Messengers agree to study Baptist Faith and Message
--By Keith Hinson
    ATLANTA, June 16--In a 54-46 percent vote, Southern Baptist Convention messengers approved a motion calling for the appointment of a committee to study its Baptist Faith and Message statement and bring a report to the 2000 convention meeting in Orlando, Fla.
    The ballot vote on the motion was 2,327-1,963.
    In supporting his motion, T.C. Pinckney, of Good News Baptist Church, Alexandria, Va., acknowledged the 1998 addition of an article on the family to the Baptist Faith and Message but noted the document was adopted in 1963.
    "The intervening 36 years have been momentous ones for the Southern Baptist Convention," stated Pinckney, who is editor of the Baptist Banner, a Virginia-based conservative journal. "I believe it is appropriate at this time that the Baptist Faith and Message be reviewed and that it be made consistent with the current stand of the Southern Baptist Convention."
    A.J. Smith, of Macedonia Baptist Church, Dryridge, Ky., spoke in support of Pinckney's motion.
    "Southern Baptists need a statement of faith that is precise and unambiguous," Smith said, citing three additional reasons for his agreement with the proposal:
    -- "Southern Baptists need a statement of faith that is written in plain, easy-to-understand language."
    -- "Southern Baptists need a statement that is biblically based, consistent with our heritage and focused on the primary tenets of the faith."
    -- "Southern Baptists need a statement of faith that is in all its parts logically consistent."

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