April 22, 2002
'Show-me' Baptists trot out legal briefs, new paper, new body
___JEFFERSON CITY, Mo.--Leaders of the Missouri Baptist Convention have produced three legal opinions backing their claim that five trustee boards acted illegally in breaking ties with the troubled state convention.
___Convention leaders also announced plans to launch their own online newspaper as an alternative to Word & Way, one of the five state convention agencies that recently declared a self-perpetuating board.
___The Missouri convention has been wracked with turmoil over the last two years as fundamentalists, led by layman Roger Moran, have won key elections that enabled them to gain control of key committees and appointments. The strife caused the convention's executive director, Jim Hill, to resign in protest.
___As new convention leadership sought to control the trustee boards of all convention agencies, five of those entities pulled themselves away from the convention by amending their charters to change the way trustees are elected. Previously, the state convention elected agency trustees. Under the revisions, the five boards were declared self-perpetuating.
___"Individual trustees and agency officials may have personal liability for actual and punitive damages," according to a legal summary distributed to members of the Missouri Baptist Convention Executive Board April 9. "Legal theories could include breach of fiduciary duty, breach of contract, misrepresentation, civil conspiracy, misappropriation or conversion of assets."
___The three law firms hired by the state convention concluded the convention has standing to pursue the matter in court because the convention "has the legal right to control these agencies."
___Although the agencies were run by trustees elected by the Missouri Baptist Convention, those trustees had no standing to change the institutional charters without the convention's permission, the report stated.
___Despite the legal opinion, state convention leaders have not said whether they will take legal action against Missouri Baptist College, The Baptist Home, the Missouri Baptist Foundation, Word & Way newsjournal and Windermere Conference Center.
___Convention President Bob Curtis, pastor of Ballwin Baptist Church in Ballwin, Mo., and Gary Taylor, pastor of First Baptist Church of O'Fallon, Mo., have requested meetings with the presidents and board chairmen of the five entities.
___Missouri Executive Board members also voted April 9 to establish a new publication to take the place of Word & Way, even though Word & Way continues to cover Missouri Baptist Convention life.
___The convention intends to contract with an "interim newswriter" and launch a newspaper online soon.
___Executive Board member John Martin of Hallsville, Mo., charged Word & Way trustees "formed an offshoot group to do what they want." He accused Word & Way of "actively promoting giving outside of the Cooperative Program" and of "actively working against" the state convention.
___Word & Way Editor Bill Webb countered that "sweeping statements" about the paper opposing the state convention "are more reflective of an effort to discredit or silence a cherished source of news and information than they are reflective of either our actual content or our intent."
___Ironically, the Executive Board meeting was held at Windermere Conference Center, one of the five entities Missouri Baptists are fighting to control. The board voted 25-20 that the Executive Board could continue to sign contracts to hold future events at the conference center, but they must be "contingent upon the Windermere board rescinding its decision to remove itself from its historic relationship with the Missouri Baptist Convention."
___Meanwhile, a new state convention, to be called the Baptist General Convention of Missouri, was to hold its organizational meeting April 19-20.
___The conflict appears to be taking a toll on finances of the convention. Gifts through the Missouri Baptist Convention Cooperative Program were 25 percent under budget in the first quarter of 2002. Designated gifts, meanwhile, more than quadrupled.
___Controller Carol Kaylor said some of that money was designated for five agencies for which the convention has escrowed funding.
___Based on reporting by Word & Way, Associated Baptist Press and Baptist Press
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