I wish that someone would tell me that this number is incorrect. Someone asked from the floor at this year's Tennessee Baptist Convention meeting just how much the Belmont Study Committee expended in the process of suing Belmont University. The gasp from those in attendance at the revelation that $1.2 Million was spent should have echoed in every church across the convention. To put that in perspective, convention-wide giving for the Golden Mission offering in 2006 was just over $1.6 million. Belmont probably spent a ton of money as well preparing its case, bringing the combined TBC and Belmont total to more than the 2006 mission offering amount. Let's be thankful that this is over and that we can move on. I just need some time to get over the news of the waste and get the 'mad' out of my system.
Happy Thanksgiving! (no food reference required here).
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9 comments:
Had Belmont honored the agreement made by their forefathers some 56 years ago, none of the litigation money would've even been necessary. To me, Belmont stands out as a shining example of what can happen to an institution when it loses its Christ-centered focus and its commitment to Baptist doctrine. When such is the case, money takes priority over everything else. Belmont's decision to leave the TBC was made for one reason: the prospect of wealthy trustees and donors. It's a sad day when gold becomes a man's god, but clearly this was the case with Belmont.
Dear anon,
Thanks for taking time to comment. You choose to lay all the blame at Belmont's feet. I believe there is sufficient blame to go around. We disagree and I'm OK with that.
Will
For the TBC, Christ was never the issue: all they wanted was "their money." They left when they received their thirty pieces of silver. Now they can get on with their next betrayal.
Dear anon,
In the end, this turned out to be about 'the money'. All the smoke about wanting Belmont back was just crap. I don't however, see 'betrayal' as nearly the issue as misguided emotionalism.
what's most ridiculous about all of this is the convention could have saved all of this money (and it could have gone to worthy causes) if they had accepted this same amount of money when it was initially offered at last year's convention. and the convention process has lost credibility in the eyes of younger baptists and others. what a loss...
anon.,
Well, the settlement amount is a more than the original offer. The losses that you refer to are real, but will probably disappear from our memory until another two-sided-ego trip drives us into another debacle.
The most ironic thing about the most recent anonymous poster's comment is that I'm one of those "younger baptists" who are seeing a lack of credibility in the convention process (as are most of my TBC friends) but it's not because the Convention didn't let Belmont walk away.
We're frustrated with the TBC because it allowed the trustee change that, to our eyes, birthed this situation. We're also frustrated that we took the 2nd offer. The amount of money received is a pittance compared to what the TBC paid in to Belmont and this settlement leaves us without a financial base that would allow us to develop a new educational project in the middle TN area.
So yeah, I'm young, frustrated with the leadership of the TBC, and feeling disenfranchised. But it's for the completely opposite reason the latest anon talked about.
Well spoken, Jeff, even if we don't completely agree.
My response to Jeff Wright:
The TBC never authorized the trustee change: Belmont never submitted its charter for approval to the TBC (and never was required to under the laws of Tennessee governing non-profit institutions). As the discovery process in the legal proceedings demonstrated, the TBC long ago gave up any claims on Belmont. The 1951 document was a dead letter, since the relationship between Belmont and the TBC has been adjusted many times since 1951 (see the legal principle of estoppel).
2. The TBC extorted $11 million from Belmont. Belmont paid the money because it was tired of wrangling with the Convention and already had monies on hand to finance the break. The bad feeling and bad press was doing nobody any good. The TBC took the money because it knew it had no chance of winning the lawsuit (and knew opinion among the pastorate and the public at large favored Belmont).
3. Belmont is not a seminary (only 22% of the students are Baptist). I don't know what "educational project" Mr. Wright has in mind. But I suspect his aims and those of the leadership at Belmont are not the same.
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