The Nation - News from June 15, 1988

Southern Baptists, meeting in San Antonio, elected a fundamentalist president for the 10th consecutive year but by the narrowest margin during the 14.7-million-member denomination’s swing to the right. The Rev. Jerry Vines, 50, co-pastor of the First Baptist Church of Jacksonville, Fla., won 50.5% of the votes cast by 31,291 delegates to the annual meeting of the country’s largest Protestant denomination. The moderate candidate, the Rev. Richard Jackson, 49, of Phoenix, received 48.3%.