So. Baptists Will Consider Forming Lobbying Unit

WASHINGTON —  Southern Baptists will continue support of the multidenominational Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, based here, if the national convention next month upholds the recommendations of a special study committee.

But the 14.6 million-member denomination also will be asked to consider establishing an independent lobbying agency on Capitol Hill.

The Baptist Joint Committee, representing nine Baptist denominations with a total membership of 27 million, is the Baptist voice in Washington on those issues on which its members agree.

Fundamentalist forces that have moved into positions of power in the Southern Baptist Convention have faulted the Joint Committee in recent years on a number of points, especially on its traditional opposition to school prayer and the service of the agency’s director, James Dunn, on the board of People for the American Way.

Lobby Was Defeated

A move last year to take Southern Baptists out of the Joint Committee and establish an independent lobby was defeated. But the 1986 convention voted to appoint a committee to study continued Southern Baptist participation in the Joint Committee.

A pullout by Southern Baptists could jeopardize the work of the Joint Committee, which receives nearly 85% of its funding from the largest Baptist body.

The report of the Southern Baptist Convention study committee said the Joint Committee “has assisted Southern Baptists in some ways,” such as protecting foreign-mission interests, working on tax reform and minister’s retirement programs and “providing information, education, research, counsel and advocacy” to the church.

Recognizing that the 27 million Baptists reflected in the Joint Committee “represent a greater potential influence” in Washington than the 14.6 million Southern Baptists, the study committee recommended continued participation.

Bylaws Modified

But the committee also encouraged the denomination’s Christian Life Commission to consider opening an office in Washington to deal with “those appropriate moral and social concerns” that are high priorities for Southern Baptists.

The Joint Committee already has modified its bylaws to increase Southern Baptist membership on its 54-member board from 15 to 18.

Two-thirds of the Southern Baptist delegates are to be elected at next month’s convention.

Paul Pressler, a Houston layman who has been one of the architects of the fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, said this month that he would support continued convention funding of the Joint Committee if, as expected, the convention approves the study-committee recommendations. Pressler was one of nine study-panel members.