Release the Hostages of Prejudice
By David R. Currie
TBC Executive Director

"If people are informed they will do the right thing. It's when they are not informed that they become hostages to prejudice."

In many states, traditional Baptists have little access to accurate reporting of ongoing Baptist stories and issues. Fundamentalists, who offer their own spin on the truth, control many Baptist state papers. Some Mainstream organizations do not have funds to send a state newsletter. For many of you, the National Mainstream Newsletter is your only means of receiving vital information regarding many Baptist issues.

For this reason, this issue of the Texas Baptists Committed newsletter is being mailed to the entire Mainstream mailing list. This includes over 27,000 people in Texas and over 55,000 people who live outside Texas. (Usually, only Texas residents and Mainstream Baptist Network members receive this mailing.) It is our dream that the 80,000+ people on the Mainstream and Texas Baptists Committed mailing lists would receive both the state and national newsletters. The cost per mailing would be around $30,000.

Can we do this? Only you can answer that question. It is our goal to mail all of you 9 issues per year (4 MBN, 5 TBC), but it will cost approximately $270,000. That is a lot of money.

So we ask you to show your support for this ambitious goal by joining TBC or MBN. On the back of this newsletter are two membership forms. If you live in Texas, fill out the TBC form and your money will be used to mail the TBC newsletter in Texas and nationally. If you live outside Texas, fill out the MBN membership form and your money will be used to mail the MBN newsletter nationally.

Many of you THINK you are a member of either TBC or MBN, because you vocally support our work or receive the newsletters. The reality is, many of our most loyal advocates have never joined our organization.

If you are not sure if you are a member, look at the mailing label on this edition of your newsletter. If you are a member, at the top of the label above your name, you will see the initials "MB." If that "MB" is not there, you have never contributed to TBC or MBN.

If just 10,000 of the 82,000 recipients of this mailing, sent the minimum contribution of $35 for the first time, that would add up to $350,000. Those donations would provide for the mailing of all nine TBC and MBN newsletters. Please think and pray about supporting this ministry. Together, we can communicate truth that will release the hostages of prejudice.

April 2004