This was the 3rd year in a row Bush spoke at the S. Baptist's annual meeting and he's not even Baptist.
In any case, I can't find that reference re. Bush and a position in the church hierchy. Sorry.
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Southern Baptists cheer Bush, leave BWA, hear warning about 'separatism'
INDIANAPOLIS (ABP) -- In an eventful first day of their annual meeting, Southern Baptists heard a rousing speech from President George W. Bush, broke ties with the Baptist World Alliance, and elected a new convention president June 15.
During the meeting that marked the 25th anniversary of the Southern Baptist Convention's historic conservative swing, messengers heard a warning from their top official that the conservative movement is in danger of going too far to the right. "We cannot let this convention be driven by politics," said Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, who warned of "lifeless orthodoxy parading as true faith."
President Bush supplied the emotional climax for the convention's first day, addressing messengers live via satellite.
When SBC President Jack Graham of Dallas introduced Bush, messengers greeted him with uproarious applause. Bush thanked the messengers five times, chuckling toward the end, before their greeting died down so that he could begin his speech. Then, once he started his 12-minute speech, they interrupted him more than 20 times with applause, sometimes punctuated by cheers and whistles.
The president emphasized themes that resonated with the convention's conservative core -- the battle against terrorism and the struggle to bring democracy to the Middle East, his record on tax cuts and job creation, as well as education and Medicare. He called on the U.S. Senate to allow him to appoint conservative judges and on Congress to pass laws supporting government funding for faith-based initiatives.
Bush generated the strongest response as he emphasized moral issues.
"I will keep working to build a culture of life in America," he pledged, citing his support for three anti-abortion bills, as well as promising more funding for crisis-pregnancy centers, support for adoption as an alternative to abortion, and a law that requires parental notification before a minor girl can have an abortion.
The president vowed to support a ban on human cloning, insisting, "Life is a creation of God."
He stressed his administration would defend "the sanctity of marriage against activist courts and local officials who want to redefine marriage forever," a line that generated sustained applause. "The union of a man and woman is the most enduring human institution honored in all cultures," he added assuring that he would "support a constitutional amendment to protect marriage as the union of a man and a woman."
"These years have brought trials we did not ask for and challenges we did not expect to face," Bush acknowledged. "Now we look forward with confidence and faith. ... We pray always for God's guidance and strength, for our lives and for this great nation."
As expected, messengers voted overwhelmingly to end the denomination's 99-year relationship with the Baptist World Alliance, an international network of Baptist groups. Paige Patterson, speaking for the committee that recommended the break, told messengers some of the 200-plus denominations worldwide that affiliate with BWA "do not believe in the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture and regularly call it into question."
Denton Lotz, BWA executive director, said afterward, "There are 211 confessions or statements of faith" among BWA's 211 member bodies around the world. "We certainly are not liberal. We're all conservative evangelicals." Lotz said the departure of Southern Baptists was a sad occasion.
As Southern Baptist conservatives marked the 25th anniversary of their rise to power in 1979, Chapman warned the SBC could now "fall into the error of Pharisaism ... lifeless orthodoxy parading as true faith."
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