Date: Sat, 19 Sep 1998 20:16:13 -0400 From: Darrell Todd Maurina <Darrell128@aol.com> Reply-To: Darrell128@aol.com Organization: Christian Renewal/United Reformed News Service Subject: NR 98088: Southern Baptist Seminary President Defends Call to Discipline President Clinton September 17, 1998 * Contents: NR #1998-088: Southern Baptist Seminary President Defends Call to Discipline President Clinton Following a fundamentalist takeover in the 1980's and 1990's, the Southern Baptist Convention has generally been considered one of the United States' most conservative denominations. From time to time, however, the denomination's recent past shows up. A few years ago, the denomination dealt with two small California churches which allowing practicing homosexuals into church membership, finally resulting in the churches withdrawing to avoid expulsion. If the president of the denomination's flagship seminary gets his way, the denomination may do the same to one of its prestigious churches in the Bible Belt: Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas - the home church of President Bill Clinton. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., has been no stranger to controversy. Since becoming president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Mohler has taken on long-serving professors and department heads in direct clashes over doctrine. His vision to reform the seminary transformed Southern Seminary, once known more for its academic stature than its doctrinal orthodoxy, into a strictly conservative school that lost many of its most prestigious professors in fights with Mohler. In recent weeks, however, Mohler set his sights on a target bigger than any of his professors. As the news of Clinton's confessed adultery with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spread across the American newspapers and airwaves, it was soon joined by news of Mohler's call for Clinton's church to either discipline him or itself be disciplined by the denomination. NR #1998-088: For Immediate Release: Southern Baptist Seminary President Defends Call to Discipline President Clinton EDITOR'S NOTE: The Southern Baptist Convention isn't among the denominations we regularly cover. However, due to the current controversy surrounding the admitted adultery of President Bill Clinton and the calls from within his denomination to discipline him for his conduct, we conducted an interview with Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr. Mohler, currently president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, has been a major architect of the conservative takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. Mohler's aims go beyond those of American fundamentalism; as a member of the Alliance of Confessing Evangelicals and speaker at its first conference in 1996, he has sought to encourage the restoration not merely of a broadly evangelical but also of a distinctively Reformed character to his denomination. Mohler hasn't shied from public criticism of those opposed to his goals and has attracted widespread attention for his stances in the news media. Most recently, Mohler received national press attention when he called upon President Clinton's home church in Arkansas, a member of the Southern Baptist Convention, to discipline him unless he repents. by Darrell Todd Maurina, Press Officer United Reformed News Service (September 17, 1998) URNS - Following a fundamentalist takeover in the 1980's and 1990's, the Southern Baptist Convention has generally been considered one of the United States' most conservative denominations. From time to time, however, the denomination's recent past shows up. A few years ago, the denomination dealt with two small California churches which allowing practicing homosexuals into church membership, finally resulting in the churches withdrawing to avoid expulsion. If the president of the denomination's flagship seminary gets his way, the denomination may do the same to one of its prestigious churches in the Bible Belt: Immanuel Baptist Church of Little Rock, Arkansas - the home church of President Bill Clinton. Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., has been no stranger to controversy. Since becoming president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Kentucky, Mohler has taken on long-serving professors and department heads in direct clashes over doctrine. His vision to reform the seminary transformed Southern Seminary, once known more for its academic stature than its doctrinal orthodoxy, into a strictly conservative school that lost many of its most prestigious professors in fights with Mohler. In recent weeks, however, Mohler set his sights on a target bigger than any of his professors. As the news of Clinton's confessed adultery with former White House intern Monica Lewinsky spread across the American newspapers and airwaves, it was soon joined by news of Mohler's call for Clinton's church to either discipline him or itself be disciplined by the denomination. In Baptist polity each church is autonomous so there is no way Mohler or any other Southern Baptist denominational official can discipline Clinton or order his church to do so. That isn't the end of the story, however. "The Convention has the full right to call upon a local church to remove a member, and has the full authority to remove a church if it fails to take such action," said Mohler in an interview with United Reformed News Service. "Only Immanuel Baptist Church in Little Rock can take such action, but an open call from the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention in Salt Lake City this summer to call upon the church to take action failed by such a small majority that a ballot vote was necessary." Mohler isn't the only Southern Baptist leader to voice such sentiments, though he and Convention president Dr. Paige Patterson are among the most prominent. Mohler said he enjoyed "widespread support" in the denominational leadership for his views even though that support hasn't always been made as publicly as that of Mohler. Although America has had Baptist presidents before and the Southern Baptist Convention is America's largest Protestant denomination, the current situation is unusual. Both Clinton and vice-president Al Gore are Southern Baptists, though both disagree with their denomination on politically-charged issues such as the denomination's strong opposition to abortion. Mohler, who has long disliked such views by America's highest-profile Southern Baptist, drew the line when news of Clinton's sexual affair went public, and especially when the details were released last week. "The reason the Southern Baptist Convention has a particular responsibility here is because the President of the United States holds a membership in one of our churches," said Mohler. "There have been other presidents who have committed sexual sins, both while in office and prior to their election to the presidency, but President Clinton's case is on a scale altogether unprecedented, and follows a scandalous series of sexual sins to which he had already admitted." Mohler pointed out that Baptists have traditionally held that civil rulers need to be not just effective governors but also moral citizens. "It demonstrates a recklessness and total disregard for moral law to the point that I believe he is morally disqualified for the office he now holds," said Mohler. "He has so abused and violated his oath of office and so destroyed the moral credibility of his presidency that I cannot conceive how he can remain in his office with credibility or effectiveness." Removal from public office isn't enough: according to Mohler, the church must also deal with Clinton. "The New Testament is very clear in calling for the church to exercise discipline of its own members; according to Scripture our sin is not our business alone, but is a matter for the entire congregation," said Mohler. "The goal of church discipline is not to remove a person from membership but to restore him. If a person resists excommunication, that may follow but that is not the goal." Mohler said he was "outraged by the quickness with which some ministers have promised forgiveness in the President's case." "I would hope that the president would reach the point of genuine repentance, but I cannot take his confession of sin seriously as contrition and repentance so long as he pursues his legal argument that he did not commit the sins for which others see him as repentant," said Mohler. "I believe this is a real test of the moral character of the American people, but it is also a test of the moral resolve of the Christian church." "It is my hope that the church will help the nation to recover its moral senses in this matter," said Mohler. Cross-References to Related Articles: [No related articles on file] Contact List: Dr. R. Albert Mohler, Jr., President, Southern Baptist Theological Seminary 2825 Lake Lexington Rd., Louisville, KY, 40223 O: (502) 897-4011 * FAX: (502) 899-1770 ---------------------------------------------------------- file: /pub/resources/text/reformed/archive98: nr98-088.txt .