Dr Chuck Pearson

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November 17, 2005

One more round of Mercer links

* The "official" report from the Christian Index about the GBC vote on Mercer.
*An editorial in the Macon Telegraph about how sad it is that it's come to this.
* And a piece on a piece on Inside Higher Ed ripping the Mercer-loves-gays angle a new one. Quote:

But whatever some Baptist leaders may have said about Mercer welcoming gay groups, the university actually asked the student group to disband, which it did. So if the Baptists follow through with their plans, they would be punishing Mercer by holding back millions of dollars that provide scholarships for Baptist students — all because of a student group that existed only briefly and that the university shut down.

If Mercer is enforcing Baptist rules about gay people, why all the fuss? Experts say that there are multiple conflicts going on. To be sure, one concerns gay rights — a flash point not only at Mercer, but at other Baptist colleges and institutions of other faiths as well. But more broadly, there is the question of who runs Baptist colleges — state conventions or boards of trustees.

“I think they wanted to defund Mercer University because they couldn’t control it,” said Rev. David W. Key, director of Baptist studies at Emory University’s theology school. Mercer’s charter, Key said, limits the convention’s control over it, so state officials would prefer to spend their money on colleges that they can control. In fact, the Georgia Baptist Convention waged a long legal battle — that succeeded this year — to regain complete control over the board of Shorter College.

Read the whole thing.

Posted by Chuck at November 17, 2005 01:19 PM

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Posted by: celestia at November 17, 2005 03:04 PM