Interview w/ BGCT Presidential Candidate David Lowrie

Rick Davis, a Texas Baptist pastor and blogger, has posted online a short interview with BGCT Presidential Candidate David Lowrie. I have mentioned Mr. Lowrie in a previous post.

This interview seems to be a result of a quote by Lowrie several weeks ago in which he promised to "stop the drift away from the SBC toward the CBF" as President of the BGCT. Continuing, Lowrie asserted that such a drift has "undermined our effectiveness" and Texas Baptists need to "get back to a more centrist position."

According to Rick Davis, Lowrie was quoted correctly and stands firmly behind his words.

Rick's questions are in bold, Lowrie's answers are in block quotes, and my response is after the interview.....

David, did you say you would try to stop the drift from the SBC to the CBF in BGCT life? If so, how would you do this? With personal influence, or through committee appointments, or through influencing hires at the staff level? Or how?

I would seek to stop the drift at the beginning by my personal influence. I would seek to build good working relationships with all our partners in global ministry. I would not seek to burn any bridges, but rather to restore them. I would also encourage that our committee appointment process would reflect the face of the BGCT. Since the majority of our churches give to the SBC, I think our committees should reflect this reality. I believe we need to affirm the SBC causes that we can support in good faith. On the staff level, I would encourage them to look for points of connection and cooperation with the SBC and its ministries. Where we can work together (i.e. Disaster Relief) let's work together. Where we cannot work together, then let's part ways but continue to work for Kingdom purposes on separate fronts. I love the BGCT and I love the SBC, and have since childhood. I realize I live in a new world, but I also know I am still part of the same Kingdom I have always served. The Kingdom of God is much bigger and broader than any of could ever imagine. I believe in a Big House and a Big Tent.

Will you speak forcefully about the ultra neo-fundamentalist drift in the SBC, which has left many of functionally without a home, as to national conventions?

I have attended as many SBC conventions as I could over the past twenty five years. Therefore I speak out of my own personal experiences and not what I have read. I will admit that I have had great difficulty with much of what has happened over the past twenty-five years. I did not always vote with the majority. I lost many votes, but my heart fo the Kingdom and the nations kept me involved. The face of Lottie Moon is much different today. I see her face in the young mssionaries around the world who are giving their lives for the sake of the gospel. I have heard that I am a closet fundamentalist, but I doubt the fundamentalists would claim based on my actions and my actions and my strong support of the BGCT and its openness. I have seen the ugly face of fundamentalism up close when my father was blackballed from a position with a SBC seminary. I fought it then and will fight it in the future if necessary. The important thing to remember is that we are still on the same team even when we don't agree. I believe that our strongest movements are built around relationships, not rules and regulations, so I would seek to build strong, healthy relationships with those in power and would seek to find ways we could work together on Kingdom terms.

In the first question, it appears that David Lowrie supports a Big Tent BGCT. However, Lowrie fails to affirm BGCT-CBF cooperation. From all I've read, Lowrie has not once affirmed such cooperation or spoken positively of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. Why? On which SBC ministry can Lowrie NOT cooperate? And on which CBF endeavor will he cooperate? Are there in fact any?

At first glance, Lowrie's second answer sounds a wee-bit better. But honestly, it astounds me even more. Speaking from personal experience, if your pops was blackballed, why haven't you seen the LIGHT? My gosh. His trite ditty about supporting the missionaries is weak. Lottie Moon is not the only missions offering taken up by Baptists. The SBC isn't the only Baptist organization that sends out missionaries. Lowrie sees the face of Lottie Moon today in the faces of young missionaries around the world. Yet in the current SBC, Lottie likely would be turned down by the International Mission Board. Lottie liked to preach ya know. The Apostle Paul wouldn't qualify either - so I'm told. But anyways....

Back to Lowrie's first response.

All his talk about PARITY is UTTER NONSENSE. Pull a Baptist history text out of your bookcase. Look up PARITY in the index and you'll find a picture of PAIGE PATTERSON. 25 years ago on November 24, 1982, Patterson presented a paper in which he expressed his desire for "parity" or equal representation of inerrantists in denominational structures. Today, we know Paige Patterson & Company wanted CONTROL not PARITY. Now, Lowrie is singing the parity tune...

Same song. Different verse?

UPDATE: In the comment section of the aforementioned post of Rick Davis, Lowrie writes that "there is no question that the extremes of fundamentalism moved the SBC away from the center of who we are as Texas Baptists....Most of the challenges we face in this state have little to do with national convention politics (SBC or CBF)."

So, Lowrie acknowledges that the current fundamentalist-led SBC is not representative of "who we are as Texas Baptists." Yet, he wants to "stop the drift away from the SBC toward the CBF." And Lowrie wants "parity" and a return to a more "centrist position."

Does any of that make sense? If the BGCT's challenges have little or nothing to do with the SBC or CBF, why is Lowrie concerned about the so-called CBF drift? Seriously, is "centrist" West Texan for "ultra-conservative" ???

Lowrie concludes his comment with these words:

We have an elephant in the living room, but there may be more than one. The only way to release this herd and send them on their way is for us to start a conversation that leads to concert of effort for the sake of the Kingdom.

Folks that other elephant alluded to is a moderate Baptist......