My very first Baptist Standard cartoon was about a controversy over a report on Texas Baptist educational institutions. But the longest running controversy, of course, was the struggle for the "outs" to oust the "ins" until they took over control of all the Baptist organizations and institutions. They did it, of course, with a well organized political machine and used the free election process by which the Southern Baptist Convention had successfully operated for many decades.
I grew up in an era when most people didn't know who was going to be placed in nomination for SBC president until they arrived at the convention. The good candidates bubbled up to the top through many years of service on the associational, district, and state convention levels. Many a convention had a choice between good, better, and best, all of whom had proved themselves in faithful service and support of denominational programs. The new way was to pick one candidate, notify all the trusted leaders who that would be, and then rally busloads of supporters to go to the SBC for the election sesson. It made for record-busting convention attendances, but once the ballots were cast, the attendees at subsequent sessions rattled around like two peas in a boxcar.
One prominent architect of the takeover, a Florida pastor, was asked about a matter of business that was on the docket for the upcoming convention, "How do you think your people will vote on this?" He replied, "They'll vote the way I tell them to vote or they won't go as messengers!" That was in the back of my mind as I drew the "Free Baptists" cartoon that appears in the accompanying Photo Album. Comments? Do you have a story that illustrates or contradicts my observations?
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