Desert Rhino insists that there's no higher authority than the individual congregation, to define what "Baptist" means.
MamaB tells me that there are guidelines, and that the state and national conventions can strip a church of the name "Baptist".
I'm not sure how the convention could make it stick ... the loathsome toads at Westboro seem to get away with calling themselves "Baptist".
Oh, well ... I'm sure Baptists will manage to sort it out.
Not so, that's not what MamaB said anyway, they can disfellowship an individual Baptist church from the S.B.C. but not strip them of the name "Baptist", just consider Phelps' "Baptist" church.
Any church may call itself "Baptist" just as any church can call itself "Catholic"