SBC denies BWA exhibit space at annual meeting

FALLS CHURCH, Va. — A Southern Baptist Convention official has denied exhibit space to the Baptist World Alliance (BWA) at this June’s SBC annual meeting in Indianapolis.

Covention messengers will vote on a recommendation — approved in February by the SBC Executive Committee — to break all ties with the 99-year-old BWA. If messengers approve the recommendation, the BWA will lose $300,000 in funding next year.

BWA officials in Falls Church, Va., received a letter informing them of the decision from John Wilkerson, the Executive Committee’s vice president for business and finance. In the Feb. 25 letter, Wilkerson said, “Because of the controversy surrounding this issue currently and the pending recommendation of the Executive Committee to the Southern Baptist Convention, it would be inappropriate to exhibit under these circumstances.”

Alan Stanford, BWA director of promotion and development, said he and other BWA officials were “surprised and disappointed” at the decision. “Our assumption was that we would be allowed to exhibit until the SBC voted to discontinue funding the BWA.”

“To us, it seems to be premature for the staff of the Executive Committee to deny messengers to the SBC the opportunity to look at materials and ask questions of the BWA representatives when the messengers are being asked to vote on severing an almost 100-year relationship,” Stanford added.

Wilkerson said he decided to deny the space, in part, because of the BWA’s responses to SBC leaders’ push to cut ties.