November 24, 1999
Shared leadership plan fails in N.C.
___WINSTON-SALEM, N.C. (ABP)--A highly promoted plan to create peace in the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina through shared leadership failed to receive the two-thirds majority support it needed for passage last week.
___The shared-leadership plan, which would have placed conservatives and moderates in key elected positions in alternating years, drew about 55 percent approval from messengers.
___The proposal narrowly escaped defeat earlier when an amendment that would have postponed indefinitely a vote on the plan fell 31 votes short of a simple majority.
___Also during the two-day meeting in Winston-Salem, messengers voted to begin a process to sever constitutional ties with Wake Forest University in a dispute over homosexuality. They also banned any state-convention employee, including campus ministers, from performing a same-sex union.
___The shared-leadership plan, which was proposed by a special bipartisan committee, drew opposition from both conservatives and moderates. However, most of the opposition during floor debate came from conservatives.
___The proposed plan focused on the election of officers. The individual receiving the most votes for convention presidency would have been elected president, while the one with the second-most votes would be president-elect. A similar patteron would have been followed with vice presidents.
___That presumably would have put a conservative and moderate in each position. The president-elect automatically would have become president the next year, while the current president would stay on as past-president, effectively allowing all the officers to serve two years.
___The proposal also called for joint leadership on the convention's General Board. Conservatives, who have won the convention presidency in recent years, have complained they still have little influence in the General Board, which plays a major role in budgeting, hiring and programming.
___Proponents said the plan would avoid deepening the division among the state's Baptists and keep them from perhaps splitting into two separate conventions.
___Opponents said conservatives and moderates have different visions for the convention, making true cooperation impossible.Contents/ Masthead / Why We're Here / Links / Archive / E-mail us/ SUBSCRIBE!