July 15, 2002

SBC will defund D.C. convention;
new convention loyal to SBC likely
___By Robert Marus
___ABP Washington Bureau
___WASHINGTON (ABP)--The Southern Baptist Convention will cease all funding of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention, after a failed attempt to control supervision of the D.C. convention's staff.
___Bob Reccord, president of the SBC's North American Mission Board, wrote a June 26 letter to Jeffrey Haggray, executive director of the triply aligned D.C. convention, informing him of NAMB's defunding.
___The SBC funds given through NAMB account for about one-third of the D.C. convention's annual budget.
___Haggray now predicts SBC leaders will instigate formation of a new Baptist convention in D.C.--one that will be submissive to the desires of SBC leadership.
___The District of Columbia Baptist Convention has been aligned with the SBC, the American Baptist Churches in the USA and the Progressive National Baptist Convention.
___But SBC officials in recent months have attempted to exert greater control over the D.C. convention, while complaining about positions taken by the other conventions that support the D.C. work.
___In his June 26 letter, Reccord said the D.C. convention had "grown increasingly distant from the Southern Baptist Convention, its positions and priorities."
___NAMB earlier proposed a list of six conditions for continued support of the Washington convention, including employment of a NAMB administrator to directly supervise all staff paid in whole or part with SBC funds.
___D.C. convention leaders rejected the proposal, saying it would violate the convention's autonomy. Since most D.C. convention workers are jointly funded with NAMB, it would have essentially removed Haggray from leadership, they said.
___Haggray said he doesn't expect hard feelings to end when a cooperative agreement between the two conventions runs out next year. He predicted SBC leaders would try to persuade churches to pull out of the D.C. convention, either to join SBC-friendly conventions in neighboring states or start a new one of their own.
___"NAMB's strategy at this point is to sow seeds of discord in DCBC and start a uniquely SBC convention in Washington," Haggray said. "It's not enough to (NAMB) that they're ending the agreement. They want to take DCBC churches with them--and that is reproachful."
___NAMB spokesman Marty King said the SBC agency, based in Alpharetta, Ga., wouldn't be opposed to working with a new convention started by area churches, but he speculated that any churches might instead migrate to Baptist state conventions in Maryland or Virginia.
___King acknowledged NAMB employees have contacted SBC-aligned churches in the D.C. convention, but he said those calls were merely "to explain our position" and not to propose any specific plan.
___Reccord has cited "irresolvable differences" between the SBC and the D.C. convention, but Haggray said he doesn't believe such differences exist. "We are by nature not a 'protest' convention."
___From his perspective, the real problem is that NAMB is unwilling to cooperate with any convention it can't control.
___A listing last fall of NAMB concerns--described by NAMB as "proposals" but viewed by Haggray as an "ultimatum"--called for the D.C. convention to disassociate from "cultural festivals" that include non-Christian religions, to cease publishing negative articles about the SBC in the Capital Baptist newspaper and to use only speakers that agree theologically with SBC leadership.
___D.C. convention leaders say most of those are non-issues. They claim their convention never has taken part in "cultural festivals" as described by NAMB or denigrated the SBC in public settings. They also say examples of where the SBC differs with American Baptists stem from misunderstanding of official statements.
___Asked to comment on some of those issues, a NAMB spokesman said he didn't have specific information available. Referring to an instance of a D.C. convention speaker denigrating Southern Baptists, however, Marty King, NAMB's director of convention relations, described the final address of Haggray's predecessor, Jere Allen, which he described as "pretty anti-SBC."
___Allen is a former employee of the SBC Home Mission Board, one of three predecessor agencies merged to create NAMB.
___Allen provided ABP with a copy of the manuscript for his 2000 sermon questioned by King. The only comments in the written text relevant to the dispute criticized the SBC for being "embroiled in controversy over inerrancy" to the detriment of missions and evangelism. The same speech also chastised American Baptists for their own infighting over homosexuality, which caused a major fund-raising effort to be sidetracked.
___"I don't think that's derogatory," Allen said. He also said he had never heard any criticism of the remarks from NAMB previously.
___But King said such details aren't the main issue. "This relationship was not working," he said. "And we put forth a proposal to make it work, and they said, 'No.'"
___Meanwhile, Haggray and his supporters claim disrespectful treatment of the D.C. executive in discussions with NAMB, prompting some to suggest a racial motive. Haggray is the D.C. convention's first African-American executive.
___He was elected unanimously to the post last June, coming from a local pastorate.
___NAMB leadership's "sheer refusal to even attempt to build a professional relationship with me prior to presenting me with demands is a way that I've experienced racism in American life," he said.
___Allen, his predecessor, said he doesn't believe racism is a factor in the current dispute or that Reccord is racist. However, he does not believe Haggray and the D.C. convention have been treated fairly by NAMB.
___"It is true that Jeff was not treated in the way other executive directors have been treated through the years," he said. "Nobody's ever been treated the way he was treated."
___It was not fair to confront Haggray with the SBC's demands while he was so new on the job, Allen suggested, noting that SBC leaders should have discussed their concerns with him before he left office.
___"They went after Jeff when he was just coming up from being a pastor of a church," Allen said. "He did not know the system of Southern Baptists. And all of a sudden Robert Reccord brings all these accusations about us up in August. If they had brought this up earlier, I would have been better prepared to respond to this than he was at the beginning of his tenure."
___But Burcham, a conservative who has criticized the D.C. convention's positions on various issues, said the timing had nothing to do with Haggray.
___"This doesn't have anything to do with the present leadership," the Maryland pastor said. "It has nothing to do with Jeff Haggray. Nothing. He's a fine man."

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