NASHVILLE, Tenn. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention will consider attempting to bring its women's auxiliary under its authority, thanks to a motion from the floor of the SBC annual meeting.
Woman's Missionary Union is an auxiliary to the SBC, founded independently of the convention in 1888. Its primary objectives are to educate Southern Baptists about missions, collect two offerings that provide major funding for the convention's international and domestic mission boards, and provide hands-on opportunities for missions.
As an auxiliary, WMU raises its own funding and elects its own board and officers. The 12 SBC-owned entities receive their funding from the convention, and their boards all are elected by the convention.
While Southern Baptists consistently have affirmed WMU's zeal for missions, some leaders and others have claimed the women's group has not adequately embraced the “conservative resurgence” that turned the SBC sharply to the right during the past quarter century.
The request to invite Woman's Missionary Union to become an entity of the SBC was suggested by Leslie Stock, a messenger from Santa Fe Trail Baptist Church in Boonville, Mo. Stock's motion proposed the SBC “extend an invitation” for WMU to “become an entity of the Southern Baptist Convention to join the other SBC entities … in the work of missions and enjoy the benefits of being an entity of the SBC.”
Some observers suggested the new proposal could be used to bring WMU into stricter alignment with the convention. At the Nashville SBC meeting June 21-22, messengers completed the process of naming the SBC as the “sole member” of all 12 convention entities' corporate organizations, making the SBC's selection of their trustees — and subsequent control of the organizations themselves — practically irrevocable.
Another motion directing WMU to amend its charter to make the SBC its sole member was ruled out of order, presumably because the SBC has no power to instruct WMU.
WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee objected to Stock's motion, saying proper SBC procedure calls for referring requests for corporate changes to the WMU executive board, the organization's governing body. Instead, the motion was referred to the SBC Executive Committee for study.
The convention received 24 motions during the opening day of its 2005 gathering, June 21. Of those motions, 13 were referred to convention agencies for study and possible action, and 11 were ruled out of order.
A motion to create a liaison position to “coordinate and enhance” the convention's ministry to homosexuals was referred to three agencies. And a study whether “a local church organized by the government as a 501(c)(3) state church is biblically correct” was referred to the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission. Such a designation makes churches tax-exempt, according to the Internal Revenue Code.
Seven motions were referred to the Executive Committee, including placement of one woman on every SBC committee and a moratorium on holding the SBC annual meeting on the week after Father's Day.
The 11 motions ruled out of order included one that would encourage churches to retain the word “Baptist” in their names and another that would require all SBC entities to report virtually all expenditures and receipts, including salaries, bonuses, benefits and travel expenses for all employees by name.