Belmont University Names New Board Members - Baptists Retain Super Majority

The Tennessean released a story today, "Belmont names first non-Baptist trustees". The eight new trustees include one Tennessee Baptist, one Missionary Baptist, three Presbyterians, two Christian Church members, and one non-denominational church member (I feel the need to insert "and a partridge in a pear tree").

Ron Stewart, President of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, insinuates that this move is Belmont's effort to become some sort of money grubbing, gold digging monster: "The thing I want to make clear is that their reason for doing this is financial...It's for the financial benefit they feel can be gained". I would love to ask Ron when was the last time that he turned away a prospective member from his church because he/she happened to be a successful and/or wealthy business person?

Ron, let's do the math here (we will not see it in the Baptist and Reflector). Out of 40 Belmont University trustees, 32 of them are still part of the duly elected (and summarily vacated) Tennessee Baptist church members and one newly elected trustee is from a TBC church. Let's see, 33 divided by 40 (it's OK, Ron you can use your calculator)... 82% (plus change) of the Belmont University trustees are Baptist! I find it difficult to reconcile the math with your statement (as quoted from the same article): "now they're moving away from that Baptist foundation". No. They are not. Please do not confuse an agenda of control of the board of trustees by conservatives with "moving away from that Baptist foundation".

And yes, many of these new, Christian, trustees are either wealthy or have influence within a large donor base. There is NOTHING wrong with that. I don't get the criticism for attracting donors who are wealthy... Ron, just where-the-heck do you expect Belmont to come up with this $57 million extortion complaint payment? And how dare you to say "Having non-Baptists on the board is something I personally would not be willing to accept and I believe most Tennessee Baptists would not accept (emphasis mine)"? Surely you have been a Baptist long enough to understand how un-Baptist it is to try to speak for other Baptists!