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Southern Baptist leaders expressed lament over Texas Baptist funding deliberations after the state convention's executive board adopted a report calling for a $5.3 million reduction in Cooperative Program gifts to the Southern Baptist Convention.

The recommendations, adopted Sept. 26 by a vote of at least four to one by the Baptist General Convention of Texas' executive board, will now be considered by messengers at the BGCT annual meeting Oct. 30-31 in Corpus Christi.

Morris H. Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee, in a Sept. 27 statement, noted, "Fractious elements in Texas have driven an extremely poor decision that is bad for the Baptist General Convention of Texas, bad for the Southern Baptist churches in Texas, bad for the Southern Baptist Convention and bad for the common mission causes dear to our hearts."

Voicing "extreme disappointment and profound regret" over the BGCT executive board vote, Chapman said, "We believe the people of the Southern Baptist churches in Texas have not been fully informed of the extreme nature and destructive results of this recommendation." The proposed funding cuts, he said, are "nothing less than a breach of the historic relationship the Southern Baptist Convention has had with the BGCT."

Reflecting on the 20-plus years he was a pastor in Texas, Chapman added, "I know that the Southern Baptist churches there have the world on their heart. I am praying they will not be led away from the historic partnership God has chosen to bless so enormously."

Chapman noted that a meeting with the BGCT's executive director, Charles Wade, has been requested "to express our concern over these developments and to open conversations we hope can lead to a reconciliation between the Southern Baptist Convention and those who lead the Baptist General Convention of Texas. We have received a reply from Dr. Wade inviting us for a visit to talk about these issues." Chapman's statement did not give the date of the upcoming meeting.

Under the proposed budget plan approved at the BGCT executive board's regularly scheduled meeting Sept. 26 in Dallas, $5,337,144 in Cooperative Program gifts from Texas churches would be redirected from the Southern Baptist Convention to "special Texas needs."

A maximum of $1 million in BGCT funds would continue to go to the SBC's six seminaries under a formula based on the number of Texas students attending each seminary.

Also among the proposed cuts, according to BGCT documents: $736,291 from the SBC Executive Committee and $364,582 from the Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission, while $4,236,271 million would be cut from the six SBC seminaries.

The $4 million-plus in BGCT funds formerly given to the SBC seminaries would be redirected to the theological schools at Baylor and Hardin-Simmons universities, which have enrollments of 247 and 82 students, respectively, and the Hispanic Baptist Theological School, with about 200 students. SBC seminary enrollment exceeds 12,000, including more than 4,000 at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth.

Meanwhile, the proposal calls for 25 percent of the $1 million formerly allotted to SBC Executive Committee and ERLC to be redirected to the BGCT's Christian Life Commission headed by Phil Strickland, whose national involvements include being a trustee of Americans United for Separation of Church and State which often links with the American Civil Liberties Union in church-state and cultural issues; 50 percent to Texas Baptist Hispanic work and 25 percent to human welfare needs.

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October (Web-only) 2000, Vol. 44