Missouri president bans newspaper from convention events_120803

Posted: 12/05/03

Missouri president bans newspaper from convention events

JEFFERSON CITY, Mo. (ABP)–In a move unprecedented in Southern Baptist circles, a state convention president will attempt to bar a Baptist publication in Missouri from attending or reporting on state Baptist meetings.

David Tolliver, recently elected president of the Missouri Baptist Convention, informed the editor of the Word & Way that the staff of the 107-year-old news journal no longer will be allowed to attend convention meetings, including Executive Board sessions and committee meetings. Tolliver also will attempt to bar Word & Way from the convention's annual meetings, events frequently attended by secular media.

In a Nov. 19 letter to Editor Bill Webb, Tolliver explained that his “directive” is a result of the action the Word & Way and four other convention agencies took to establish self-perpetuating trustee boards.

Word & Way, Missouri Baptist University, Windermere Baptist Conference Center and the Missouri Baptist Foundation changed their charters in 2001 to allow each entity to elect its own trustees rather than allow the convention to elect them. The Baptist Home trustees took the same action a year earlier.

The Missouri Baptist Convention filed suit in August 2002 to force the boards of the five entities to rescind their charter changes.

“It is simply a matter of prudence that litigants not have direct communication or personal interaction with one another,” Tolliver said in the letter. Tolliver said his directive will be withdrawn once the litigation is settled.

Tolliver, pastor of Pisgah Baptist Church in Excelsior Springs, is a member of the convention's legal task force charged with overseeing the legal effort to recover the five breakaway agencies.

The convention's action against Word & Way is probably unprecedented, according to longtime Baptist observers, who could not recall another incident in which a state convention excluded a Baptist publication from all its meetings.

In a telephone interview Nov. 24, Tolliver emphasized the lawsuit as his primary reason for expelling Word & Way from board proceedings. “This was not done in animosity but in prudence,” he said.

When asked why the convention waited more than a year to bar news journal staff, he responded: “In my opinion, it should have been done a year ago … but I wasn't in a position to do it. … I have said in several instances (in the last year) that it should have been done. … This is not anything personal. I think it's the right thing.”

Tolliver said the directive would not apply to other news organizations because they are not involved in legal action with the Missouri convention.

The convention president added that he plans to ask all executive board members to refrain from talking with Word & Way, although he acknowledged he cannot force them to comply.

In his letter, Tolliver also noted Word & Way would be barred from the convention's annual meeting. However, under the Missouri Baptist Convention constitution and bylaws, convention leaders must allow elected messengers from recognized churches to participate in the annual sessions. Current Word & Way staffers are members of Missouri Baptist Convention churches.

Word & Way board Chairman Bob Cox said he does not understand Tolliver's reasoning.

“I don't know how you can bar anybody from the convention. I don't understand how you can just bar somebody from a public meeting.”