GREENSBORO, N.C. (ABP) — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee voted Monday, June 12, to ask the Woman's Missionary Union to become an official entity of the SBC.
The committee also wants WMU to reaffirm its “exclusive” commitment to the SBC.
The motion has to be approved by messengers to the annual SBC meeting in Greensboro this week.
Because it is an “auxiliary” to the SBC and not an agency, the WMU — not the convention — elects its directors. While conservatives took control of all SBC entities years ago, WMU's independent status has frustrated convention leaders who want the auxiliary to reflect the SBC's conservative direction.
The Executive Committee approved the measure during its meeting prior to the SBC gathering. The proposal resulted from a motion at last year's SBC meeting that was referred to the Executive Committee.
The motion, which “extends an invitation” to WMU to make the changes, was approved by the Executive Committee with only a few votes in opposition. Earlier, an Executive Committee workgroup passed the measure with one abstention and it passed a subcommittee with one vote in opposition.
Discussion in the workgroup and subcommittee showed the SBC leaders were concerned about the WMU's continued relationship with the Baptist World Alliance. The SBC voted to withdraw from the worldwide Baptist organization two years ago. SBC leaders also expressed concern that WMU in the 1990s removed a mention of the SBC in its governing documents.
In past years, WMU also was criticizing for relating to the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, a group of moderate former Southern Baptists.
SBC officials said the Executive Committee motion gives WMU members a chance to tell Southern Baptists who they are.
WMU officials indicated their support for the SBC and suggested that the SBC reaffirm WMU's auxiliary status.
The Executive Committee passed the motion after defeating a substitute motion that would have simply affirmed the WMU's auxiliary status. Only two or three Executive Committee members voted in favor of the substitute.
During discussion of the matter, Julie Walters, a WMU spokesperson, read a letter that WMU Executive Director Wanda Lee wrote to Randall James, the chair of the Executive Committee workgroup that dealt with the issue.
Lee told James that WMU values its Southern Baptist partners. The group has already put in place processes to address some of the concerns some Southern Baptists have expressed concerning WMU.
James said the motion that was later passed by the Executive Committee was an opportunity for WMU to clarify its relationship with the SBC.
“There are some who question their loyalty and their allegiance to the Southern Baptist Convention,” he said.
-30-