NAMB's Reccord says D.C. situation is unique among states
___By Steve DeVane
___North Carolina Biblical Recorder
___FAYETTEVILLE, N.C.--The North American Mission Board's concerns with the District of Columbia Baptist Convention do not extend to other state conventions, NAMB's president said in North Carolina.
___Bob Reccord left open the possibility that NAMB will deal with issues it feels need to be addressed in other state conventions, but he painted the situation in Washington as unique.
___Reccord, a former North Carolina pastor, was interviewed by the Biblical Recorder after he spoke at the state Evangelism Conference Jan. 7
___NAMB, an agency of the Southern Baptist Convention, informed the D.C. convention in an Oct. 24 letter that it no longer would provide nearly $500,000 in funding for the convention without direct control of how that money is spent.
___NAMB said it wanted to install a staff member to supervise D.C. convention employees who are partially or totally funded by NAMB. The proposal also said the convention should not promote cultural festivals that include non-Christian religious groups, should not print articles in its newspaper that "denigrate the SBC and its leadership nor any of it agencies" and should have speakers at its meetings that "reflect the theological tenets of the SBC."
___The NAMB funds account for about one-third of the small convention's annual budget.
___Reccord said he knows of no other theological concerns with state Baptist conventions similar to those NAMB has expressed with the DCBC. "This is a unique situation. This is the only triply aligned convention in the United States in Southern Baptist life."
___The D.C. convention is aligned with the SBC, the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention. NAMB's proposal took issue with American Baptists' stances on abortion, homosexuality and women pastors.
___When asked about state conventions with ties to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, Reccord said: "The only way we would be responding to anything from any other (state convention) is if it arises. Anywhere along the journey, if things arise that we feel need to be addressed, we'll address them, but only at that time."
___Reccord said North Carolina officials need not worry about receiving a proposal like the one sent to D.C.
___And he took issue with those who portray NAMB's request of the D.C. convention as a mandate or ultimatum.
___"In fact, ... we started out the proposal saying we are seeking to find a win-win method of strengthening the partnership," he said. "That's kind of hard to get to an ultimatum from that kind of wording."
___D.C. officials have reacted strongly to the proposal. Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of the convention, has said it "offends fundamental principles of Baptist polity such as autonomy, priesthood of all believers and soul freedom."
___In the Dec. 6 issue of the Capital Baptist, the convention's newspaper, Haggray said the proposal would "surrender the direction and control" of convention programs to Reccord and would turn the DCBC into "the only NAMB-run state convention in the nation."
___Reccord said he does not see the proposal as a threat to the convention's autonomy.
___"The (D.C. convention) has the full autonomy to decide what they will do, how they will do it and when they are going to do it," he said. "That's totally in their autonomy.
___"We wouldn't even want to even begin to insinuate a desire to control that. That's not our job."
___Reccord called autonomy "a real key part of Southern Baptist life."
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