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Why
l Support Changes in Giving by the BGCT Today
in the mail I received 25 copies of a mailing from the Southern
Baptist Convention Executive Committee entitled "The Truth
about the SBC and Texas." Some of these were addressed
to staff members who had not been at the church in 20 years. Others
were addressed to people who were not even members of the church.
A call to the Executive Committee offices assured me that this
publication was done with Cooperative Program dollars as an official
publication. I don't know about you, but if this is the way my
Cooperative Program dollars are being spent, then it is obvious
that some agencies in the SBC cannot be trusted with the funds
we send. We must be more intentional in our giving. In
his cover letter with "The Truth about the SBC & Texas,"
Morris Chapman asks Texas Baptists to "Challenge your Southern
Baptist family in Texas to vigorously promote traditional support
for the SBC Cooperative Program. I was amazed by this challenge.
This comes from a group who's churches have traditionally not
supported the Cooperative Program. With only a few exceptions,
Presidents of the SBC have pastored churches which have given
only token amounts to the Cooperative Program. Yet those of us
in Texas who have given so much to the Cooperative Program without
representation on the national level are told to continue vigorous
support. Recently
in the Baptist Standard, Morris Chapman listed eight beliefs that
determined if a man had the faith of the fathers. I have been
a Baptist all my life. I don't know many, if any Baptists who
don't believe those things. Yet there has been a systematic exclusion
of most in Texas because they were on the wrong side. They didn't
vote the right way. Several
years ago a friend of mine was called about serving on a committee
at the SBC level. The caller said he had one question to ask to
see if the appointment might be completed. The question was not
about the Bible or about faith. The question was, "How have
you voted in the last five presidential elections at the SBC."
He had evidently voted the wrong way because he was never appointed. As
one who has observed the convention battles from the outset, starting
with the voting irregularities which I personally observed at
the Houston convention in 1979, it seems to me that the current
SBC leadership had been caught in the web of their own deceit.
They need money from Texas Baptists. Yet through their lies, their
exclusionary policies and their arrogance, they have closed the
door of relations with the Baptist General Convention of Texas. I
am sorry things have come to this in Texas. I am sorry I can no
longer encourage my church to give with a confidence in the SBC
and the Cooperative Program that at one time served so well. The
Cooperative Program was built upon trust and now that trust is
no longer valid. January 2001 |