A group of 60 Southern Baptist leaders, including a former president of the Southern Baptist Executive Committee, has published an open letter warning of widespread dangers they see in a currently pending court case.
At issue is Will McRaney’s case against the SBC North American Mission Board and its president, Kevin Ezell. McRaney contends NAMB and Ezell defamed him by forcing the Baptist Convention of Maryland and Delaware to fire him and then blackballing him from consulting and speaking work.
That case has been winding its way in and out of federal court for the past seven years and currently is under review by the Fifth Circuit U.S. Court of Appeals. The open letter concerns statements NAMB’s attorney made during oral arguments before the Fifth Circuit April 4.
“NAMB’s defense … said Southern Baptist governance is a hierarchy, with the SBC at the top and all churches, associations, conventions and Baptist ministers falling under the governance of the SBC,” the letter asserts. The letter is addressed to NAMB trustees, the SBC Executive Committee and other Southern Baptist leaders.
“No issue endangers those who cooperate with the SBC more than the arguments advanced by the North American Mission Board in their ongoing lawsuit.”
“No issue endangers those who cooperate with the SBC more than the arguments advanced by the North American Mission Board in their ongoing lawsuit,” the letter begins.
It alleges that NAMB has argued that “partnership with NAMB brings outside organizations like churches, associations, conventions and ministers under NAMB’s governance and partners must submit to NAMB’s governance.”
A partnership agreement between the BCMD and NAMB is an essential feature of the McRaney case. NAMB has argued in court that the partnership agreement gave the mission board authority to participate in selecting state convention leadership and that any secular court’s intervention in that agreement would violate the principle of church-state separation.
McRaney has countered that his forced termination and alleged defamation should not protected from scrutiny because they were not internal religious matters.
Instead, the letter says, “NAMB’s argument undermines the religious liberty of partners and ministers. NAMB seeks legal exemption from otherwise illegal actions based on ministry partnerships.”
The letter alleges: “Key to NAMB’s argument before the court is that any religious organization that partners with NAMB falls under NAMB’s ‘governance’ and, shockingly, they are ‘bound to submit’ to NAMB’s governance. While NAMB was careful not to use the word ‘hierarchy’ in its argument, by partnering with NAMB you must submit to their governance, which functionally establishes a hierarchical relationship between NAMB and its partners.”
The letter continues: “NAMB’s defense includes the right to defame, slander, libel and interfere in ways that threaten the employment of individuals, without NAMB being subject to any legal accountability or potential liability. This is what NAMB is arguing to the precedent-setting second highest court in the United States.”
The letter concludes: “NAMB trustees, and every Baptist and Baptist body, should be alarmed that an SBC entity is arguing in court that they have a right to defame and interfere with a person, simply because his Baptist organization partners with that SBC entity. NAMB is seeking legal exemption from otherwise illegal actions based on ministry partnerships.”
Among the letters signers are Morris Chapman, former president of the SBC Executive Committee; Randy Adams, executive director of the Northwest Baptist Convention; and Mike Stone, former chairman of the SBC Executive Committee.
NAMB routinely does not respond to media inquiries on controversial matters and has issued no response to the letter.
The current chairman of NAMB trustees is Eric Thomas, senior pastor of First Baptist Church of Norfolk, Va. See the full listing of elected trustees here.
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