Baptist Briefs_22304

Posted: 2/19/04

Baptist Briefs

New Orleans Seminary pressured to make SBC its 'sole member.' New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary is under increasing pressure from the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee to change its charter to make the SBC the "sole member" of its corporation. Seminary trustees voted last October to decline a request to take that action. Following two hours of discussion, the SBC Executive Committee voted last week to ask the trustees to reverse course and amend the seminary charter during their spring 2004 meeting. The motion asks that the action be forwarded to the Executive Committee "for subsequent recommendation" to the SBC during its June 2004 meeting. If seminary trustees again decline to comply, the Executive Committee could ask SBC messengers to approve a motion to make the same request. Naming the SBC as sole member allows the convention to control the election and dismissal of trustees, while granting trustees authority to direct the organization's work and financial affairs. The requested changes would grant the SBC specific powers designed to thwart any possible attempt trustees might make to withdraw from the SBC.

Tax guide available. The Southern Baptist Annuity Board's annual Ministers Tax Guide for 2003 Returns is now available in print and online at www.absbc.org. Free printed copies are available by calling (800) 262-0511. The guide focuses on tax issues most likely to affect active and retired Baptist ministers. The guide supplements IRS materials and gives step-by-step instructions, including sample tax returns for ministers.

CBF launches new website. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship has launched a new website at a new Internet address, www.thefellowship.info. Features on the home page include links to major areas such as Global Missions, church life and education; news and views; and search engines to access information.

True Love Waits cards arriving in Athens. The first 1,000 True Love Waits commitment cards recently arrived in Athens, Greece. The cards are signed by Zulu youth of South Africa and will be part of an international display celebrating sexual purity during the 2004 Summer Olympic Games. Organizers expect close to a million signed promises of sexual purity from Christian youth around the world will be displayed during the international True Love Waits celebration Aug. 22.

LifeWay launches online movie tie-in resources. LifeWay Christian Resources has launched a new site of online resources to help Christians communicate the gospel to people who become interested in Jesus due to the release of Mel Gibson's film, "The Passion of the Christ." Access free materials by T.W. Hunt, Beth Moore and Daniel Akin at www.lifeway.com by clicking on the Passion banner located at the top of the screen.

Editors turn down $100,000. State Baptist newspaper editors declined an offer of $100,000 from a foundation to fund an independent inquiry into the Southern Baptist Convention's reasons for defunding the Baptist World Alliance. Members of the Association of State Baptist Papers rejected the offer from retired Southern Baptist leader Duke McCall to fund a study into an SBC committee's decision to withdraw membership and funding from the worldwide umbrella group. McCall is a former BWA president, Executive Committee head and president of two Southern Baptist seminaries. The funding would have come through McCall's family foundation. In discussing the offer, the editors disagreed over whether embarking on such an endeavor would imply their papers hadn't already covered the SBC-BWA issue adequately.

Pugh dies at 74. Quinn Pugh, executive director of the Baptist Convention of New York from 1984 to 1996, died Feb. 13 after open-heart surgery. He was 74. Pugh, a Texas native, also served as executive director of the Metropolitan New York Baptist Association from 1979 to 1984.