Baptist Standard board warns of BP's reliability
___By Marv Knox
___Editor
___A Southern Baptists of Texas resolution notwithstanding, Baptist Press is an imbalanced news provider, according to a resolution adopted by the Baptist Standard board of directors.
___Baptist Press is the public relations arm of the Southern Baptist Convention's Executive Committee. It has been criticized by Baptist General Convention of Texas leaders for its misleading and partisan reports about the BGCT and its agencies.
___But the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention, which split from the BGCT in 1998 because the older convention refused to support the SBC's increasingly fundamentalist agenda, rallied to Baptist Press' support lae last month.
___Messengers to the Southern Baptist of Texas Convention annual meeting in Fort Worth passed a resolution stating Baptist Press reporters and editors "always perform at the highest Christian and professional standards."
___The SBTC resolutions committee was chaired by Paul Pressler, a retired Houston judge. In the late 1980s and early '90s, Pressler was a member of the SBC Executive Committee and led in the transformation of Baptist Press. During his tenure, the Executive Committee fired the Baptist Press editors, who insisted on reporting the perspectives of all sides of the battle for control of the national convention.
___The SBTC resolution affirms Baptist Press for high standards and Christian conduct.
___Not so, according to the statement approved by the Baptist Standard's board earlier this year.
___"Texas Baptists must be cautious of one-sided, unbalanced, agenda-driven news distribution," the board's statement says. "Such imbalance often is the case with Baptist Press.
___"Baptist Press serves the Executive Committee rather than the truth. Baptist Press often offers Baptist people information that is misleading and inaccurate, that is opinion rather than fact, that is self-serving rather than truth-serving."
___Two recent Baptist Press articles illustrate these points, noted Leroy Fenton, chairman of the Standard's board of directors and pastor of First Baptist Church in Waxahachie.
___First, a BP story released in September attempted to link the BGCT's Buckner Baptist Benevolences with Planned Parenthood and support for abortion, he reported.
___A Buckner facility in Amarillo participated in a sexual-abstinence program for children and early teens with 23 other local groups. One of those groups was Planned Parenthood.
___The workshop advocated abstinence, which is Buckner's position. Buckner also opposes abortion and combats abortion through its adoption and maternity services. In fact, Buckner gained three adoption referrals through its participation in the workshop.
___"This is two-faced hypocrisy, when Baptist Press will criticize Buckner in the guilt-by-association tactic but refuse to criticize Richard Land, who serves on the U.S. Commission on Religious Freedom with an individual of the Baha'i faith," noted Leroy Fenton, chairman of the Baptist Standard's board of directors and pastor of First Baptist Church in Waxahachie. "This is proof of a political agenda--discredit Buckner and the BGCT with lies and innuendo."
___Second, a BP story in late September contained multiple factual inaccuracies--including the lead paragraph--regarding the BGCT Executive Board meeting Sept. 25. Those inaccuracies still have not been corrected, despite repeated attempts by BGCT officials to set the record straight and an appeal by the press services liaison committee of the Association of State Baptist Papers.
___In correspondence with Ken Camp, manager of the BGCT's news office, Baptist Press Director Will Hall has denied emphatically that the story in question contained any inaccuracies.
___"Baptist Press, without question, is a pawn of the SBC Executive Committee, appealing to baser instincts for political self-interest," Fenton said. "Their interest is not truth but self-serving criticism to fuel a fundamentalist agenda. This is slander of the worst sort."
___ "The Baptist Standard board of directors urges all Texas Baptists--laity and clergy alike--to discern what is factual," the Standard board's statement says.
___"The Baptist Standard has been and continues to be the most trusted means of communication for Texas Baptists. Whether through the weekly printed edition or the online version, it is the best source of truthful news and information.
___"In the Baptist Standard, you will read articles covering both sides of the issues, providing a healthy balance," the statement pledges. "You can trust the Standard to tell the truth. Sometimes, reading about difficulties within our Baptist family is painful, but we believe you have a right and a responsibility to know and be well informed.
___"An informed Baptist is an authentic Baptist. It is the Baptist way."
___The Standard enjoys a degree of independence and autonomy unparalleled in Baptist life. It is the only newspaper or news organization affiliated with the SBC or state conventions that does not receive support from the Cooperative Program convention budget. Also, it is among a minority of news organizations that has its own board of directors and does not report to the head of the convention bureaucracy it covers.
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