Conservatives among Southern Baptists deeply fear that questioning the literal truth of the Bible will kill their church by scriptural anemia; liberals deeply fear that clinging to the literal Bible will make their church wither and die of a quaint unreality. Last week in Kansas City. 12,670 "messengers" to the annual assembly of the 10,200,000-member church reflected this split by electing a conservative president and passing a string of liberally oriented resolutions. Frontrunner, as the assembly opened, was the Rev. Carl Bates of Charlotte. N.C., who seemed to have doubts about...
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