Tennessee convention postpones Belmont action

CLARKSVILLE, Tenn. — Messengers attending the Tennessee Baptist Convention’s (TBC) annual meeting Nov. 15–16 at First Baptist Church, Clarksville, delayed action on a proposed Resolution of Relationship with Belmont University in Nashville pending study of a document that contains a possible “reverter clause.”

Belmont officials recently informed TBC leadership that the school plans to begin electing its own trustees — up to 40 percent of whom could be non-Baptists. School officials also said Belmont does not anticipate receiving funds from the convention as of Nov. 1. Belmont leaders indicated a desire to continue a “fraternal” relationship with the convention, which messengers were to consider. But just a week prior to the meeting, TBC Executive Director James Porch heard of a 1951 contract — the year before convention officials established the school — that might affect the outcome of Belmont’s move. It stipulates that school assets would revert back to the convention should Belmont fail or “pass from Baptist control.”

A search by convention officials did not produce the contract but did find minutes from an administrative committee, dated July 31, 1951, instructing the board’s attorney to draw up the contract. During a meeting of the TBC executive board Nov. 14, Belmont President Robert Fisher acknowledged the contract did exist and had been reviewed by both internal and external counsel. He described it as “an irrelevant contract superseded by about five different actions.”