Support WMU’s work

We are saddened but not surprised by the International Mission Board’s (IMB) plan to withdraw funds from Woman’s Missionary Union (WMU). This makes WMU but one in a group of causes from which support has been withdrawn. The decisive vote at the 2006 annual meeting of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seemed to indicate that the messengers overwhelmingly intended to affirm and support WMU. Barely six months later, other intentions have prevailed.

Can it be that the numerous times WMU came to the financial rescue of the Foreign Mission Board (now IMB) and Home Mission Board (now the North American Mission Board), as well as the SBC itself, have been forgotten as the IMB’s ungracious proposal would indicate? Although not responsible for the perennial indebtedness incurred by her brothers, whether from depressed economy, minimal sporadic commitment, poor management or malfeasance, WMU did not fail to respond to calls for help.

Had she abandoned her auxiliary status, WMU would have been, at least by association, implicated in incurring the debts and unable to help pay them off. WMU has tried to maintain her steadfast commitment to missions while trying, with equal determination, to remain detached from convention politics. She has willingly been resolutely and fervently helpful but not "graciously submissive." And this appears to be a cause for the present state of affairs.

Perhaps another cause became evident in recent years when the SBC launched a parallel women’s organization with both it and WMU drawing from the same well of financial support, thereby contributing to the decline in WMU’s sales of literature — her main source of income.

This letter is not a plea for the IMB to reconsider its stated plan to withdraw funds from WMU. Perhaps this is for the best.

Rather it is to urge all of us who have benefited immeasurably from WMU’s generous support and who believe in WMU’s mission to contribute with equal generosity to WMU’s financial stability and ongoing commitment to missions. There are enough of us in this category to eliminate WMU’s financial concerns.
Funds sent to the WMU Foundation would help reach that goal. Sound the call.

William and Audrey Cowley
Former Southern Baptist missionaries