September 10, 2001

Baptist Press wrong again on BGCT gifts to seminaries
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___For the second time in two months, a Baptist Press news report has misrepresented the giving of Baptist General Convention of Texas churches to Southern Baptist Convention seminaries, according to BGCT Treasurer Roger Hall.
___A Sept. 5 BP story written by Southwestern Seminary Public Relations Director David Porter quoted seminary President Ken Hemphill as telling his faculty that "Texas Baptists gave less than $40,000 to Southwestern Seminary through the Baptist General Convention of Texas' preferred option giving plan" this year.
___The story does not explain, however, that the BGCT has forwarded hundreds of thousands of dollars to Southwestern this year through other giving options.
___Southwestern alone has received from the BGCT nearly 15 times the amount Hemphill's comments and the BP story would lead an uninformed reader to believe had been given, Hall said.
___Hemphill said he was quoting from a Baptist Standard story that reported $39,978 had been given to the six SBC seminaries through the BGCT Adopted Budget before the cap on funding for SBC seminaries through that particular plan was met.
___The funding cap, however, was not triggered until $1 million had been sent from the BGCT to the six SBC seminaries this year. And the cap does not end the flow of Cooperative Program and designated gifts from BGCT churches to the seminaries, Hall explained. The cap applies only to gifts that come through the Adopted Budget giving plan.
___Hall said it is wrong "to characterize $39,000 as all the six seminaries have gotten when in effect Southwestern Seminary has received almost 15 times more than that."
___Through July, the BGCT had sent $540,376 to Southwestern, Hall reported. And as of Aug. 31, that amount had grown to $618,800, said Randy Reid, BGCT controller.
___Also through July, the BGCT had sent about $1.9 million to the six SBC seminaries, and that is expected to reach $3.2 million by year-end, Hall added.
___Hemphill's comments to the faculty as reported in Baptist Press do not acknowledge that the BGCT gives its affiliated churches choices in giving, Hall said. Hemphill's report was not accurate because it was not complete, he suggested.
___Just two months earlier, Hall publicly challenged another Baptist Press report about BGCT funding for the SBC seminaries. That July 3 report, written by Baptist Press staff member Todd Starnes, incorrectly stated that because the seminary funding cap in the BGCT Adopted Budget had been met, some Texas Baptist churches would no longer be able to give to the SBC seminaries through the BGCT.
___After Hall's protest about the story, Baptist Press ran a correction and an apology from Morris Chapman, president of the SBC Executive Committee.
___No correction had been issued for the latest misrepresentation of BGCT giving when the Baptist Standard went to press.

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