CHARLOTTE, N.C. (BP)–God spared his life after a recent surgery because he was meant to combat an “ignorant” and “asinine” Paige Patterson in Texas, said David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptists Committed, during a breakout session at the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship general assembly June 26.
“I was pretty scared I wasn’t going to survive my operation. … The first thing I said when I woke up was ‘I survived the surgery.’ The more I reflected on it I decided that God realized it was because Paige Patterson was coming to Texas, and he said, ‘Currie, you can’t go yet. It’s going to be too much fun,'” Currie said during a meeting of the Texas CBF.
He said that, while he didn’t mean to be rude, a June 25 report in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram that quoted Patterson as saying Scripture forbade women pastors revealed poor biblical hermeneutics on the part of the former president of the Southern Baptist Convention. Patterson was elected to the presidency of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, June 24.
“Getting up before a group of trustees as was reported in the Fort Worth Star-Telegram yesterday and saying that it is crystal clear that a woman can not be a pastor is arrogant, asinine and ignorant,” Currie said. “It is ignorant of simple biblical hermeneutics and we’ll keep telling that story.”
Currie was quoted in the Fort Worth paper as saying that Patterson was a “well meaning theological pervert.”
“I came up with a good line yesterday and it got me in so much trouble that I now get to write an article and explain it, but Dr. Patterson is a well meaning theological pervert because it is a perversion of the Gospel to have that kind of hermeneutic. It is a perversion of the Gospel to have that kind of understanding of what God can do through women. It is a perversion of the Gospel to feel like you’ve got to have all that stuff in addition to what Jesus did on the cross,” he said.
In a statement to Baptist Press, R. Albert Mohler Jr., president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., responded to Currie’s attack on Patterson.
“I am grateful that Baptists do not look to David Currie for hermeneutical advice. What he characterizes as “ignorant” and “asinine” is the majority interpretation of the church for more than 2000 years, and is the majority position of Christian denominations worldwide.
Mohler added, “This comment reflects the sheer desperation of the Texas Baptists Committed organization and their tremendous fear of a great defender of the faith moving into their terrain.”
A self-described moderate who is heavily involved with the CBF in Texas and the ailing Mainstream Baptist Network, both groups far-left of the consensus of Southern Baptists, Currie spoke against the International Mission Board for terminating missionaries, calling that action ignorant as well.
“It’s one thing to be ignorant like that, but it’s really bad to be ignorant and proud of it,” he said. Currie said that he and the like-minded individuals and churches of Texas Baptists Committed are the “authentic Baptist network of cooperating churches” in the state and still have an important role to play in Texas Baptist and CBF life.
“The more people that wake up … the more people will be drawn to us because we have a healthy theology, we have a healthy understanding of the Gospel, we have a healthy understanding of tradition,” he said.
That will change if Patterson has his way in Texas, Currie said. He charged that Patterson developed a system of paying churches in North Carolina and Virginia to allow students to serve on staff while president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C. In some cases, the funds paid students’ salaries and in other cases a stipend, he said. He also said Patterson would implement the same system in Texas to plant conservative ministerial students in “uneducated churches.”
“We need to take Patterson’s being here as a real threat because he packages that ignorance in a smooth way,” Currie said. “We’ve got to get serious about placement.”
Leaders at Southeastern Seminary said the charge against Patterson and the seminary is without merit. Ryan Hutchinson, vice president for administration at the North Carolina seminary, said that the institution had never given any money to churches or provided students with stipends “to serve or plant churches in North Carolina or anywhere.” Jerry Higgins, the seminary’s director of public relations, also dismissed Currie’s conspiracy theory.
Speaking to Baptist Press, Jack Graham, pastor of the Dallas-area Prestonwood Baptist Church in Plano, and newly re-elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention, addressed Currie’s charged language about Patterson’s recent election as president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.
“Southern Baptists in Texas who believe in the Lordship of Christ, the inerrancy of Scripture and advancing the Kingdom of God through missions and evangelism will warmly welcome Paige Patterson to this state.
Graham added, “His keen theological mind, his dynamic leadership and his great heart for the work of the church is infectious and I’m convinced will capture the hearts of Baptists in Texas.
“I am absolutely convinced that David Currie does not represent the theology nor the ecclesiology of Texas Baptists.”
Participants at annual Texas CBF meetings have come to expect wild rhetoric from Currie. Last year, he told the Texas CBF meeting in Fort Worth that “fundamentalists” in Texas had been defeated. He also chided the group for continuing to contribute financially to the SBC. Financial gifts to the SBC, he said, appeared to be an endorsement of the “stupidity” of convention leaders.
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