The Southern Baptist Convention unanimously elected Paige Patterson as its new president Tuesday, solidifying its position as a conservative religious denomination.
Prior to the election, outgoing President Thomas D. Elliff in his annual address thanked conservative members "for rescuing our ship from peril" by restoring conservative control to the group.Patterson, who has been president of Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., was a leader in the "conservative resurgence" in the convention in the late 1970s, which wrestled control of the group from "moderate" Southern Baptists.
He ran unopposed for president and was elected when Lee Porter, the registration secretary, cast the "ballot of the convention" for him.
His main goal, President Patterson told reporters during a news conference late Tuesday, is to lead his faith's evangelizing efforts. His "hope and prayer" is to see Southern Baptists "win 500,000 people for Christ" in the United States and another 500,000 overseas by the year 2000.
"The only thing that wakes me up at night is seeing someone hovering on the point of death and who has never heard of Jesus Christ," he said.
Asked about other goals, he smiled. "That evangelical goal is going to preoccupy my attention and mind almost all together."
His fervor for evangelism goes back to his childhood. President Patterson said when television first became popular his mother wept when she saw people in other places who didn't know the gospel. Finally he asked her why.
"If we can't find a way to get Christ to those people, they'll spend eternity separated from Christ," she told him.
"I don't know how much time we've got."
The need to evangelize was a running theme at the convention Tuesday and one of the cornerstones of the Rev. Elliff's presidential address. He encouraged Southern Baptists to be "passionately committed to the harvest," while at the same time warning them what would happen to their ship if they allowed their moral compasses to break.
Every ship is subject to forces that would drive it off course, he said. "In Zion's fleet, our Southern Baptist ship is constantly subject to similar forces. The blowing winds of cultural change, currents of popular, humanistic thought, strong and forceful theological tides - all are relentlessly working against the course God has established for us."
He especially criticized "cultural forces" that seek to "invade or erode the ship."
"Under the guise of openness or tolerance we find that the traditional, Bible-supported definitions of the family, marriage and roles of men and women in the home are taking a beating in the media, by entertainment giants and by some of our highest officials, both elected and appointed. For many of these, compromise, concession and greed rule the day. To them, life - especially the life of the unborn or the aged - is cheap and expendable."
He told Southern Baptists they must not remain silent when they encounter those situations.