Rev. Billy Graham identifies with the Southern Baptist Convention in which David W. Cloud grew up. David writes that most of his relatives are still Southern Baptist, when he converted in 1973, he joined an independent Baptist congregation.

He lists 12 reasons why he left:

• 1) The denominational system itself is unsciptural. The Lord did not build denominational structures without biblical authority.
• 2) The Southern Baptist Convention is radically ecumenical which is unscriptural. He has documented the apostasy of the Baptist World Council of Churches in his book: "Has the Southern Baptist Convention Been Rescued from Liberalism, by David W. Cloud. The SBC further yokes together with modernism by its longstanding alliance with the China Christian Council. In November 1997, Louis Moore, associate vice president for communications with the SBC foreign mission board stated that the Southern Baptist Convention has worked closely with the China Christian Council (CCC) from its beginning and there are currently eight "career Southern Baptist workers" assigned to the Council. K.H. Ting, longtime head of the CCC, is a rank modernist who denies that the Bible is the infallible Word of God, denies that sinful men will be judged by God, praises liberation theology, and believes truth is found in all religions. In chapter six of this book we have documented the unbelieving modernism which permeates the China Christian Council. The SBC has also conducted formal dialogue with the Roman Catholic Church, and Roman Catholic priests have spoken in many SBC pulpits. The Baptist convention of South Carolina warmly welcomed Pope John Paul II to America in 1987.

(Birmingham News, Aug. 22, 1980). Southern Baptist agencies were active in "Mission 2000," a consortium of "400 New Evangelical denominations, mission agencies and para-church groups which advocate and adhere to ecumenical
evangelism" (Fundamentalist Digest, March-April 2001, p. 9). We could document hundreds of other such things involving SBC congregations and schools. The Southern Baptist Convention has strongly supported the radically ecumenical Promise Keepers movement, which had a Roman Catholic on its board of directors and which has had Roman Catholic priests as key
speakers at some of its events. Much of the support for Promise Keepers has come from SBC congregations across the country.

• 3) The SBC has refused to discipline Billy Graham, a member of former SBC president W.A. Criswell's First Baptist Church of Dallas, Texas. [ He has been instrumental in ] this generation to break down the wall between truth and error and to muddy the waters of the gospel by his association with and recognition of men who preach abominable false gospels. Dr. Graham has sent multiplied thousands of converts back to Roman Catholic and modernistic Protestant churches to be devoured by wolves in sheep's clothing. We have carefully documented this in our book 'Evangelicals and Rome', by David W. Cloud.
• 4) The SBC is not governed spiritually. Nowhere does the Bible give authority to govern to deacons.
• 5) Worldliness is rampant is SBC churches and schools.
• 6) Shameful politics is practiced by SBC conservative leaders, who claim on one hand to be zealous for the Word of God, while at the same time refusing to separate from those who question and deny the Word of God.
• 7) Hundreds of women are allowed to hold leadership roles in the SBC. 1,225 ordained women in the SBC and roughly 200 of those are pastors and associate pastors.
• 8) The Charismatic movement is growing within the Southern Baptist Convention. An example is Pastor Ron
  Phillips and the Central Baptist Church in Chattanooga, Tennessee. This SBC congregation had a "Fresh Oil & New Wine" conference on March 7, 1999, that was attended by more than 500 SBC pastors.
• 9) The SBC is permeated with theological modernism.The fact is that the Southern Baptist Convention was permeated at every
  level with modernism in the 1970s. This was documented extensively in S.B.C. House on the Sand by Dr. David O. Beale (1985, Bob Jones University Press, Greenville, SC 29614) and Inside the Southern Baptist Convention by Dr. R.L. Hymers (1990, Bible for Today, 900 Park Ave., Collingswood, NJ 08108). Though many positive changes have occurred since then, the Southern Baptist Convention, sadly, is still permeated with Modernism at the state and local level.
• 10) The SBC is filled with men and women who are yoked with pagan Anti-christ organizations such as the Masonic Lodge and the Eastern Star. Calvary Contender editor Jerry Huffman summarizes the spiritual abomination of the Masonic Lodge: "Freemasonry is a secret society of six million members worldwide. It often claims it is not a religion, but its writings say it is. It teaches that Jesus is not God. It has worship and funeral services, and places the Koran and 'holy books' of other religions on the same level as the Bible (Calvary Contender, May 1, 1992).Of the 3.5 million Masons in the U.S., 1.3 million are Southern Baptists. Fourteen percent of SBC pastors and 18 percent of deacons are Masons (Calvary Contender, June 1, 1993)

The Home Mission Board was assigned the task of preparing a report, but the chairman of the Board, Ron Phillips, displayed his prejudice when he stated that he did not agree with the conclusion that Masonry is incompatible with Christianity and that he knew many "dedicated Christian men" who are Masons (Christian News, March 15, 1993)

Southern Baptist physician Dr. James Holly, who led the attempt to root out Freemasonry, said, "Southern Baptists have become the first Christian denomination that essentially blesses the Masonic Lodge" (Christian News, Dec. 20, 1993). ED Note: We carry his book: 'The Southern Baptist Convention and Freemasonry, Vol I & II', by James L. Holly, M.D. President of Mission and Ministry to Men, Inc.

• 11) The vast majority of Southern Baptist Congregations refuse to exercise church discipline. In 1998, Dean Register, president of the Mississippi Baptist Convention, testified: "It's very unusual for Southern Baptist churches to take disciplinary action against an individual" (The Sun Herald, Biloxi, Mississippi, Sept. 13, 1998).
• 12) Southern Baptists are at the forefront of the church growth philosophers that promote the use of worldly music and dress to attract large crowds. Southern Baptist conservatives in Virginia and the Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary co-sponsored a church planting conference in November 2000 which featured guest speaker Aubrey Malphurs, a Dallas Theological Seminary professor. Malphurs, author of Planting Growing Churches for the 21st Century, encourages churches to use "culturally relevant" music to gain young people. Another example of this is Rick Warren, Southern Baptist pastor of Saddleback Community Church in southern California and author the Purpose Driven Church, an extremely influential church growth manual. Warren doesn't use theological terms such as sanctification, justification and propitiation in his sermons. He encourages the use of Christian rock music to communicate to the unsaved. He is very ecumenical. In his book he uncritically praises Robert Schuller, David Yonggi Cho, and other heretics and recommends ecumenical ministries such as Campus Crusade for Christ. [ Way of Life Literature - O Timothy Magazine - http://wayoflife.org/~dcloud. ]