith and Message (BFM)—the Southern Baptist Convention's statement of faith that outlines its beliefs and convictions regarding doctrinal, family, and church issues.

"There are many who feel strongly that those being supported by the denomination should be willing to pledge affirmation and support for the current [BFM], especially those serving with the mission boards," Rankin said in the letter. "Failure to ask for this affirmation is creating suspicion that there are IMB personnel whose beliefs and practices are inconsistent with those represented by Southern Baptists."

Rankin adds, "I am asking that you sign the attached form indicating your affirmation and return it to your regional leader. You are welcome to note any area of disagreement." In January 2001, IMB trustees agreed not to require an affirmation. But in March, trustees meeting in Kansas City strongly endorsed Rankin's request.

Some Southern Baptists disagree with changes made in the 2000 statement, including a phrase in the document that refers to the Baptist Faith and Message as "an instrument of doctrinal accountability."

Others say conservatives are using the BFM as a creed. Charles Wade, executive director of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), told CT, "We've never considered a confession as an instrument of doctrinal accountability. When did Jesus ever ask anyone to sign something?"

Southern Baptists have asked missionary candidates to sign the statement since 1925. The Southern Baptist Convention has revised the BFM in 1963, 1998, and 2000. Rankin says that because other SBC employees were required to sign the 2000 document, some denominational leaders thought it necessary to ask missionaries to sign it.

David Dockery, president of Southern Baptist-supported Union University in Jackson, Tennessee, says that creedalism is not the issue. "Some [missionaries] agreed to serve prior to the Baptist Faith and Message 2000," he told CT, "and they feel like the rules have shifted on them some."

The SBC employs 5,165 missionaries, 4,665 of whom were appointed before 2000 and have not affirmed the latest statement. In February the North American Mission Board asked its fully funded missionaries, fewer than 100 people, to sign the statement.

Wade says that some missionaries do not want to sign the statement because they disagree with recent revisions. In 1998 the BFM included a section saying that wives should "graciously submit" to their husbands. In 2000 the statement declared that "the office of pastor is limited to men as qualified by Scripture."

Wade says that 70 missionary couples have contacted the BGCT to express their fears of being forced to resign. Others, he says, are considering resigning voluntarily.

In an e-mail message given to Christianity Today by the BGCT, a missionary couple in Latvia said they would not sign. "We have never desired to have our beliefs spoon-fed to us by those who somehow believe they hold that right," said Monte and Janet Erwin, appointed in 1989. "We believe the actions of our present leadership are presumptuous and out of order."

Some missionaries apparently are signing the statement for pragmatic reasons. Leon and Kathy Johnson, missionaries in Zimbabwe, wrote in an e-mail that some missions personnel "are taking a deep breath, crossing their fingers, and signing in order not to destroy their ministries and leave the people without a missionary presence."

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April 22 2002, Vol. 46, No. 5