Jimmy Carter Severs Ties To Southern Baptists Over Right-Wing Stands.

Former President Jimmy Carter announced in October that he and his wife Rosalynn have left the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC), holding that the denomination has become too conservative politically and too rigid in doctrinal matters.

In a letter issued publicly to fellow Baptists, Carter said he disagrees with some of the SBC's recent policy decisions, including its ban on women clergy and its declaration that women should "submit graciously" to their husbands.

Carter went on to say that he and Rosalynn would prefer to associate with "other traditional Baptists who continue to share such beliefs as separation of church and state, servanthood and not domination of pastors, local church autonomy, a free religious press and equality of women."

Wrote Carter, "Over the years leaders of the convention have adopted an increasingly rigid creed, called a `Baptist Faith and Message,' including some provisions that violate the basic tenets of my Christian faith. These premises have become mandatory criteria that must be accepted by employees, by members of committees who control the convention's affairs and by professors who teach in the SBC-owned seminaries. Obviously, this can have a far-reaching and permanent effect."

Carter told Associated Baptist Press that he will remain a member of Maranatha Baptist Church in Plains, Ga., and will continue to teach Sunday School there. The church sends about half of its mission contributions to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a moderate Baptist body that opposes the fundamentalism of the SBC.

"This is a torturous decision to make," Carter told the Associated Baptist Press. "I do it with anguish and not with any pleasure."

Some SBC leaders criticized Carter for the move. The Rev. James Merritt, current president of the SBC, told the Associated Press, "With all due respect to the president, he is a theological moderate. We are not a theological moderate convention."

Albert Mohler, president of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, wrote an opinion column in the Atlanta Journal-Constitution in which he dismissed Carter's announcement as a "post-presidential publicity stunt." Mohler charged that Carter left the SBC years ago.

In a related story about the SBC, denomination members in Texas have voted by a wide margin to stop funding the SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission and to reduce funding of the six Southern Baptist seminaries.

The move means that the SBC will lose more than $5 million in annual funding from the Texas Baptists. Texas is one of a handful of states where moderate Baptists remain in control of the state SBC convention.

The SBC's Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission works closely with Religious Right organizations and often files legal briefs attacking church-state separation in cases before the Supreme Court.