A judge has dismissed a lawsuit by the Missouri Baptist Convention against five agencies that rebelled against it, but convention officials describe that ruling as a procedural matter that could be appealed. Cole County Circuit Judge Thomas Brown dismissed the suit March 11, ruling that the convention’s executive board and six churches named as plaintiffs did not have legal standing to sue due to the organizational structure of the convention, the Associated Press reported.
The convention sued the agencies in 2002, contending that they violated their contract with the regional organization that calls for convention approval of agency trustees.
In a statement, the chairman of the convention’s legal task force said the ruling was a “bump in the road” that may prompt a change in legal strategy.
“The judge did not rule on the key issue in the case, whether these five corporations can violate the plain meaning of their own charters, that the Missouri Baptist Convention shall have the right to select their trustees,” said Gary Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church, O’Fallon, Mo.
“The convention has directed that we get a final judicial ruling on that legal issue, and we are determined to honor the convention’s mandate, even if that means going of the court of appeals.”
Others involved in the case interpreted the ruling differently. James R. Smith, president and treasurer of the Missouri Baptist Foundation, called it “the end of a lengthy and expensive chapter in Missouri Baptist history” while Missouri Baptist University President R. Alton Lacey said, “A shadow has finally been lifted from the university.”
The other agencies sued were a retirement center, a conference center and the former official weekly newspaper for Missouri Baptists.
(RNS)
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