February 5, 2004 (David Cloud, Fundamental Baptist Information Service, P.O. Box 610368, Port Huron, MI 48061, 866-295-4143, fbns@wayoflife.org; for instructions about subscribing and unsubscribing or changing addresses, see the information paragraph at the end of the article) -

I grew up in Southern Baptist churches and can testify that the convention was already incredibly worldly in the 1950s and 1960s. It was in a Southern Baptist church youth department that I had my first education in sin and the things of the world. It was the deacons’ sons who taught me to love the newly-born sound of rock & roll. I do not recall hearing one sermon on separation from the world. There was not one young person in that church that was serious about the things of God, and I have since learned that this church was not an exception within the convention.

Thirty-five years ago, Evangelist John R. Rice warned, “The lewdness of the modern dance is now excused and the worldly viewpoint accepted in most Southern Baptist colleges” (“Dancing in Southern Baptist Colleges,” Sword of the Lord, Sept. 5, 1969).

The worldliness has only increased since then.

A 1982 survey taken by Professor Furman Hewitt at Southwestern Theological Seminary discovered that 40% of the students drank alcoholic beverages (Southern Baptist Journal, Feb. 1983). A 1984 survey at Southern Baptist-supported Wake Forest University found that 90% of the students drank and 47% of them had drank so heavily in the previous three months that they could not remember what had happened to them while drinking (The Baptist Trumpet, April 4, 1984). In 1986, Southern Baptist-supported Baylor University in Texas began allowing campus dances. Speaking with the Ft. Worth Telegram-Star, President Robert Sloan described the move as exciting and said, “It’s done at other universities and we’ve wanted it for a long time.” Baylor sororities, fraternities, and other organizations had held off-campus dances for many years. In 1997, I received the following firsthand testimony about the worldliness at Southern Baptist-supported Grand Canyon University in Arizona. “If there is any type of dress code there, I have never seen evidence of it. Girls wear VERY short skirts and SHORT shorts in classes and around the campus. They wear them to my ‘Christian Thought and Perspectives’ and ‘Survey of the Bible’ classes. They wear these with tight fitting tank tops and their entire mid section exposed, and even have pierced belly buttons” (E-mail from Traci Werner, married adult student at Grand Canyon Baptist University, Nov. 13, 1997).

Southern Baptist schools are worldly because most Southern Baptist congregations are worldly. While there are still a handful of Southern Baptist churches that preach and practice separation from worldly things such as rock music, immodest dress, mixed bathing, and dancing, such congregations are rapidly disappearing from the Convention. Pointed preaching against indecent dress and worldly music and unwholesome entertainment is almost nonexistent in most SBC churches, and separation from the world is not required of deacons and other church workers. (Sadly, the same can be said for a rapidly growing number of Independent Baptist churches.)

As far back as the 1970s, a survey found that a high percentage of Southern Baptists attending the annual convention rented R-rated movies. In 1984 the Southern Baptist Christian Life Commission reported that 45% of Southern Baptists drink alcoholic beverages and 16% become alcoholics (EP News Service, Aug. 11, 1984). Among Southern Baptist youth, surveys revealed in 1984 that 25% have used alcohol and 9% used hard drugs.

Second Baptist Church of Houston, Texas, is typical of the large churches that fuel the Southern Baptist Cooperative Program engine. Its pastor, Ed Young, was elected to the SBC presidency in 1992. “This church features rock music, Hollywood movies, and other worldly attractions to lure ‘baby boomers’ to Sun. night services. The $34 million "Fellowship of Excitement" church plant is structured like a modernistic mall” (Calvary Contender, July 1, 1992).

Dr. John Bisagno’s First Baptist Church (SBC) in Houston, Texas, had an Elvis contest and Beatles music at a 1994 event in its Solid Rock Café (Calvary Contender, Aug. 15, 1994). Dr. R.L. Hymers, Jr. relates the following in his book Preaching to a Dying Nation: “A short time ago I was driving through Houston on a trip with my family. It was Sunday, so we dropped into the First Baptist Church ... since we knew of no independent church in the downtown area. I can only describe this evening service as fully charismatic. The pulsating music went on at a deafening level for nearly an hour. The sermon, by ... Louie Giglio, was replete with charismatic ideas, punctuated by waves of people holding their arms in the air. The ushers were men dressed in shorts and caps with rings in their ears. ... We felt as out of place as we would have if we had entered a night club, a rock concert, or an opium den! ... It is considered one of the conservative churches in the Southern Baptist Convention.”