When messengers gather at Whitesburg Baptist Church in Huntsville on Nov. 14–15 for the annual meeting of the Alabama Baptist State Convention (ABSC) the report outlining a new relationship with Samford University is likely to be a major issue.
The Alabama Baptist State Board of Missions will recommend a seven-step proposal outlining a new relationship with Samford. The school will remain a “fostered entity” of the convention but will no longer receive Cooperative Program (CP) support through the ABSC budget.
Such a development was unthinkable a year ago. At no time in recent years had the relationship between the university and the state convention been stronger.
All of that began to unwind on April 27 of this year and the proposed relationship cannot be understood without remembering what happened.
On April 27 the Samford faculty voted to officially recognize a student group called Samford Together. Many Baptist leaders believed the organization was a homosexual advocacy group, something that should not exist on an Alabama Baptist college campus.
Working through disagreement
Samford officials countered that the student group was a discussion group, adding that discussion of major societal issues was appropriate for a college environment.
The disagreement on the purpose of Samford Together put the two entities at loggerheads. On June 9, ABSC President John Thweatt sent a letter to Samford President Andrew Westmoreland saying, “If the Samford trustees vote to deny permanent recognition” to Samford Together the Samford allocation would remain in the 2018 budget. If the trustees did not vote against the group “we will not recommend any allocation for Samford University,” the letter continued.
This was a major disagreement for both parties. For Samford it meant losing its annual appropriation which this year is about $3.5 million. The money is used to fund scholarships for Alabama Baptist students. For the convention it meant severing relationship with its oldest and largest Baptist university.
Thankfully, the situation was resolved in a way that satisfied most Alabama Baptists.
On July 7, Westmoreland announced that as president he had vetoed recognition of Samford Together. Discussions about homosexuality, gender identity and other issues would take place on the campus, he said, but under the school’s direction. The discussions will be to produce better understanding among students, to equip students to live in today’s world and to help students know how to bear witness to a traditional understanding of biblical sexuality.
The bottom line is the position of state Baptist leaders prevailed. Samford Together was not officially recognized and there will be no homosexuality advocacy group at Samford.
That should have lowered tensions but it did not.
During the discussion about Samford Together questions again arose about convention funding of the university.
Historically Samford received about 10 percent of the total CP budget while Christian Higher Education, including Samford, received about 20 percent of the budget.
Most observers knew those percentages could not continue. As Alabama Baptists focused more and more on missions causes in the state and around the world, the hard reality was the unusually high percentage of funds marked for Christian Higher Education with Samford getting the lion’s share of the appropriation.
Westmoreland attempted to address that issue in 2014 when he asked that Samford’s CP appropriation — more than $4 million that year — be reduced annually until it dropped 50 percent.
On July 7, when he announced his veto of the Samford Together student group, Westmoreland also announced that Samford was voluntarily withdrawing from CP funding. The school desired to maintain its historic relationship with the ABSC, he explained, but without CP funding.
The idea of a relationship without funding had surfaced earlier, SBOM members were told in their August meeting.
Executive Director Rick Lance initially raised the issue, asking Westmoreland if the convention and the school could have a relationship without CP funding. Samford’s decision to forego CP funding was an affirmative answer to Lance’s question, Westmoreland said, and could be a new model for Southern Baptists.
But many Alabama Baptists are uneasy. The ties to Samford are deep in Alabama Baptist life. Some fear removing funding is a first step in the school moving away from its close relationship with Alabama Baptists, a pattern seen in other states.
Under the proposed arrangement Samford will continue as a “fostered entity” of the convention. It will report to the convention, and the state executive director and convention president will continue to attend trustee meetings. State programs will continue to work with Samford and Samford will continue to host Baptist events.
One item hard to understand, at least for this writer, is the convention will no longer consider Samford ministerial students eligible for ABSC Board of Aid scholarships. But for the most part, the relationship will go on like it has since Samford trustees became self-perpetuating almost 25 years ago. As the recommendation states, “Alabama Baptists and Samford University (will) seek to be on mission with the Great Commission.”
The only significant change is that Samford will no longer receive CP funds through a direct allocation.
Will this new arrangement work? Only time will tell. Although Alabama Baptists have been the largest donor to Samford through the years, Samford is no longer tied to the convention by its CP allocation. This year’s CP allocation of $3.5 million amounts to about 2 percent of Samford’s budget.
Samford’s primary ties to Alabama Baptists are a shared heritage, a shared mission, shared values and shared leaders. These have not changed.
Reaching the goal
Also important is that Samford’s decision to withdraw from CP funding allows Alabama Baptists to reach the goal of dividing CP funds evenly between state causes and Southern Baptist Convention causes. When Samford asked for its appropriation to be lowered through annual reductions, that put Alabama Baptists on the road to reaching that goal in 2020. This decision means the goal will be reached in 2018.
The new proposal does change the relationship with Samford somewhat. And change produces anxieties. That cannot be avoided. But change does not have to be bad. If Alabama Baptists and the leaders of Samford University continue to emphasize our common heritage, our common mission, our common values and our trusted leadership, the bonds between us can be as strong as ever. Personally, I believe they will.
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