LITTLE ROCK, Ark. — Arkansas Baptist leaders will try to turn control of the Arkansas Baptist News (ABN) over to the state convention staff, replacing the independent board that currently governs the newspaper.
A task force, appointed last year by the president of the Arkansas Baptist State Convention, will make five recommendations to the annual convention meeting Oct. 31–Nov. 1. The one concerning the newspaper asks that “the president of the Executive Board and the president of the Arkansas Baptist News board each appoint a committee of no more than three board members, including themselves, to discuss the possibility of merging the Arkansas Baptist News and the Vision publication under the Executive Board ministries of the state convention.”
Charlie Warren, longtime editor of the Arkansas Baptist News, reacted cautiously to the recommendation. “I am pleased that the recommendation simply calls for discussion of the option rather than just outright recommending that the ABN be absorbed under the convention’s executive board,” Warren told Associated Baptist Press. “My career has been built on Baptists’ right to know. This recommendation has potential to undermine that principle.”
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