Today's Tennessean carries a story on the continuing saga of the Tennessee Baptist Convention lawsuit against Belmont University,
Talks between Belmont, Baptist leaders break down. According to the article, "the convention added two more allegations to its lawsuit Friday in Davidson County Chancery Court, claiming the university's charter is illegal." This is an anticipated move by anyone who has been keeping score. In order for the TBC to gain any sort of legal foothold, they need to prove that Belmont's Board of Trustees who, at the time was 100% Baptist and 100% approved by convention vote, did not have the right to ammend its own charter even though the convention voted to allow all TBC institutions to do so several years ago.
The part I love the most is a quote from Kevin Shrum regarding Belmont's original offer of five million dollars to settle this thing last May (from the article), "Shrum, who served as convention president from 2001-02, added that if Belmont's offer had been in the $30-$50 million range, he and others might have voted differently."
The other portion of the article that I like comes from Tennessee Baptist Convention Executive Director, James "caught-between-a-rock-and-a-hard-case" Porch, "the convention is still hopeful and prayerful that the possibility exists for amicable resolution" of the debate." I think Jim's statement translates into, "If we can just squeeze another 5+ million out of Belmont, I'll be off the hook".
Attention Tennessee Baptists: This IS about the money. Yes, that is a shocking revelation. Can we finally be honest and admit that this really has nothing to do with bringing Belmont "back into the fold"?
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