Ties between Tennessee Baptists, Belmont in flux

Ties between Tennessee Baptists, Belmont in flux

WACO — Members of the Tennessee Baptist Convention (TBC) executive board failed to approve a proposed covenant of affiliation between Belmont University in Nashville and the TBC Sept. 13, leaving the future relationship between the two entities in jeopardy. Belmont has been a TBC-affiliated entity since 1951, but in recent months, university trustees had expressed the intention to allow non-Baptists to constitute up to 40 percent of their board of trustees. Belmont made such a proposal in the covenant of affiliation document it submitted to the TBC for approval.

TBC executive board members balked at that idea and rejected a recommendation from the convention’s education committee to approve the covenant by a 44–29 vote. After the vote, the TBC executive board tabled a motion that would have addressed the future relationship between the two entities, preferring instead to give Belmont’s trustees an opportunity to respond before the next executive board meeting Nov. 14.