IT'S GOOD ENOUGH FOR THEM Fundamentalists consolidate power among Southern Baptists

By Richard N. Ostling

Gathered last week in four Atlanta auditoriums linked by closed-circuit television, 40,462 ''messengers'' to the annual Southern Baptist Convention clapped their hands and sang, ''Give me that old-time religion; it's good enough for me.'' That is just what they got moments later, when it was announced that they had elected an ardent Fundamentalist as the new president of the nation's largest (14.5 million members) Protestant denomination. The victory of Memphis Pastor Adrian Rogers, who insists upon a strictly literal interpretation of the Bible, marked the eighth consecutive presidential victory for Baptist Fundamentalists since 1979, when they began a determined drive to wrest control from the moderates. Taking advantage of their formidable appointive powers, the Fundamentalist presidents have gradually changed the character of the boards that govern the vast complex of Southern Baptist seminaries and agencies, replacing moderates (as terms expire) with conservatives. Rogers' election ensures that by 1990 Fundamentalists will control most boards and be in a position to remove instructors and other employees with less hard-line views. With his preacher's butter-smooth baritone and a thriving local church, Rogers, 54, made a compelling candidate. He had already served as president for a year; his election in 1979 signaled the start of the Fundamentalist surge. ''The word of God,'' says Rogers, ''is not up for a vote.'' He insists, for example, that Adam and Eve were directly created by God, and he rejects evolution, or, as he calls it, ''monkey-monology.'' Because the annual meeting's business is done in town-meeting style, the strategy for winning S.B.C. presidential elections is getting the right voters to travel to the meeting site. The Georgia gathering figured to be the anti- Fundamentalists' last and best hope, since moderate Southern Baptists are concentrated in the coastal region between Washington and Atlanta. But Rogers won 54.2% of the vote, not too surprising in light of a poll issued by anti- Fundamentalists revealing that 88% of Southern Baptists in ten states agreed that ''the Bible is the inspired word of God and contains no errors.'' The issue that divided the meeting was not what Southern Baptists believe. In fact, the losing candidate, Pastor W. Winfred Moore of Amarillo, Texas, agrees with Rogers on Bible literalism. But Moore would allow some leeway in interpretations made by those on the S.B.C. payroll, and his followers at the meeting fumed about threats to Baptist adherence to individual interpretation of the Bible. Rogers responded that Baptists can believe what they wish, ''but those who work for us ought to reflect what the great majority of us want taught.'' The moderates intend to keep fighting on, convinced, as one put it, that ''religious dictatorship cannot halt biblical scholarship.'' Moore insists that when lay Baptists realize what is happening, ''you're going to see a sure-enough rising-up.'' But time may work against the moderates. Emory University Sociologist Nancy Ammerman finds growing Fundamentalism among younger Southern Baptists. Given the nationwide and global involvement of the denomination, the implications of Rogers' victory go well beyond the American South. At a mass rally of anti-Fundamentalists during the Atlanta meeting, the president of the Baptist World Alliance, Australian Theologian G. Noel Vose, remarked that he is ''a little fearful, because when the Southern Baptists sneeze, we get a cold on the other side of the world.''