What happened in New York City Thursday?
For one brief moment, in my 72 years, I saw a nation united around one idea that the rule of law still works as it was intended. Transparency hurts at times. In shortly less than 48 hours this week, 12 Americans boldly left their political silos and sat in a room to discuss merits of a case based on testimony by individuals with firsthand knowledge of another American’s attempt to circumnavigate our system of law.
Joe Westbury
What is truly remarkable is that these Americans from various political alliances were chosen from a large jury pool of a cross-section of society; those who said they could not set aside their prejudice were dismissed. Others reported they received their primary news from a variety of sources; one said that source was Fox News and another was Truth Social. Both were seated and could have refused to convict and hand the defendant a hung jury.
It didn’t happen. Freed from their news outlets and echo chambers to filter their news for them — whether it be NewsMax or The New York Times or even maybe Baptist Press and its multiple not-so-discreet endorsements for the accused, they set aside their differences. They heard, under threat of perjury and prison time for lying, testimony from the closest allies of the individual on trial.
Those on the witness stand were not undercover “political operatives” with an axe to grind in this election year. They were not Democrats but died-in-the-wool Republicans. They were the closest friends of the accused. The jury was not rigged.
The witnesses told their story, and the jury listened with an open mind and made their decision, again without influence from their preferred news outlet or demanding their “truth” being given credence. (“My truth,” a phrase common today, is just a fancy way of saying “my opinion.” Unfortunately, the sky is blue regardless of how you want to say it. It’s not your “truth” but an agreed upon fact. But I digress.)
“The facts were on trial, not each juror’s ‘truth.’”
The facts were on trial, not each juror’s “truth.” That is the miracle of New York City in 2024. The miracle of transparency could happen again this month for Southern Baptists meeting in Indianapolis.
The once-great denomination is once again at a major crossroads that will threaten its future. It continues to be rocked by problems of biblical proportions largely due to coverups from an unbelievable lack of transparency and outright lying to the men and women in the pew. And I have not even mentioned the profligate lying about the sexual abuse of women and men and the acts of pedophilia on behalf of church staff that were known but swept under the rug.
For most of my 40 years as a journalist in the denomination, I watched as the denomination’s news agency, Baptist Press, was hijacked by those on the far right and transformed from a pretty much objective news outlet into an advocate of the denomination’s leadership. That launched decades of coverups.
Prior to that takeover, Baptist Press’ unofficial motto was “Tell the truth and trust the people” to make the right decision. That was quickly discarded.
Next month in Indianapolis, thousands of Baptists will gather for their annual meeting. If a Great Commission Resurgence Evaluation Task Force does its job, it will objectively take a very hard look at the effectiveness of a major restructuring of the denomination in 2010.
That restructuring, which empowered the North American Mission Board as its primary church planting agency, failed horribly to stop the hemorrhaging of the denomination’s membership, baptisms and church plants. The SBC is in a death spiral if something does not happen, and fast.
I believe it never will reach its former glory by choice. And that will be OK with God, whose mission will go forward through other faith-based groups that have not lost their spiritual or moral bearings.
But the lack of effective church planting is what is most troubling as NAMB was given an extra $50 million redirected from state Baptist conventions. Ever since then, the door of free flowing information on how those funds are being used slammed shut. That is $700 million over 14 years without any quantifiable accountability. Trustees, who were elected to hold the agency “in trust” for laity, refuse to answer questions and are directed to NAMB’s public relations office for a boiler plate response.
Vague reports without context have been foisted on churches that refuse to call for accountability. Six candidates running for president of the denomination say transparency is good, according to a story this week in Baptist Press, but only one is on the record as approving entity financial reporting on par with the Internal Revenue Service Form 990 required of secular nonprofits.
I speak from firsthand experience that is not the way it always has been. There was a time in NAMB’s first two administrations when trustees welcomed questions and dialogue, even if with some degree of hesitance in speaking to Baptist media. It was a generally friendly relationship. But when the agency’s executive office failed to be fully transparent in responding to questions, I felt the need to write two stories about five years apart.
That was while I was managing editor for The Christian Index, the state paper of Georgia Baptists. Each of the two stories were thoroughly documented and, to their credit, trustees actually apologized each time for being asleep at the wheel and not providing adequate oversight of the top executive.
On both occasions, the president unfortunately resigned. That was not the purpose of my stories but the result of collateral damage of investigative writing based on a call for transparency. Coincidentally, that is how last week’s trial played out in New York City. When confronted with solid evidence, there was little room for a difference of opinion. The NAMB trustees were, likewise, forced to confront a situation that required them to take action.
Now, with a third administration in place, trustees were led to abdicate their oversight and adopted an attitude that they are a firewall between the executive office and the churches. The trustees no longer field questions from media or laity and do not see that as part of their role. All questions are directed to the public relations office.
When I sought an interview with the current president a couple of years ago, he cancelled the meeting when he saw the dozen questions I provided to him. As a result, transparency and oversight died.
If transparency is good for the secular world, why isn’t it good enough for the religious world?
We piously cite Scripture about “without a vision the people perish” but exempt our own leaders about their lack of vision and courage to take a new direction regardless of being blackballed for breaking from the herd. And yes, being blackballed is very much alive and well in the SBC.
“Any time religion gets in bed with secular politics the child never looks like God.”
And that is the fly in the ointment. Southern Baptists need to take a long, hard look at how their tithes and offerings are being spent. If not, it’s time to stop playing games with other folks’ tithes and close shop.
It’s also past time the denomination exits all the culture wars they have become involved in. They have been sold a bill of goods that the path to being a “Christian nation” (certainly not rooted in Scripture) is through the ballot box and have abandoned the tried-and-true method of being salt and light to our neighbors, which results in them living Christian values. For them, if you can’t win the hearts of the populace you just force them to embrace the tenets of your belief through legislation.
Legislating any faith group’s values in a pluralistic society — either that of Muslims, Christians, Hindus or others — through the ballot box is not in keeping with our separation of church and state. Thank you, Thomas Jefferson.
Baptists need to break their not-so-sly affiliation with one political party because any time religion gets in bed with secular politics the child never looks like God.
If our secular courts can handle a fair and just encounter with transparency, why not the Southern Baptist Convention?
Joe Westbury is a veteran Baptist journalist who previously worked for the SBC Brotherhood Commission and Home Mission Board and ultimately retired from the managing editor position at the Georgia Christian Index. He lives in Atlanta.