Attack on Buckner called ‘public relations terrorism’
By Mark Wingfield
Managing Editor

DALLAS—The president of Buckner Baptist Benevolences is “grieved, hurt and perplexed” by a Baptist Press report that attempts to link the Texas Baptist childcare agency with Planned Parenthood and pro-abortion causes

Distribution of the story by the Southern Baptist Convention and publication of it in the monthly magazine of the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention constitutes “public relations terrorism,” said Buckner President Ken Hall.

“This was an attack on the Baptist General Convention of Texas by using Buckner,” he declared. “The only conclusion I can draw is that they were using Buckner as a weapon to somehow injure the efforts of Baptists in Texas.”

Hall called on leaders of both Baptist Press and the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention to apologize for what he called a misleading and untruthful article that will harm widows and orphans.

“The ultimate victims of this story are the people we serve,” he said. “They’re attacking widows and orphans.”

Hall said he sees the BP story about Buckner as part of a continuing effort by SBC and SBTC leadership to discredit the BGCT, which has refused to follow the SBC’s move to a more fundamentalist direction in recent years.

“Slander is an abomination to the Lord,” Hall said. “We become the devil’s instrument” by practicing it.

The story, published in the Southern Baptist Texan’s October issue, is headlined “Abstinence program linking Buckner and Planned Parenthood stirs concern in Amarillo.”

It was written by Tammi Ledbetter, wife of Gary Ledbetter, who is editor of the Southern Baptist Texan. However, the story originated with the SBC’s Baptist Press, which paid for the story to be written.

The story reports on an abstinence education program for fourth- through eighthgraders held in Amarillo Aug. 11. Buckner was among 24 co-sponsors of the program, which received major underwriting from several large charitable foundations interested in promoting abstinence.

The BP story keys on the fact that Planned Parenthood of Amarillo was among those co-sponsors. Other co-sponsors included the American Red Cross, the Girl Scouts, Texas Tech Medical Center and several churches. Because Buckner participated in a program co-sponsored by Planned Parenthood, the article implies, Buckner has allied itself with support for abortion.

The article quotes Roy Kornegay, director of missions for Amarillo Baptist Association, as saying Buckner has created the “appearance of evil” and a “perception of guilt by association.”

It also quotes a number of Texas pastors, most from churches either dually or singly aligned with SBTC, criticizing Buckner’s participation in the abstinence education event.

The article “misrepresents the facts” and makes “immoral assertions,” Hall said, noting that Buckner never has and never will support abortion in any form. “Buckner would not lend itself to anything that would teach anything other than total abstinence before marriage,” he explained. “We strongly believe in the absolute sanctity of life—from pre-birth to death.”

Participating in educational events like the one in Amarillo is essential to reach young people with a message of abstinence and self-protection, he asserted.

“I have no apology for Buckner participating in this event,” he said. “We’ve been called to serve as Jesus did … eating with sinners and tax collectors. We meet people where they are.”

The event’s messages of abstinence and protecting oneself from sexual abuse urgently need to be communicated to at-risk children, Hall asserted, noting that 80 percent of the girls and 50 percent of the boys in Buckner’s care statewide have been victims of sexual abuse.

Buckner received three referrals for its adoption program as a result of the Amarillo conference, said Scott Collins, vice president for communications at Buckner.

“I guess appearance is more important to (SBC and SBTC) than saving three babies’ lives,” he said. “We can look good, but if we’re not out there doing the ministry, we don’t get these referrals. Criticize us all you want, but we got three referrals from that.”

“We need to have a presence wherever girls are making a decision concerning the life and death of their children,” added Mike Douris, vice president/chief operating officer of Buckner’s Adoption and Maternity Services.

“Women are not going to walk up to your doorstep,” Douris said. “You have to make your presence known. That ultimately saves the lives of children.”

And the Buckner facility in Amarillo does an especially good job of that because of its involvement in the community, like participation in the abstinence program, he added.

“The (Amarillo) administration has worked very cooperatively in engaging the community in terms of the adoption option for women,” he said. Other than the Dallas/ Fort Worth area, where Buckner’s largest corporate presence is located, the Amarillo operation generates the greatest number of adoption referrals.

“We are uncompromising in advocating pro-life issues,” Douris said. “But to do ministry, you have to do it in the community —provide light in the midst of darkness.”

Because of the BP story and its publication in the Southern Baptist Texan, Hall said, he has begun hearing from supporters who are concerned that Buckner has given aid to the pro-abortion cause.

That simply is not true, he said, but the implication of the BP story that leads Buckner supporters to such a conclusion has only one possible motivation—to discredit Buckner and therefore the BGCT.

But Gary Ledbetter, editor of the Southern Baptist Texan, said the article had nothing at all to do with the BGCT. “We didn’t really have any interest in addressing BGCT issues in that article, and we didn’t,” he said. “It’s about an institution in Texas that many of our churches support.”

After this year, individuals and churches will not be allowed to contribute to Buckner through the SBTC, because the breakaway convention has declared a moratorium on even pass through funding for Baptist entities that have not signed a statement of affiliation with them.

SBTC officials earlier this year attempted to woo Buckner into such a partnership —which would have required Buckner agreeing to SBTC’s faith statement —but Buckner declined to do so. Buckner remains uniquely affiliated as an agency of the BGCT.

Nevertheless, the story should be of interest to SBTC churches because of their historical connection to Buckner, he asserted.

Ledbetter also defended his wife’s story against Hall’s accusation that it is misleading and untruthful. Ledbetter called the story fair and accurate.

“Buckner has partnered in this particular event with an organization that is a major and significant abortion provider,” he explained. “That does not imply that Buckner supports abortion. But it implies that this was an unfortunate association on their part.”

That is different than associations with cultists by SBC leaders, he said. Asked to explain the difference between Buckner’s passing relationship to Planned Parenthood in Amarillo and SBC leader Richard Land serving on the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom alongside a Baha’i, Ledbetter said he is “not up to speed on the work of that commission.”

Land, president of the SBC’s Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, recently was appointed to the government’s religious liberty commission by President Bush. He serves with a diverse group of religious adherents, including a Baha’i. The Baha’i faith is considered a non-Christian sect by most Baptist theologians; it teaches, for example, that all world religions lead to the same salvation.

Associating with Baha’is is not as problematic as associating with Planned Parenthood, Ledbetter suggested.

“I don’t know how to compare them, except that Planned Parenthood is an organization that is antithetical to what most Southern Baptist churches stand for. There is not much way to partner with Planned Parenthood in a way that is consistent with Christian beliefs.”

Also, the fact that the Buckner program in Amarillo was focused exclusively on abstinence education should not let Buckner off the hook, Ledbetter said. “Any sexually related material that’s taught by Planned Parenthood is going to be tainted by their reputation of what they stand for.”

Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, did not return a reporter’s phone calls regarding the Baptist Press story.

BGCT leaders and other Texas Baptists defended Buckner’s ministry and questioned the motives of Baptist Press and SBTC leadership in publishing the story about Buckner

.“Throughout its history, Buckner has been unequivocally committed to the protection of children, both the born and the unborn,” said Keith Bruce, coordinator of institutional ministries for the BGCT. “That should be obvious to even the most casual observer.

“It is equally obvious that Buckner would not agree with all positions that are held by Planned Parenthood. However, I do think it is most appropriate and reasonable for Buckner to endorse or participate in a specific program that is very much in keeping with its ministry stance, even though there may not be total agreement in all areas with the positions taken by other participants.

“It is a travesty that anyone would seek to impugn and destroy the fine reputation and effective ministry of Buckner and other BGCT affiliated ministries by twisting the realities of this situation in such an obviously self-serving and biased manner,” Bruce said.

“What has bothered me the most is this slur doesn’t have anything to do with what Buckner has been about for 122 years,” added Carol Brian, a Buckner trustee from Amarillo. “It’s an agency dedicated to the restoration and healing of families. It does so with Christian principles and adhering to the Baptist faith.

“I’m disappointed Buckner is being linked to a pro-choice group in this fashion, when Buckner has a history of being pro-life. I’m proud Buckner is involved, trying to make a difference in our community. Buckner deals with people from conception to death—always has, always will.”

Individuals who question reports about Buckner should contact the agency directly, Brian added. “Please feel free to call; they have a wonderful staff who will answer your questions,” she said. The number is (214) 758-8000.

October 2001