By Caitlyn Meisner | Staff Writer
The Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT) is conducting a review of its relationship agreement with Baylor after postponing it last year due to COVID-19.
The agreement between the BGCT and Baylor says they must review their terms at least every 10 years. It stipulates a standing relationship between the institutions.
David Hardage, BGCT executive director, told The Baptist Standard in an interview on Aug. 19 that the BGCT recognizes the changes that have happened since 2011 for both Baylor and the convention.
Going into these negotiations, an issue the BGCT is facing is the charter of Prism — an LGBTQ+ and allies student organization at Baylor — in April 2022.
Prism’s mission, as stated in its constitution, is to create a respectful space to embrace diverse sexual identities and to give voice for LGBTQ+ students to the Baylor administration.
On May 3, the BGCT released a statement regarding the charter of Prism.
“We have heard concerns expressed by many in the Texas Baptists family and are in the process of communicating these concerns to [Baylor] University leadership,” Hardage said. “The BGCT’s position on human sexuality and biblical marriage has not and will not change.”
The BGCT affirms that a sexual relationship occurring inside a marriage between a man and a woman honors God.
The BGCT declined further comment to The Baylor Lariat.
The BGCT’s last official statement was on Aug. 16, which reads:
“The BGCT has entered into initial conversations with Baylor University [and] conversations are kind, gracious and cooperative.”
Dr. Charles Ramsey, associate chaplain and director of campus ministries and church connections at Baylor, worked at the BGCT for five years.
Ramsey said while Hardage wants to maintain a strong relationship with Baylor, the BGCT is having to answer tough questions about Prism to their donors and conservative members.
According to the BGCT budget reports, the convention donated $1,468,950 to Baylor in 2021 and plans to donate $1,541,542 in 2022.
“I don’t think BCGT doubts Baylor, but they’re getting a lot of calls from donors,” Ramsey said. “As an executive of a huge organization like that, they have to make statements to donors that say, ‘We’re not changing.'”
Ramsey said he believes the re-negotiations that are happening will not be negative, and it is something the institutions must do as Baylor’s global footprint grows.
When searching for a Baptist church, people can find one in almost every city in Texas. In Waco, the BGCT recognizes 73 churches. However, University Baptist Church and Lake Shore Baptist Church in Waco are not included in its list.
According to Dr. Stephen Gardner — the director of the McBride Center for International Business at Baylor and a member of Lake Shore Baptist Church for 35 years — back around 2017-2018, University Baptist Church left the BGCT on its own. Around the same time, the BGCT decided to disaffiliate with Lake Shore Baptist Church because it became welcoming and affirming to the LGBTQ+ community.
Wilshire Baptist Church of Dallas and First Baptist Church of Austin also disaffiliated with the BGCT around the same time as Lake Shore Baptist Church for the same reason.
Now, the Texas convention no longer accepts funds from these churches. It also refuses to seat voting delegates from these churches at its annual convention, nor let members from said churches serve on the BGCT boards of committees.
At Lake Shore Baptist Church, the choice to become welcoming and affirming was a churchwide decision, Gardner said. Church leadership held seminars weekly to explore the idea of same-sex marriage, with the possibility of performing these marriages in their church.
Gardner said an active Lake Shore Baptist Church family had a gay son who had been a part of the church since he was a child. He said during one of the weekly seminars, the family spoke on their experiences as a Christian family and how they hoped their son would be accepted in the church.
“There was a committee that put together a proposal to change the church’s bylaws,” Gardner said. “We had to vote on it, and it was overwhelmingly approved by the membership of the church.”
In February 2018, the BGCT announced it was removing the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship — a Christian network of individuals and churches to spread the hope of Christ — from its church giving forms. The statement read that the end of the relationship came due to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship’s opening of employment opportunities to LGBTQ+ people.
“Texas Baptists have consistently held to biblical truth on marriage and human sexuality while at the same time loving and caring for everyone,” Hardage said in the statement on behalf of the BGCT.
Dennis Young, BGCT board chair, also commented:
“While we love all people, our love is governed by the word of God.”
Dr. Burt Burleson, dean of spiritual life at Baylor, said he is not really close to the conversation between the BGCT and Baylor, but he said it sounds like the chartering of Prism may have prompted it.
“Baylor is doing the right thing by welcoming students who come from all sorts of worldviews and faith backgrounds and non-faith backgrounds,“ Burleson said.
Baylor is committed to maintaining its historic relationship with the BGCT and with Texas Baptists, according to a university statement.
“Such a commitment is at the heart of Baylor’s motto — Pro Ecclesia, Pro Texana.“
Hardage told The Baptist Standard the charter of Prism is “not driving the conversation.”
Baylor and the BGCT have a long history. The BGCT was founded in 1886; from then until 1990, the BGCT elected every person on Baylor’s Board of Regents. A change in 1990 came when there was a fundamentalist, or conservative, shift in the Southern Baptist Convention — the larger body of Baptist conventions that the BGCT fell under. To prevent such shift, Baylor unilaterally amended the charter to allow the BGCT to only elect 25% of the regents.
Due to the 1990 change in regent appointments, Baylor’s relationship with the BGCT changed from being “owned and operated” to a partnership.
2011 presented many changes in the relationship between Baylor and the BGCT.
Before 2011, the bylaws stated all members of the board must be part of the Baptist denomination. Now, the bylaws state 25% of the regents must be active members of a local church from a historic Christian tradition. The rest of the regents must be Baptist and active members of a Baptist church.
Another change in the 2011 re-negotiation was a periodic review of the special agreement. The BGCT must review its agreement every 10 years.
One of the final changes in 2011 was a 51.7% decrease in funding for Baylor from the BGCT. While slashing Baylor’s funding for the 2012 academic year, the BGCT increased funding for every other associated Baptist university across the state of Texas. The BGCT’s funding for George W. Truett Theological Seminary was only cut by 1.7%.
Charlotte Young, a chair of the BGCT executive board’s institutional relations committee, said at the time that the redistribution of funds was to equally fund other Baptist institutions, not to harm Baylor.
The relationship between the BGCT and Baylor is long and complex. The re-negotiations of the agreement will come in the following months. The BGCT will hold its annual conference from Nov. 13-15 at the Waco Convention Center.
