Southern Baptists and the Council for National Policy

[BR_Parkway]

A close look at some of the rosters of people who have been members of the Council for National Policy disclosed more Southern Baptists than I had previously realized. Below is a brief description of the Council for National Policy and a list of the Southern Baptists who have been members:

In 1981 Tim LaHaye left the pastorate and founded the secretive Council for National Policy (CNP) -- an exclusive conservative Christian lobbying group that meets three times a year. It brings influential conservative Christian leaders together behind closed doors with America's most powerful conservative politicians, journalists, lawyers, and industrialists to strategize about politics and public policy. Start-up funds came from Cullen Davis and Nelson Bunker Hunt. Membership is by invitation only and annual dues are several thousand dollars (at least $5,000 annually). Guests attend meetings only with the unanimous approval of the executive committee. The membership list is a Who's Who of the Religious Right and of the politicians pushing their agenda. Southern Baptists who are members include:

• Judge Paul Pressler, (architect of the takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention) who was president of their Executive Committee 1988-90 and in 1994
  
• Paul Pressler IV (his son)
  
• Paige Patterson (key takeover leader, now President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary)
  
• Ed McAteer (Religious Roundtable)
  
• James Robison (TV evangelist)
  
• Jay Strack (youth evangelist, twice elected VP of the SBC)
  
• Jerry Falwell (TV preacher)
  
• Rick Scarborough (Vision America)
  
• Coy Privette (served as a trustee at Southeastern Seminary)
  
• Alan Sears (President and CEO of the Alliance Defense Fund, served as a member of Executive Board of the SBC)
  
• Ann Frazier (from North Carolina, served as a NAMB Trustee)
  
• Robbie Hughes (from Mississippi, served as member of SBC Public Affairs Committee)
  
• Andrew Lester (layman at First Baptist Church in OK City)
  
• Lawson Ridgeway (deacon at First Baptist in Dallas)
  
• Dal Shealy (President/CEO of the Fellowship of Christian Athletes, deacon First Baptist in Kansas City, MO, served on the board of trustees Carson-Newman College)
  
• Jim R. Smith (deacon at Second Baptist Houston, served as board member and executive committee member at Houston Baptist University)
  
• Steve Stockman (former U.S. Congressman, member First Baptist in Houston).

http://www.talk2action.org/story/2006/3/2/9632/00000