Texas Baptists reduce funding for several Souther Baptist entities
Texas Baptists made history when they approved the reduction of funding to the six Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) seminaries Oct. 30 during the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT).
The decision to reduce funding to the seminaries came by an estimated 3-to-1 margin or greater when Texas Baptists approved the recommendations of a Seminary Study Committee that begins in January.
In a separate decision the same afternoon, Texas Baptists voted to completely defund the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission (ERLC) and defund all but $10,000 going annually to the SBC Executive Committee — a combined reallocation of more than $1 million.
The actions mark the most severe reallocation of funds by an autonomous state Baptist convention since the SBC formed its Cooperative Program unified budget in 1925. Proponents of the funding changes said they were precipitated by theological and political changes brought about in the SBC over the last 21 years.
However, the 6,664 messengers to the BGCT annual session refused to sever all ties to the SBC. They overwhelmingly defeated a motion from the floor that would have cut all BGCT funding for SBC agencies, including the national convention’s two mission boards.
The latter motion was made by Greg Smith, a messenger who said the convention might as well go ahead and cut all funding for the SBC in order to give churches a clear choice.
The $4.3 million diverted from the SBC seminaries will be given to three Texas Baptist schools — Truett Seminary at Baylor University in Waco, Logsdon School of Theology at Hardin-Simmons University in Abilene and Hispanic Baptist Theological School in San Antonio.
This vote was taken by a show of hands, with an estimated 75 to 80 percent of messengers voting in favor of the recommendations.
The $736,291 diverted from the SBC Executive Committee will go to “Texas priority” projects such as Hispanic ministry and human welfare programs, and the $364,582 diverted from the ERLC will go to the Texas Christian Life Commission.
This vote was taken by ballot, after a messenger requested use of the more detailed procedure. The vote was 74 percent favorable, with 4,194 votes in the affirmative and 1,426 negative.
Despite the changes, the BGCT still will forward more than $12 million to the SBC International Mission Board next year and more than $5.5 million to the SBC North American Mission Board.
Bob Campbell, chairman of the Seminary Study Committed created by the BGCT last year, gave an overview of his committee’s six-month study, which had been published in a 100-page volume nearly eight weeks prior to the convention.
In a 15-minute presentation, he highlighted the opportunity the committee believes exists in Texas to train ministers and the need to strengthen ministry among Hispanics. Of the 48 Baptist colleges and universities in the United States, eight are located in Texas, Campbell noted. Yet 46 percent of all ministerial students attending Baptist universities are enrolled in Texas Baptist schools, he added.
“If any of those 3,623 students decides to go to either Truett Seminary or Logsdon School of Theology, they will pay more tuition than it will cost them to go to one of the six SBC seminaries. That is not right; it is not fair,” Campbell said.
Hispanics represent the fastest-growing population group in Texas, he said, yet Hispanic ministers are having to drop out of theological school because they cannot afford the $35 per semester hour tuition.
“We are spending $14.90 on the six SBC schools while both Truett and Logsdon must split $1,” Campbell said. “These schools cannot grow in that environment. Our students cannot afford to go there.”
Meanwhile, the six SBC schools “have changed theologically,” Campbell reported. “That is a fact. It is true. Nothing illustrates that better than the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement.”
For the first time, the Baptist doctrinal statement has been made into an “instrument of doctrinal accountability,” he said.
“It demands a rigid adherence. You cannot be a professor (at the SBC seminaries) unless you adhere only to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.”
It is not good enough, he explained, for a potential professor to sign the Bible itself but not affirm the SBC’s document.
“You cannot be a professor there, nor can you serve on any board, commission or committee of the SBC unless you are willing to adhere to the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message statement. … That means a large number of you cannot serve."
Ken Hemphill, president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, called the defunding of the SBC seminaries “a very destructive process.”
“Not only is it not fair, but it’s not global,” he said, referring to 235 international students attending Southwestern. “About 80 percent of all Texas Baptist students go to Southwestern and 44 percent of Southwestern’s student body are Texans, yet the BGCT has accounted for 7.5 percent of (our) budget. Now it will go down to 3.3 percent.”
William Crews, president of Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary in Mill Valley, Calif., and president of the SBC’s council of seminary presidents, said the vote meant “not only a significant loss of money — and some will be more affected than others — but it is also a loss of partnership.”
During the 30-minute period allotted for discussion of the Seminary Study Committee report, messengers soundly defeated two attempts to amend the report.
One of those amendments, offered by Bubba Stahl, pastor of First Baptist Church of Boerne, would have spread the seminary funding changes over a three-year period.
Stahl said this change would allow Texas Baptists to accomplish what they want to do but allow it to be done in a more courteous way. “Any time we are considerate and courteous of other people, regardless of who they are or what they’ve done, … it’s doing what is right.”
Another amendment proposed by L.A. Murr of First Baptist Church, Sunnyvale, would have created a Plan A and Plan B in BGCT giving, with one option embracing the new theological funding plan and the other retaining the old SBC plan. The BGCT already has five giving plans.
Although the two parliamentarians on the platform instructed President Clyde Glazener that the motion was out of order because it did not propose anything that was not possible already, Glazener allowed Murr two minutes to make his case, which centered on his love for the Cooperative Program unified budget.
“We’ve got the greatest organization in the world for the Great Commission,” Murr pleaded, choking back tears. “Don’t destroy it. Don’t tear it down.”
Again, despite counsel from parliamentarians that the amendment was out of order, Glazener allowed messengers to vote on the motion. It was overwhelmingly defeated.
Apart from the attempted amendments, only two messengers actually spoke to the recommendations themselves.
Other messengers were waiting at microphones to discuss the funding changes when the allotted time for debate expired. Messengers rejected a request to extend debate, then voted to adopt the changes.
Mac Brunson, senior pastor of First Baptist Church, Dallas, was one who never got to the microphone to make his motion. He wanted to offer a motion to table the defunding vote until all six SBC seminary presidents had the opportunity to address BGCT members.
Brunson said he sent copies of his motion well in advance of the debate and that BGCT executive director Charles Wade knew he was going to speak. He said he believes the chair intentionally ignored him.
Hemphill said he wished he could have addressed the convention. “We were never given the opportunity to respond to any of the accusations and distortions,” he said.
“Many of the points we made (to the study committee in August) were ignored,” in the final report, Hemphill said.
The proposal to redirect funding from the SBC Executive Committee and ERLC sustained less debate, although messengers turned back the one attempted amendment that would have defunded all SBC entities.
At two points in budget presentations, BGCT Treasurer Roger Hall explained that no church will be forced to give in a manner it finds objectionable.
“We do respect and do have the church-directed giving approach,” he said. “If there is any question at all, we call or contact your church. … That has been the case. That is the case. The church has the choice.”
The vote to reallocate funds from the six SBC seminaries did not surprise their presidents, said Crews.
“All of us are concerned” about the funding change, he said. “It’s a significant amount of money. But more significant is the partnership” that will be lost as the BGCT alters its giving formula.
Hemphill said he is grieved for Texas Baptists, who no longer will have an opportunity to relate to the ministerial students being trained by the six SBC seminaries.
However, Hemphill said he doesn’t believe Texas Baptists in the churches will forsake the seminaries.
“I’ve always believed God works for good in everything,” he explained. “This will be an opportunity for local churches to work. I think many Texas Baptist churches will continue to support the Southern Baptist seminaries.”
The discrepancy between Southwestern Seminary’s current funding from the BGCT and the amount it is expected to receive according to the new formula is about $800,000, but Hemphill predicted the reduction of funds would not be that severe.
“I don’t think you’re going to take away $800,000,” he said. “I believe our churches and alumni will see this as an opportunity to speak for themselves.”
However, Claude Thomas, pastor of First Baptist Church, Euless, and chairman of the SBC Executive Committee, said the decisions to defund the seminaries and the other two SBC agencies would provide the churches with an opportunity for division.
“It will be an issue in the local church,” he predicted. “There will be divergent opinions. That’s an unfortunate circumstance in a local church.
Asked why the SBC and the BGCT had reached such division, Crews, Hemphill and Thomas were silent for several moments.
“I’m not sure why it’s come to this point,” Hemphill said.
“We thought the (Southern Baptist) cooperative strategy in place was God-given.”
In another news conference, Russell Dilday, Hemphill’s predecessor who was fired by the Southwestern Seminary trustees’ new conservative majority in 1994, said, “The thing that was overlooked were the changes (in SBC seminaries) that have taken place over the last 20 years — tectonic changes. Their faculties are different. Their trustees are different. … Texas Baptists didn’t come to this out of a vacuum.”
“The Southern Baptist Convention has done this to themselves for 20 years,” added David Currie, executive director of Texas Baptist Committed, referencing the theological/political struggle won at the national level by ultra-conservatives and resulting in removal of Baptists who did not agree with the changes brought on by the movement.
Dilday also disputed Thomas’ assertion that the funding action would disrupt the churches or inflict the BGCT’s will on the churches.
“This decision will not in any way coerce churches. They can decide,” Dilday said.
Some churches may not want to deal with the issues, but even they “can be good stewards” and make sound decisions, he added.
“This is a vote for the people, a vote from the churches,” Dilday said of the BGCT action. “We can pull away from the quagmire (of 20 years of convention controversy). It’s a time of excitement.” (Compiled from wire services)
Share with others: