Yes Sandy I remember the larger mechanism of the committee on committees etc. But the tactic which was used to turn over the leadership of the denomination was clear and no one even on the Takeover side denies that they did it. They will couch it as a "resurgence" but there is plenty of documentation floating around out there to talk about how this happened.
I'm not going to get into it again with you about the merits of the takeover. We are in such different places that it is frankly fruitless.
William and I can usually talk about it until he reaches the point that he gets frustrated with me and yells "Methodist!" in hopes of shutting me down.
For the record, my feelings about the disfunction of the SBC structure long predates my move to the UMC and after I moved to the ABC I couldn't help but scratch my head and wonder why on earth the 2nd largest denomination in the US would want such a non-representative structure.
What I noticed about the ABC is that they were willing to re-examine and restructure fairly often. The SBC seems to move in more of a direction of balkanization rather than innovation. It probably has something to do with their theology and the southern culture which is some what unique to the denomination and is even visible in more northerly SBC churches.
All that being said, I think most denominations (including my own) could improve their structure. The UMC tried to restructure this year at the national level and it just didn't quite get the necessary votes.