One Year Ago Today - Tennessee Baptist Convention and Belmont University

One year ago today, Tennessee Baptists gathered at Two Rivers Baptist Church to set the wheels in motion for legal action against Belmont University. The legal action has been inching its way through the process since October...and other than the publicised skirmishes, it has been pretty quiet.

I am hopeful that next year, the situation will look more like this:

1. Tennessee Baptists (as a collective convention) will have little or nothing to do with Belmont University (if/when the lawsuit is finally settled). The divorce is already evidenced by the absense of coverage of significant campus events by the Baptist & Reflector.
2. Belmont will have to work harder than any of the historically Baptist colleges to prove that they are true to their word in maintaining a Baptist heritage and a Christian identity. It won't be easy.
3. It would not be surprising to see Belmont reach out to any number of Tennessee Baptist Churches and their college-bound students to encourage an ongoing presence of Baptist students on campus...perhaps some will consider Belmont a mission field.
4. There will be Baptists on the Board of Trustees at Belmont...and regardless of their liberal-to-fundamentalist barometer reading, they will be Christians, will act accordingly, and do what is best for the students and the institution.

I would still like to see some accountability on the $750,000 line item in the TBC budget for legal fees the Belmont committee. No one should be proud of the fact that three quarters of a million dollars has been stolen away re-allocated from the missions and ministries budget of Tennessee Baptists. I, for one, would like to see where every penny of that money is going. I do not want to see another line item in the next budget for more of the same.

I'm ready for all this to be over even if it means another round of Chick-fil-a with all the (other) rowdies at another called convention meeting. We have more important things to do...doesn't the TBC need to help Carson-Newman find a new president?