Cooperative Baptist Fellowship - History

History

The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship began in August 1990 as a reaction to the successful effort by conservatives to capture the denominational institutions of the Southern Baptist Convention after more than 10 years of public controversy between conservative and moderate/liberal factions of the Convention. The leaders of the conservative resurgence considered biblical inerrancy and a perceived liberal drift at Southern Baptist seminaries as the primary issues in their struggle against moderates and liberals in the SBC. The conservative strategy was to elect the SBC president a sufficient number of times to gain a conservative majority on the boards and agencies of the Convention. This was accomplished through the president's power to make appointments. Conservative leaders have elected all presidents of the SBC from 1979 to the present.

The liberal faction started the Alliance of Baptists in 1987. Frustrated moderates, following suit, met in 1990 in Atlanta, Georgia, and organized the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. It was the opinion of the moderates that the conservatives had departed from Baptist distinctives.