The RADEN Report                                    June 15, 2001

SOUTHERN BAPTISTS NOT THE ONLY ONES WITHDRAWING FROM CONVERSATIONS

An encounter with a Roman Catholic priest at the Southern Baptist Convention

My life is full of unusual happenings. It's been this way for so long that I hardly notice it myself. Once in a while, though, something happens that is just too unusual to ignore. Such was my brief meeting this week with a Roman Catholic priest at the Southern Baptist Convention.

A reporter had invited me to visit the Press Room in the New Orleans Superdome during a break between meetings. There I found several reporters and news editors I have come to know over the past few years. I was speaking with Lynn Clayton and Lacy Thompson, editors of the Louisiana Baptist Convention's Baptist Message, about a recent article by a New York Times reporter mentioning the ECT in connection with the SBC/RCC Dialogue. The article focussed on our church's opposition to ecumenism within the SBC, and quoted Dr. Timothy George accusing me of making "false" and "malicious" charges.

I had not noticed that sitting a few feet away was Roman Catholic priest Frank Ruff. Lynn Clayton politely introduced Frank to me, probably not knowing that we already knew each other. I have often met Mr. Ruff at SBC Executive Committee meetings.

We shook hands and Mr. Ruff quickly volunteered that he owed me an email. I started to say that I had been looking forward to hearing from him, but then he said he was NOT going to answer me at all.

(My email had to do with his response to the Vatican's Dominus Iesus document issued last year. Comments in support of Dominus Iesus made by Mr. Ruff had been quoted in a Baptist Press article. I have been waiting on a response from Mr. Ruff since November 2, 2000.)

I suppose I looked a bit surprised at such a negative response. As the SEIA's official contact with the SBC, Frank Ruff has always touted his openness to conversation, with everyone free to express their views. He said that he had read one of my RADEN Reports and that it was just "so untrue and so unkind" and thus he had determined to simply not respond to me at all.

I said that I was sorry he felt that way and hoped he would change his mind. He said he wouldn't and broke off the conversation.

So, let me see... Frank Ruff is a member of the Catholic team of the RCC/SBC Dialogue. Recently in a news article he criticized the SBC's conservative leadership for focussing on evangelism and church planting to the exclusion of ecumenical dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church. He says he is disappointed that conservative SBC leaders are shutting down the official dialogue, lamenting that things were going along just fine before conservatives took over. And Mr. Ruff promises that efforts to bring about unity between Baptists and the Roman Catholic Church will not stop... other avenues of ecumenical dialogue will be pursued by the SEIA (U.S. Catholic Bishops' Secretariat for Ecumenical and interreligious Affairs).

Odd, don't you think, that Mr. Ruff criticizes me and other conservative Southern Baptists for opposing the closed-door, often misused and misreported RCC/SBC Dialogue, but he won't carry on a conversation with me that he knows will be accountable and public?

It seems to me that as long as ecumenists can use our more private conversation to make it appear we agree with them, then they are more than willing to talk... but when we are completely honest with them in a public, accountable way, they are not interested in the conversation.

In open conversation that examines Scripture as authoritative, it is obvious that the Roman Catholic sacramental faith is not only NOT biblical Christianity, it is a counterfeit, the antithesis of biblical Christianity. No doubt, this is what some members of the SBC dialogue team have come to a greater understanding of, as was attested to by Dr. William Gordon, who has been on the SBC team longer than any other member. It is really a loss that the rest of us have not been given the opportunity to benefit from these conversations.

So, since the last two meetings are still to be held, and since some of the participants on the SBC team have said they would be happy for the conversations to be open to the public - the topic is certainly an important one... how one is saved - why not videotape these meetings for the benefit of all?

I think I’ll write and ask those in charge and report back to you. 

Jerry Moser

The RADEN Report is a news and commentary service purposed to inform and educate the body of Christ regarding the dangers of ecumenism. For our purposes, ecumenism is defined as cooperative ventures of an evangelistic nature with individuals and/or groups which promote errant doctrine. Much of the New Testament was written to oppose the false doctrines of men who claimed to be Christian teachers, yet were bringing in "destructive heresies." According to Jude we are to "earnestly contend for the Faith that was once for all delivered unto the saints." This we aim to do and to encourage others in this part of God's work. If we can be of assistance to you in this way, please let us know. Additional copies (hard-copy) of RADEN are available, as well as other resources. Why not pass RADEN on to a friend? If you would like to read the ECT document, click here.  We also have the ECT put together into booklets, if you would like for us to send you one or more, request it by email.   Please include your home address and how many you would like.

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