BAPTISTS TODAY REFLECTS ON THE BUDGET VOTES OCCURRING IN SEVERAL STATE CONVENTIONS

Baptists Today, a “national, autonomous publication of news and opinion for Baptists in the USA,” edited by former Georgia state paper editor, Jack Harwell, editorialized regarding the upcoming budget votes occurring in several states, including Texas. Below is the conclusion of their editorial, reprinted by permission. To subscribe to Baptists Today, (and we highly recommend that you subscribe), write Baptists Today, 403 West Ponce de Leon Ave., Decatur, GA 30030-2445.

“So, what does all this budget turmoil indicate? It indicates that the most inviolate lesson of secular and ecclesiastical history has come true once again; e.g., we do reap exactly what we sow. Fundamentalists have withheld funds, supported their own missionaries, kept money at home to build huge empires and hurled darts of mistrust and suspicion at fellow Baptists for decades. Now those habits and those darts are reaping their harvest.

“The turmoil also indicates that integrity still matters in the Christian kingdom. And when it is lacking – or appears to be – sensible people are not going to continually pour their money down a funnel which they think might be feeding rats at the other end.

“Stay tuned, Baptists. Many Baptist experts have opined that the state conventions are the key to slowing or stopping the fundamentalist slide of the national convention. If that happens, November of 1995 might be recalled by future historians as one of the turning points in that reversal.”

October 1995