BGCT study committee will propose major changes in seminary funding
By Mark Wingfield

DALLAS - A Texas Baptist committee studying theological education will recommend that the Baptist General Convention of Texas dramatically change the way it funds Southern Baptist Convention and BGCT seminaries.

If enacted, the proposal could be "the most dramatic thing undertaken by any state Baptist convention," said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade.

The funding changes are based on detailed research done by the 16-member committee since March, including on-site visits to the six SBC seminaries and extensive dialogues with the president, administrators and some trustees of each school.

On-Site Visits

The last-minute campus visits were required, committee Chairman Bob Campbell explained, because the six seminary presidents rejected an invitation to meet with the committee in Dallas.

On the heels of that whirlwind tour of the six SBC seminaries, Campbell presented a preliminary report to the BGCT Administrative Committee Sept. 8 during its deliberations over a BGCT budget for 2001.

Due to the load of information under consideration and the lack of a final report from the theological education study committee, the Administrative Committee postponed final decisions about a 2001 budget until Wednesday, Sept. 13.

Several proposals for reallocating BGCT Cooperative Program money that traditionally has been sent to the SBC were put on the agenda during the Sept. 8 meeting, but the Administrative Committee chose not to finalize any budget recommendation until it receives the theological education study committee's final report.

Moderates within the BGCT have been calling for the state convention to stop sending millions of dollars in undesignated gifts to the SBC every year. These calls are based in theological and political differences that have divided moderate and conservative Southern Baptists since 1979. Texas Baptists particularly have been critical of changes at the SBC seminaries, Executive Committee and Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission.

The theological education study committee is scheduled to finalize its report during a Sept. 11 meeting. The full report will not become public, however, until presented to the BGCT Executive Board Sept. 26.

Funding Recommendation

Campbell reported, however, that the study committee will recommend that of the $5.3 million currently sent to the SBC seminaries, a maximum of $1 million be set aside to fund those seminaries next year. This funding would be granted based on the number of Texas Baptist students attending each seminary.

A "Texas student" would be defined as someone who has been a member for the previous two years of a church that financially supports the BGCT. Students attending college outside Texas would be eligible based upon membership in a BGCT-supporting church prior to entering college.

The net effect of this change would be a virtual defunding of five of the six SBC schools, which currently receive anywhere from $443,000 to $1.5 million annually from the BGCT. Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, based in Fort Worth, would get the largest share of the $1 million pool because it currently enrolls about 1,400 of the estimated 1,600 Texas students attending SBC seminaries.

Even so, Southwestern's funding would be reduced from $1.5 million to an estimated $875,000 in 2001.

The committee will further recommend that the remaining $4.3 million - which actually could be less if some churches respond by changing their giving options - be distributed in student grants and special project funds to 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.

In the larger context of budget deliberations, however, the Administrative Committee discussed a number of Texas missions priorities they would like to fund from some source. These include Hispanic church starts, church health resources, child-care ministries and adoption services.

The Administrative Committee will decide during its Sept. 13 meeting how to respond to these needs and how to implement the recommendations of the theological education study committee.

Another study committee is looking at mission-sending agencies, including the SBC's International Mission Board and North American Mission Board as well as the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. That committee has met with IMB and CBF representatives but will not meet with NAMB officials until Sept. 12, Wade reported.

No mention was made of reducing funding to the IMB.

Campbell said the theological education committee's report will highlight issues such as requiring faculty members to sign the revised Baptist Faith & Message statement, a high rate of turnover in faculty in several of the seminaries, a high percentage of faculty from non-Southern Baptist backgrounds in some seminaries, the use of Cooperative Program funds to create undergraduate colleges at the seminaries, lack of diversity on the seminary trustee boards, a pattern of trustees interfering with the routine work of faculty and staff, trustees creating political litmus tests for faculty hiring and lack of diversity in chapel speakers.

Also, the committee found "a great deal of mistreatment of people" by seminary administrators and trustees, added Michael Chancellor, vice chairman of the study committee.

"People in the church I serve hold certain expectations about Christian conduct" that have not been exemplified at the SBC seminaries, he said. "It's not about beliefs. It's about the way as Christians we treat other people."

Despite this, the in-person conversations between the BGCT representatives and SBC seminary officials were cordial and Christian, Campbell said. "We were received graciously by every school."

Contrary to some reports that have circulated, the Texas committee did not have its mind made up before visiting the SBC schools, Campbell said.

After doing its work, the committee struggled with a desire to treat some of the SBC seminaries differently than others - Southwestern, for example, because of its location and Texas heritage - but finally realized it could not do so. The six SBC seminary presidents specifically asked the committee to treat all the schools the same.

"The six seminaries chose to stand as one. That was their choice," Campbell said.

He told the Administrative Committee that leaders from more than one seminary begged the committee not to give their school more favorable treatment than other SBC schools. The result would be to hurt those schools rather than help them, he said.

The process was painful for committee members, particularly those who are graduates of Southwestern or have known of its historic ties to the BGCT, Campbell said.

In the end, however, "Southwestern should be treated equally because the things we found are equally true," he said.

Southwestern is "a changed school," Campbell said. "The Southwestern I was trained in does not exist anymore.

"Are there still some good professors there? Absolutely. Are they as free as they used to be? No."

The hard truth, Campbell said, is that Southwestern's faculty members "can't criticize the Baptist Faith & Message. If I can't criticize this man-made document, I've made this document inerrant. That's creedal. And that's a big thing for us."

Requiring faculty affirmation of the 1998 and 2000 revisions to the Baptist Faith & Message presents serious problems for faculty at all six SBC seminaries, Campbell said.

He cited a comment by New Orleans Seminary President Chuck Kelley that no faculty member would be allowed to question the Baptist Faith & Message anywhere at anytime, not even in private conversation at an off-campus party.

1963 BF&M accused of Neo-Orthodoxy

Further, four of the SBC seminary presidents told the committee they believe the 1963 version of the Baptist Faith & Message is a "neo-orthodox document," Campbell said. "We had never heard that before. This is an alarming description."

Campbell said the committee responded by asking: "Do you know who you're calling neo-orthodox? All the presidents of the state conventions."

The 1963 Baptist Faith & Message committee was comprised of the presidents of the state Baptist conventions, with Southern Baptist statesman Herschel Hobbs of Oklahoma as chairman.

Further, the seminary presidents told the Texas committee that Hobbs was "duped" by neo-orthodox individuals who heavily influenced the 1963 document, Campbell said.

The committee's findings provide clear evidence that the SBC seminaries have moved from the theology, polity and ethic embraced by Texas Baptists, Campbell said.

He noted that Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, had appealed to Texas Baptists to keep supporting SBC causes because Texans have been given so much. "To whom much is given, much is required," Chapman quoted from the Bible.

"That's right," Campbell said. "Texas Baptists have been given very much. And we've been willing to share it. The SBC should also realize the six seminaries have been given much by Texas Baptists and under God we believe much was required in return.

"But they abandoned the requirements, and our report reflects that."

September 2000