WASHINGTON (ABP) — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is one step closer to having its own “Center for Religious Liberty” on Capitol Hill.
Directors of the organization voted Oct. 1 to engage the services of a real-estate agent to identify a specific property for the BJC to purchase and renovate. The center will provide offices, research space for visiting scholars, meeting space for legislative coalition partners, and a training center to teach supporters how to relay the BJC's message of religious liberty and church-state separation.
“We have turned a corner,” said Reginald McDonough, a retired Baptist General Association of Virginia executive who is chairing the capital campaign. Noting that the campaign has received gifts and pledges totaling more than half of its $5 million goal, the next phase will require having actual property to show potential donors.
“We need to begin, now, to say … we have found a piece of property, and we have an option on that piece of property, and we are working toward completing that,” he said. “And we believe that would be the trigger that we need to re-energize our donors for the rest of our campaign.”
The Baptist Joint Committee began the campaign, officially, two years ago. It was intended to mark the organization's 70th anniversary in 2006. But sluggish giving delayed purchase of a property until a family that often backs moderate Baptist causes issued a matching challenge, boosting the campaign. The challenge from the Baugh Family Foundation of Texas, issued in June during the concurrent Cooperative Baptist Fellowship-American Baptist Churches meetings in Washington — netted nearly $1.2 million in only two weeks.
Directors approved the motion without dissent. It stipulated that the property be at least 6,000 square feet — as opposed to the current 3,548-square-foot space. The motion also instructed BJC Executive Director Brent Walker to appoint a task force comprised of real-estate, development and legal professionals to investigate ways to finance the purchase and renovation. Directors were told to include exploring partnerships with developers who could, as part of the project, develop additional commercial space on the property to rent to other groups.
For decades, the Baptist Joint Ccommittee has used a rented office suite on Capitol Hill in the Veterans of Foreign Wars building. Although conveniently located a block from the Capitol and across the street from both the Supreme Court and Senate office buildings, McDonough said the space is expensive and doesn't provide the BJC with “a front door” or “a face on Main Street.” Rent for the space has comprised more than 10 percent of the group's annual budget in recent years.
Many of the BJC's peer groups — such as the Friends Committee on National Legislation and American Center for Law and Justice — occupy Capitol Hill properties such as the one the group hopes to develop.
In other news, directors voted to accept the Baptist General Convention of Missouri as a member body of the Baptist Joint Committee. The statewide body — formed in 2001 as an alternative to the fundamentalist-controlled Missouri Baptist Convention — joins 14 other national and regional Baptist groups that support the BJC.
“The Baptist Joint Committee exists to support causes that the Missouri Baptist Convention no longer supports or encourages, and there are still many Baptists [in Missouri] who want to be Baptists and still want to be part of the process of advocacy for religious liberty,” said Jim Hill, executive director of the BGCM.
Directors also approved a $1.2 million budget for 2008, a slight increase over the 2007 budget of $1.15 million, and welcomed a new development officer. Kristin Clifton joined the staff from Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va., where she served as communications manager. She is a graduate of Virginia Tech University in Blacksburg, Va.
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Read more:
Baugh family challenge nets BJC nearly $1.2 million in two weeks (7/24)
BJC board hears progress report on 70th anniversary campaign (10/9/2006)