May 29, 2000
BGCT will escrow funds for HBU
while trustees' action reviewed
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___The Baptist General Convention of Texas will withhold further funding of Houston Baptist University until a dispute between the state convention and university is resolved.
___Members of the BGCT Executive Board affirmed escrowing Cooperative Program gifts to HBU during a May 23 meeting in Dallas. The Executive Board also approved creation of a special committee to "carefully study the unilateral action taken by the trustees of Houston Baptist University" to create a self-perpetuating board of trustees.
___The committee will be appointed jointly by BGCT President Clyde Glazener of Fort Worth, Executive Board Chairman Rudy Sanchez of Dallas and Nick Vallado of Los Fresnos, chairman of the BGCT's Christian Education Coordinating Board.
___HBU trustees voted May 16--without consultation with the BGCT--to amend the university's bylaws and articles of incorporation to create a self-perpetuating board. The amended documents would allow the BGCT to name 25 percent of the university's trustees rather than 100 percent as is the current practice.
___HBU President E.D. Hodo said the action was taken to preserve "institutional autonomy." The board, he said, was unhappy with the BGCT's requirement that trustees be members of churches that financially support the work of the BGCT.
___The decision to escrow Cooperative Program funds for HBU was made in a May 22 telephone conference call by the Christian Education Coordinating Board. The motion for the Executive Board to affirm the action was made by Bob Campbell of Houston and seconded by Paul Kenley, also of Houston. It passed with only three votes in opposition out of perhaps 150 board members present.
___HBU was to receive about $1.5 million from the BGCT this year. That represents about 5 percent of the university's overall operating budget.
___Specifically excluded from the funds to be escrowed are ministerial tuition grants and payments to a faculty/staff doctoral loan program.
___The Christian Education Coordinating Board also asked the Executive Board to create the special study committee. A motion to create such a committee was made by Ernest Izard of Houston and seconded by several others.
___Keith Bruce, director of the Christian Education Coordinating Board, told Executive Board members the action taken by HBU trustees was "unilateral" and not sought by the BGCT.
___"In taking this unilateral action, the trustees of Houston Baptist University have violated the bylaws of the BGCT," Bruce said. "There is a stated procedure of coming to the convention and presenting a proposal" that was not followed.
___HBU trustees and administrators gave no notice to the BGCT of their intent to change the trustee election process, and no BGCT representatives were invited to address the board when the matter was under discussion.
___During the May 23 meeting in Dallas, Executive Board members twice asked to hear from Hodo or a representative of the HBU trustees. Bruce explained that Hodo was present in the room but was hesitant to speak to the board until the proposed committee had completed its work.
___Nevertheless, upon the second insistence, Hodo came to the microphone and made a brief statement: "This is a matter that deserves discussion beyond today. It is a question of the autonomy of the board. There is no issue beyond that."
___Hodo said in a subsequent interview that it "didn't serve any purpose" to say more than that. "It's an issue of autonomy, and we're going to keep it there. We're not going to allow people to draw us into issues that are not issues on our behalf."
___In his earlier comments, Bruce sought to correct an impression given by Hodo in an interview with the Houston Chronicle that the university had been threatened with losing minority representation on its board.
___"We have agreed there have been some miscommunications and misunderstandings," Bruce said, citing specifically claims about a potential loss of minority representation on the board.
___The Chronicle quoted Hodo as saying representatives of ethnic minority churches on the trustee board were at risk under the BGCT policy because those ethnic churches often cannot afford to make contributions to the BGCT. This claim later was picked up in a Baptist Press news story distributed nationwide.
___In a subsequent interview, Hodo characterized the Chronicle story as unfortunate.
___Minority representation "was not the issue from our point of view," he said. "That was a sidebar, and the sidebar became the main point."
___Any suggestion that minority representation was threatened was rebutted by Bruce and by Mark Bumpus, chairman of the BGCT's committee on nominations for institution boards.
___No minority representation on HBU's board was threatened, said Bumpus, pastor of First Baptist Church of Mineral Wells. Further, he pointed to a letter he sent to all administrators of BGCT institutions Dec. 13, 1999, in which ethnic diversity was outlined as a primary goal of the nominating committee.
___"Institutional subcommittees and nominated trustees, regents and directors must demonstrate the diversity of Texas Baptists, reflecting (a) ethnicity, (b) gender and (c) church size," the letter stated.
___Bruce also reaffirmed that no minimum contribution is required from any church to be considered a cooperating church with the BGCT. The only requirement, he said, is give something.
___Hodo told the Standard he was not surprised by the Executive Board's actions regarding HBU. "The convention has not deviated from what we anticipated they would do," he said.
___He affirmed appointment of the special study committee and expressed appreciation for the way BGCT leaders have responded. "Charles Wade has been as magnanimous, as gracious as possible. So has Keith Bruce and Roger Hall," BGCT treasurer.
___Meanwhile, Baptist Press quoted Ed Young, pastor of Second Baptist Church in Houston, praising the HBU trustee action as a historic moment. Second Baptist has been related the controversy over the trustee selection process because the church gave nothing to the BGCT Cooperative Program last year, yet has five members on HBU's 33-member board.
___"It is a time they will enlarge their tent and become a Baptist university for the Southwest," Young said of the changes at HBU. "The BGCT should be thrilled with the direction they are taking. HBU is treading a very evangelical, conservative course."
___Young also commended Hodo, a member of Second Baptist, as "an unapologetic inerrantist."
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