August 5, 2002
BGCT chaplain endorsement board
gets OK from U.S. armed forces
___By Ferrell Foster
___Texas Baptist Communications
___WASHINGTON--The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Board has approved the Baptist General Convention of Texas as a "recognized endorsing agency" for military chaplains. As a result, the BGCT is poised to begin endorsing chaplains for the first time.
___The board unanimously approved the BGCT's application in its July 24 meeting, said Bobby Smith, director of the BGCT's office of chaplaincy relations.
___Since other federal agencies and non-government entities generally follow the Department of Defense's lead, they are expected to recognize the BGCT as an endorsing agency as well, Smith said. "The Armed Forces Chaplaincy Board has, for all practical purposes, become the recognized standard whereby all chaplain organizations recognize who can and cannot" endorse chaplains.
___Thirty-one people already have completed the necessary paperwork to be considered for endorsement by the BGCT when its Chaplaincy Endorsement Board meets in August or September, Smith said. Other applications are in process.
___The BGCT will accept chaplains already endorsed by a "sister Baptist body" and not require them to go through a new application process, he said.
___Smith listed three reasons why the BGCT needed to begin endorsing chaplains.
___First, "we want to offer people an up-close and personal, relationship-based endorsement," he said, explaining that kind of relationship is not possible with large endorsement agencies. "We want to develop a pastoral ministry for chaplains based on time together."
___Second, there are chaplains who do not wish to sign the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith & Message statement as now required by the Southern Baptist Convention.
___Third, the SBC no longer will endorse female chaplains who have been ordained. The problem is that "no person can serve as a chaplain for a United States government organization without being ordained, so there is an irreducible tension," Smith said.
___Three federal agencies utilize such chaplains--the Department of Defense, the Federal Bureau of Prisons and the Veterans Administration, Smith said. Many other institutions have the same ordination requirement.
___For more information regarding BGCT chaplaincy, contact Smith at (214) 828-5381 or brsmith@bgct.org.
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