DALLAS (ABP) — Otto Arango, the central figure in an investigation that revealed misuse and mismanagement of Texas Baptist church-starting funds in the Rio Grande Valley, was singled out for suspicion because he was a financially successful Hispanic from the Dominican Republic, another key figure in the probe has asserted.
E.B. Brooks, former head of the Baptist General Convention of Texas Church Starting Center, made the assertion in a 25-page document he sent to members of the BGCT Executive Board and selected BGCT staff.
“The recent attack on my credibility and honesty has been painful,” Brooks wrote in a cover letter. “The document enclosed is my effort to state the other side of the story — one that has not been told. It is not meant to be a defense. It is my effort to provide fact, fairness and balance.”
A five-month independent investigation initiated by BGCT Executive Director Charles Wade and the Executive Board's officers uncovered evidence that 98 percent of the 258 church starts Arango and two of his protégés in the Rio Grande Valley reported no longer exist. The investigators also discovered some of the congregations were “phantom churches” that existed only on paper.
The investigators reported the BGCT gave about $1.3 million in support to church starts associated with Arango and his two associates — a figure Brooks disputed.
After he retired from the BGCT, Brooks became executive director of the Piper Institute for Church Planting. Arango was president of the nonprofit corporation. At a called meeting last November, the Piper Institute's board of directors unanimously voted to dissolve the corporation, effective Dec. 31.
In the document he mailed to the BGCT Executive Board, Brooks maintained the church-starting initiative in the Rio Grande Valley — particularly Arango's strategy of training Hispanic laymen as church starters — was a noble experiment that failed.
“This pilot or experimental project was treated no differently than others before and after my tenure as leader of church planting. Some of the projects were less expensive, and some were more expensive. Some of them were less supervised; some of them more so. Some were successful, and some were not,” he wrote.
The key difference in the Rio Grande Valley project — and the reason it was targeted for scrutiny — centered on Arango's lifestyle and ethnicity, Brooks insisted.
“He has been the target of several persons for many years, preceding the development of the church starting project in the Rio Grande Valley,” he wrote. “His home and vehicles are, obviously in the mind of some, not proper for a Hispanic pastor …. To the accusers, the only way he would have such nice things as a nice home and cars is for him to be a thief.”
Photos that circulated on the Internet illustrating Arango's lifestyle pictured a Jaguar, a Range Rover and a house purportedly valued at $300,000.
The investigators found no evidence Arango or any other person profited personally from BGCT church-starting funds, Brooks noted.
However, in their report, the investigative team noted they lacked subpoena power. “The investigators did not have access to records to determine Dr. Arango's income or the purchase price of his home, cars or other property,” they wrote.
But Brooks asserted other pastors have not been subject to the kind of scrutiny Arango faced, raising the question of whether race was a factor in the inquiry.
“I know numerous other pastors of churches who raise cattle, write and sell books, construct and deliver seminar ministries, import goods and sell them, and utilize other means of enhancing their income. They live economically good lives, and no one complains about them,” he wrote.
“I realize that the BGCT is not financing ministry with and through them; however, the source of legitimate financial gain should not be the question. I can supply the names of pastors, denominational workers and others who have been handsomely rewarded by the BGCT for legitimate ministry activity. The pastors that I know who have more than one source of income are Anglo; maybe that is the difference.”
Brooks compared the unsuccessful church-starting experiment in the Valley to other BGCT projects that failed to yield expected results, such as apartment-based indigenous satellite units — or ISUs — that strategists hoped would grow into churches.
“By the time I was given responsibility to lead the church starting effort, almost none of the ISUs could be found,” he wrote. “No outcry for investigation into that failure was heard. As with Dr. Arango, some of the pastors of sponsor churches lived in very nice houses and drove very nice cars. Of course, all of them were Anglo.”
Brooks also noted intra-Hispanic prejudice as another possible reason for singling out Arango.
“There is also the factor of cultural conflict. Though many, if not most, would deny it, the fact that Otto Arango is from the Dominican Republic and not from Mexican background is a factor. I have heard several Hispanics say that he doesn't really understand the Mexican culture.”
Other assertions Brooks made in the document included:
— Church-starting efforts in the Rio Grande Valley did make a significant impact. Iglesia Bautista de la Communidad in Hidalgo, Texas, grew from a few families to more than 500 members, and at least 20 cell churches meet regularly, he noted. Christiana Alianza in Pharr, Texas, likewise grew to be a strong church that has helped launch other congregations beyond the Rio Grande Valley. Not all of the church starts survived, but the average life of 86 congregations started by Alianza was 15 months, he said.
— Earlier investigations contributed to the failure of the church-starting initiatives in the Valley. “In late 2002 or early 2003, a local pastor made visits to some of the homes where house churches were being started, knocked on their doors and told occupants that he was conducting an investigation as to whether there was a church meeting there. A few months later, the Federal Bureau of Investigation knocked on some of the doors, showed their badges and asked similar questions,” he wrote.
“Then the Valley became abuzz with the rumors, and leaders of the Valley were questioning the work. Add to that a rumor that was started among the house churches which said if a group was meeting in your house, and you signed a covenant application, the BGCT could 'take over ownership of your house.'
“To the typical Texas Baptist Anglo mind, that is ludicrous. However, in Mexico, the state owns church buildings and property. It is not a great leap to believe that it could be done by an entity [Baptist convention] that they really didn't understand.”
Since many of the house-church pastors were undocumented, they feared losing their jobs, their homes and the ability of their children to attend public school in the United States, he added.
“These are real fears and greatly affected the ability of sponsor churches to continue their mission activities and protect their people,” he wrote.
When asked by a reporter for the Baptist Standard, the BGCT-affiliated newspaper, for an estimate of how much church-starting money was misused and what outcome he hoped to achieve by mailing his document to members of the Executive Board, Brooks declined to answer. “I will make no comment to the Baptist Standard,” he wrote, via e-mail.
The BGCT's Wade defended the probe he and Executive Board officers initiated, and he flatly denied that racism played any role in it.
“The investigation was conducted by impartial attorneys with no prior involvement in this situation, and I have no reason to doubt the integrity of their efforts. The implication that race played a role in this process is patently untrue,” Wade said.
The complaints about inappropriate activity that triggered the probed came primarily from Hispanic pastors, and one of the two primary investigators is Hispanic, he noted.
“This situation had nothing to do with race; it had everything to do with guidelines and procedures for distributing BGCT funds not being followed,” Wade continued.
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— Ken Camp is managing editor of the Baptist Standard.