NASA: The Sunflower Galaxy link

“Forgiveness is the fragrance that the violet sheds on the heel that has crushed it.” Mark Twain

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Although I am not longer a Southern Baptist, I follow the denomination’s goings on with fascination.The SBC is the largest group of Protestant evangelicals, although in a decline like many Christian denominations these days.

I still remember an Anglican pastor who asked me why I didn’t appeal to the Baptist hierarchy when a group of us confronted an SBC church on their mishandling of a pedophile situation. I was stunned by his question. This Anglican pastor claimed he was quite close to the SBC pastor in question. I tried to explain that. the SBC has no hierarchy that can intervene in local church conflicts because every single church is autonomous. I could tell that this was there first time he had ever heard of such an animal. I am also convinced that he didn’t believe me.

Being a bit of a gadabout in evangelical circles, I have become aware of a number of legal types who are beginning to question if the SBC churches all truly function autonomously from the hierarchy. I have spoken with some folks who maintain that each church is truly autonomous. I am also aware that there have been a few attempts in the past to challenge this autonomy, to no avail. I think that is about to change in the near future. Strangely enough, it may the sex abuse problem that will lead the way.

Local associations have the right to remove congregations from the SBC

This is how it was explained to me. The local associations holds the power to throw out a church. So, if a church hires a woman pastor, (which is DEFCON 1 in the SBC,) the local organization will throw them out.

However, there are other ways to leave. When I discovered that Andy Savage’s Highpoint Church was suddenly delisted from the SBC, during the the brouhaha, I called the SBC to get information. What I was told is that the withdrawal was most likely the decision of the church itself. From what I could see, the local association in Memphis was not part of the process.

But,  what will happens when, one day, the local association refuses to remove a church which has elected to hire a woman pastor?

Here is the scenario that I imagine. A well respected, large, influential SBC church decides to hire a woman pastor. This church has been a part of the local association for many years. The pastors in that church may have even served on some of the boards, etc.The local association refuses to act. I predict that this scenario will happen sooner rather than later.

What will the SBC mothership do?

Herein lies the problem. Any action on the part of the SBC dudebros to influence the local association, could threaten the claim of local church autonomy in the courts. In other words, it could conceivably open the SBC to lawsuits. In fact, it is beginning to happen.

Why former Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware Executive Director Will McRaney’s lawsuit is of particular interest?

It is obvious that the courts are not of one accord on this matter. According to Baptist News Global in April 20i9:

In his lawsuit filed in April 2017, McRaney alleged that NAMB officials orchestrated his firing by threatening to withhold $1 million a year in BCMD funding if McRaney remained in charge. Afterword, McRaney claimed, NAMB personnel tried to get him removed from speaking engagements, hindering his ability to earn income from honoraria and book sales, and posted a defamatory photo of him at NAMB offices.

The NAMB is the North American Mission Board which is an SBC mothership entity. Read his claim carefully. Did the NAMB threaten to withhold $1 million from the local organization if that group would not fire McRaney?  Shades of the DC political class fighting over claims on money being withheld from Ukraine unless they fired  an official. (TWW readers- this is not a go ahead to have a political debate. I’m simply trying to demonstrate that this stuff goes on in politics all the time. And the SBC leaders are certainly political animals.)

However, there appears to be some disagreement at the federal level on this argument.

A federal judge has dismissed a lawsuit by a former Baptist state convention executive claiming job interference by the Southern Baptist Convention North American Mission Board, saying secular courts lack jurisdiction to delve into matters of religious doctrine.

The decision in U.S. District Court in Northern Mississippi reverses an earlier decision by the same court. In January 2018 U.S. District Judge Glen H. Davidson declined to dismiss a lawsuit filed by former Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware Executive Director Will McRaney based on a legal doctrine called “ecclesiastical abstention.”

You can read about the NAMB response to the lawsuit here.

Besides saying that McRaney did not seek to resolve this biblically, they claimed he also sought to enrich himself with the suit.

NAMB’s response to the lawsuit claimed McRaney “caused the BCMD to violate the terms of the Strategic Partnership Agreement [for evangelism and church planting] and otherwise hindered and interfered with BCMD’s performance of its obligations.” According to the response, “NAMB was entitled” to notify the BCMD it would terminate the partnership “given the facts and circumstances as they existed at the time.”

After reading the claims and counter claims, it appears that McRaney was concerned about the role that the NAMB played n controlling church planting, etc. I believe that McRaney would say that, if these group are truly autonomous, then the local groups should function autonomously.Yet, there appears to be lots of money floating around…

“NAMB denie[d] that it published any defamatory statement regarding” McRaney.
— NAMB denied it interfered with McRaney’s speaking engagements after he left the BCMD.
— NAMB acknowledged it “situated” a photo of McRaney “in the reception area at NAMB’s office in Alpharetta [Ga.] during some period of time.” But it denied McRaney’s claim the photo “has caused additional damage” to him.
— NAMB denied that McRaney is “entitled to any relief whatsoever in this action.”

Could arguments by NAMB attorneys increase the SBC’s risk of liability for sexual abuse?

This article by Baptist Global is what caught my eye: Former state exec says arguments by NAMB attorneys increase SBC’s risk of liability for sexual abuse

It should come as no surprise that McRaney is appealing the dismissal of the lawsuit. However, it is his argument that I find of particular relevance to TWW readers.

Let me back up. The SBC has a boatload of money in their SBC Fund. Someone explained to me this way. Let’s assume $500,000 was donated by Aunt Gertrude who left the money to be used for mission work in Ghana. So, if the SBC started a data base, that could open the SBC to lawsuits. For example, what if they overlooked the fact that FBC Somewhere kept a pedophile on staff who ended up molesting a kid?  The keepers of the fund would claim it would be wrong to use Aunt Gertrude’s donations to pay for a punitive and successful lawsuit.

The argument by McRaney is rather simple. He claims that:

For decades the SBC has avoided liability in criminal and civil actions involving churches or affiliated organizations by claiming they are all autonomous, self-governing organizations. But former Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware Executive Director Will McRaney claims in a new court document that lawyers representing NAMB turn that argument on its head.

“Every attorney out there that’s got half a brain is going to pick up this case and is going to use NAMB’s direct argument in future liability cases against the Southern Baptist Convention,” McRaney warned in a Facebook live video Oct. 16.

Pay particular attention to the next argument.

Should NAMB prevail in its argument that national leaders had an absolute right to act in ways that may have led to his termination, McRaney said, it will be only a matter of time before some lawyer uses it in another court of law to establish connectionalism between, churches, associations, state conventions and the SBC that the denomination’s governing documents claim does not exist.

“Some of these sexual cases that are going on out there, and other things that happen in local churches, have never … got a foothold into the Southern Baptist Convention because it’s a local church matter,” McRaney said in the video. “The local church ordains, they do it all. That is the final authority in Southern Baptist life.”

“But under NAMB’s argument, some organization, some attorney, is going to pick my case up, and they are going to use NAMB’s arguments straight back in the courts against the Southern Baptist Convention,” McRaney predicted. “You just mark my words. It’s going to happen.”

In fact, it may already be happening.

Once again, Bob Allen is doing a great job in following these arguments in Amended lawsuit says SBC doing too little, too late, to prevent sexual abuse of children.(June 2019)

A motion filed June 3 in a Virginia court says the Southern Baptist Convention is culpable in a multi-million dollar sexual abuse lawsuit against a member church.

…The lawsuit in the Circuit Court of Chesterfield County involves Jeffrey Dale Clark, a former youth group leader at Immanuel Baptist Church in Colonial Heights, Virginia, serving a 25-year prison sentence after pleading guilty to three counts of aggravated sexual battery and two counts of indecent acts with child by a custodian in 2016.

Eight individuals with ages now ranging from 14 to 24 allege they were sexually molested by Clark while he worked as an assistant and leader of the youth group between 2008 and 2015.

…The amended complaint says the SBC requires cooperating Baptist churches to adhere to standards created and enforced by the denomination and in the past has removed churches for violating the denomination’s views against homosexuality. The convention has also passed resolutions acknowledging that sexual abuse exists in Southern Baptist churches but to date has not taken similar action against churches that allow it to happen.

If the parents had been informed of the “increased danger of child sex abuse in the absence of and adherence to nationally adopted standards” by the SBC, the lawsuit claims, they never would have allowed their children to participate in the youth group at Immanuel Baptist Church. The victims seek more than $9 million in total damages.

Uh oh!

Here is the problem.

• Have you noticed how none of the churches mentioned in the Houston Chronicle story have been thrown out of the SBC. (One willing left from what I understand.) In fact, some believe that these churches were exonerated within days of the famous JD Greear reaction that *something would be done.*
• Things have moved really slowly.
• This may be part of the reason for the speaker selection at Caring Well. Think about it.
• The Executive Committee is supposed to *Do Something.* But what, precisely, is that?
• What if they do something? Let’s say, they refuse to seat Steve Bradley’s Stonebridge Church at the next SBC convention? What problems would this usher in for the SBC. They are between a rock and a hard place.
• What if the local church doesn’t belong to any of the local SBC organizations? Who will throw them out if they hire a woman pastor?

Let’s say the SBC decides to boot out a church or threatens to withhold money from a local organization. Could they,  by these actions, prove that the local SBC organization or churches are actually under the coercive control by the mothership? I think they are heading in this direction.

Given the current political climate, the SBC will need to face the fact that judicial activism may result in surprising judgements in the foreseeable future.

I look forward to following the litigation. McRaney’s lawyer has raised a question that has troubled me for years. I wouldn’t be surprised if Aunt Gertrude’s donations to missionary workin Ghana may one day be diverted to covering increasing litigation costs.

This is a fascinating development. By the way, the argument by the NAMB that I found the most amusing was the *biblical argument.*  It appears they are saying they are biblical and McRaney is not. I have a feeling that there are nonbiblical responses on the part of those at the NAMB. So glad they allude that they are pristine followers of the Bible over there…

Always beware of the *They are not behaving biblically” argument.”

NAMB told BP in a statement, “After [McRaney] rejected or ignored several offers to meet and discuss these matters biblically, we regret that Dr. McRaney has chosen to involve the courts, however, since he has chosen this venue, we will be good stewards of NAMB’s resources and defend the case vigorously.”

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For those of you who want to read more about McRaney’s la

1. Supporting Documents at McRaney’s website.

2. Statements for Dee Parsons: Re Lawsuit NAMB & SBC  Nov. 2, 2019

Positions and Supporting info…

• Having experienced sexual abuse related to clergy in my family, I have seen the devastation and care about victims and their families. I want to see SBC entities and SBC partners (State Conventions, Associations, and local churches) doing everything they can in prevention, protection and care of victims in keeping with the autonomy rights and responsibilities of all SBC partners.
• I support and in my legal claims against NAMB/Ezell I advocated for the 100 year position of the SBC located in Article IV of the SBC Constitution, that the SBC and its entities have no authority or rights over SBC partners.“the Convention does not claim and will never attempt to exercise any authority over any other Baptist body, whether church, auxiliary organizations, associations, or convention.”
  1. In SBC governing documents, three partners are named and treated equally with rights as to autonomy: State Conventions, Associations, and local churches. In other words, what the SBC says and claims about churches, also applies to partnering Associations and State Conventions.
• SBC Double Speak is clearly at work. The SBC leadership cannot have it both ways.  They cannot claim they have no authority and rights over SBC partners: State Conventions, Associations, and local church, and at the same time with integrity have an SBC entity claim in Federal District court, and Federal Circuit Court of Appeals that the entity has “Absolute Rights” and “Absolute Privileges” over partner organizations and their leaders.  This is classic SBC Double Speak and actually involves lying to the courts as a part of NAMB’s cover up.
  1. NAMB claimed rights to interfere, impact the employment of an SBC partner, defame, and violate tort laws under ecclesiastical privilege (which requires a hierarchy that does not exist in the SBC). Never should a missions organization hide behind ecclesiastical abstention to cover wrongs or hinder justice.  ((this time the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (BCMD)
  2. NAMB even claimed in its defenses that it received the same release I gave the BCMD in my Separation Agreement, which clearly demonstrates their claim of having authority over and connection to the BCMD. Furthermore, NAMB argued the defamation and threat to withhold $1 million per year in mission partnership until I was terminated was “over internal workings of a religious organization” and not subject to judgment by a secular court.  What “a” religious organization was it, when two completely separate autonomous organizations were involved?
  3. SBC 55 year attorney Jim Guenther, “But an attorney for the Southern Baptist Convention said individual churches are responsible for hiring and firing its pastors. Pastors are not employees of the convention, so it cannot step in when wrongdoing is alleged” “We knew nothing about it. And if we knew anything about it, we could not have provided any relief or prevention” – (remember, State Convention, Associations and Churches have the same right of autonomy in the SBC governing docs) https://www.mcall.com/news/mc-xpm-2008-03-11-4013381-story.html
  4. SBC General Counsel Augie Boto (now retired) said, “Every Southern Baptist church is autonomous and controlled in ways approved only by its members,” Boto said in the document. “The Southern Baptist Convention does not exercise any control or authority over any Southern Baptist church.” (also true of State Conventions and Assn.) https://www.houstonchronicle.com/news/houston-texas/houston/article/Southern-Baptist-Convention-claims-no-control-14416397.php
• With rights, comes responsibilities which creates potential liabilities.
• The SBC, each autonomous SBC entity, and each partnering organization and church should assume responsibility and related liability for actions which they are responsible. They should seek to do and advocate for justice.

Immediate Actions Available: Low Hanging Opportunities to Help, plus details   

• There are several things that the SBC and entities can and should do immediately to enhance help abuse victims without violating the autonomy of each SBC entity or partner. Those relate to transparency and accountability.
  1. Each Trustee body or entity leader can make null and void all Non-Disclosure Agreements, and Non-Disparage Agreements. That would let victims and people who are aware of wrongs or accusations to speak freely, whether sexual abuse or other forms of wrongs.  Currently, some former staff live under the threat of a lawsuit and having to repay their severance and lose health and/or retirement benefits should they violate the terms of their separation agreements.  NDA are typically in place to keep something from coming out, which should not be for the SBC and its entities.
     • On Oct. 25, 2019 NBC Universal reversed their policies and removed the NDAs related to sexual harassment. https://www.cnn.com/2019/10/26/us/nbc-weinstein-lauer-non-disclosure-accusations/index.html
  2. Each Trustee body or entity leader can instruct their employees and encourage pastors and church planters to not plead Clergy Penitent Privilege and report to civil authorities allegations or claims of sexual abuse.
     • 6 SBC entity future heads (Thom Rainer – LifeWay, Jimmy Scroggins – LifeWay Trustee Chairman SBC Pastor’s Conference Speaker 2019 on Kingdom Character, Danny Akin – SE Baptist Seminary, and Russell Moore – ERLC, plus Ezell and Mohler) were connected in Louisville KY to Highview Baptist Church and/or Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003 when Kevin Ezell invoked clergy penitent privilege in a child molestation case against a former Highview (Whitefield) School Principal and multi-generational church member at Highview. A member who knew of the allegations sought out one or more victims to encourage them go to authorities, but Ezell claims he knew nothing.  However, with other known facts, it seems unlikely that Kevin Ezell and others did not know of the allegations.  Convictions for 7 boys were from 1970s and 1980s, not during Ezell’s tenure.  Interesting, I am not aware of any of these SBC leaders calling for the adoption of either of these above two points.
     • Strangely, at the height of his career and published remarks about the future, at age 49 Maggard stopped being the Principal for some unknown reason about the same time Ezell came to Highview as their Pastor. These are additional facts pointing toward Ezell and others such as the SBC entity heads knowing something about abuse allegations.  Maybe this is why Ezell has been so very silent on matters of sexual abuse, clergy privilege, etc.  (also Mohler connection and public support of CJ Mahney)
     • However, SBC respected journalist Joni Hannigan was threatened with a lawsuit of libel by Ezell by NAMB VP – Communications Direct Mike Ebert by text message after she wrote 5 sentences about Ezell invoking clergy penitent privilege in about a 3,000 word article. The article was about the Sexual Abuse resolution approved by the SBC and only a few weeks after she wrote about her own experience of being sexually abused as an 18 year old by a deacon of a SBC cooperating church.
     • https://truthisincrisis.wordpress.com/2019/02/03/a-menacing-message/ (I have the full message which identifies Mike Ebert as the sender)
     • https://truthisincrisis.wordpress.com/2018/06/26/news-analysis-was-sbc-metoo-resolution-on-abuse-a-band-aid-for-larger-issues/
     • https://truthisincrisis.wordpress.com/2018/06/10/the-metoo-movement-deserves-more-than-the-sbc/
  3. SBC leaders can also make available resources to SBC entities and partners, church and pastors on best practices for all matters related to sexual abuse prevention, reporting and care.

Other Facts of Note:

• SBC Leaders are aware of NAMB’s false claims in federal court. Numerous emails from me, numerous articles in the press, and the court records all remove any claim of ignorance.
  1. Guenther and the entire Executive Committee are aware of NAMB’s claims, but there has been no public response nor a “friend of the court” brief explaining or refuting of NAMB’s false claims. Guenther nor the EC have taken action on behalf of truth or the SBC in keeping with their fiduciary responsibilities that we have any awareness of to date.
  2. NAMB staff leadership, Trustees, and legal team (internal and one’s hired by the insurance companies) are fully aware of the claims of NAMB unless they have intentionally stuck their head in the sand.
• In addition to Bob Allen’s recent two articles, the Baptist state paper Louisiana Baptist Message published an article on Friday, Nov. 1, 2019. Will Hall is one of the most respected journalists still working inside established Baptist publications.  He notes that 18 year SBC Exec. Committee CEO/President Morris Chapman and Houston Chronicle Robert Downen both posted Allen’s article on social media.  https://baptistmessage.com/concerns-circulate-nambs-lawsuit-response-erodes-historic-sbc-doctrine/