May 7, 2001

Baptist Press speculation proved inaccurate
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___NASHVILLE--The Southern Baptist Convention's news service launched yet another attack on Texas Baptists April 25.
___Through Baptist Press, SBC leaders predicted without any supporting evidence that the Baptist General Convention of Texas would divert $5.6 million in funding for the SBC's North American Mission Board to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
___Just one week later, the BGCT's Missions-sending Agencies Study Committee released its report, which contained no recommendation about diverting NAMB money to CBF or giving any Cooperative Program money to CBF.
___The fallacious BP story, written by Don Hinkle, was built upon the premise that Dallas pastor Jim Denison, chairman of the BGCT committee studying mission-sending agencies, had given a positive preliminary report about funding for the SBC International Mission Board but had said nothing about future funding for NAMB.
___The lead of the BP story said: "The Southern Baptist Convention's North American Mission Board stands to lose more than $5.6 million a year if a current Baptist General Convention of Texas study committee recommends next month to defund the missions agency."
___The story then added: "There has been much talk among BGCT leaders about keeping more money in Texas, while some have speculated that NAMB funds may be redirected toward the CBF, even though the CBF only has a handful of domestic missionaries."
___BGCT leaders characterized the BP report as inaccurate, speculative and motivated by a desire to drive more churches into the arms of an alternative state convention, the Southern Baptists of Texas Convention.
___"I regret that Baptist Press felt it necessary to speculate about what a committee might do," said BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade. "Journalists normally report on what is said and done, rather than what they imagine. The so-called journalism that is practiced by Baptist Press is based on rumor and fantasy, not fact and reality."
___Over the past year, SBC leaders repeatedly have used Baptist Press to release stories that are critical--some say slanderous--of BGCT leaders.
___Although few state Baptist papers have carried the stories, they have achieved widespread distribution through the Baptist Press website and e-mail distribution by other BGCT critics.
___To compare the Baptist Press report with reality, visit BP's website at www.sbcbaptistpress.com, and select the April 25 issue from the archives. Then look at the actual report of the BGCT Missions-sending Agencies Study Committee at www.baptiststandard.com.

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