The End of an Era

This past week, I submitted my resignation to my old University on whose board of trustees I have sat for more than 11 years since 1994. I communicated to the President that such service has been a labor of a debtor paying on a life long obligation. Every bit of it, and much of it was hard, was joy. In my mind, the debt is not discharged, but there is a time and season for everything.

I have come to this place for several reasons. First, there is simply the present reality for me. My new job only allows so much time off and that only begins after I have been on the job for six months. Technically, I have no days off, no comp time, no vacation until after the middle of February. I have already been through emergency surgery with my wife and Hurricane IKE. There is no time to take two days and do trustee duty.

Because of that, I cannot feel good about waiting until I have the freedom to resume my load on the Board. I have missed more meeting this year than in almost all the years previous. You can't help if you don't show up. I have not been able to show up. Attendance is basic. One builds from there.

There is another sadder reason for me. The trustee of a Baptist University holds that institution in trust for all Baptists in Texas. I can no longer do that and feel good about it. You see, the visible expression of Baptists in Texas is the Baptist General Convention of Texas and its visible expression, the Baptist Building staff and Executive Board of Directors. Simply, it is impossible for me to hold something in trust for people I no longer trust and do not respect. It is sad to say that I have more respect for some of the offenders with which I work than I do for some of the members of the Board of Directors, some of the Officers of the Convention, and some of the Executive Board staff. My case load can claim they were mentally ill when they robbed, killed, and beat folks up. BGCT people offer no such excuse. My offenders are also behind bars. Unfortunately, none of those responsible for the theft of money from the BGCT are.

The reign of Charles II is underway and for all the world, it looks like the reign of Charles I. Several months ago, I asked the Treasurer some questions about all the reserve money that had disappeared. My letter went unanswered until I blogged something about it and then she called. Ms. Larsen was going to get back with me and she--never did. I am not too surprised. That seems to be the new modus operandi for the new Kingdom of Charles II.

When I read the new Ex Director was recommending the old BGCT president for the new Associate ED position, I wrote him about the disastrous choice. Like his Ms. Larsen, not a word. I guess the approach the new Charles is taking is just look over and ignore. After a while they will tire and go away. Something incredibly arrogant about that approach to management, but that seems to be the way it is in BGCT land these days.

So, the State Convention that squandered $30,000,000.00 of its members' tithes and offerings, its investments and its reserves, wants me to hold in trust a university for them. Who is going to school me on the meaning of trust? Who is going to hold me accountable for that trust? Who is going to audit our books to see if I have done my job and all the money is where it is supposed to be? Yea, Right!!

You see the dilemma. The ones for whom I am to hold this institution in trust are profoundly untrustworthy. Their untrustworthiness has cost them the good will of hundreds of churches, millions of dollars, and a reputation for integrity that was years in the making.

I also find with great sadness I have lost confidence in those who keep the BGCT "safe." These days whenever I think of Texas Baptist Committed, I think of Martin Luther King and his statement "if we become the beast to defeat the beast, then the beast has won." In Texas, TBC has become the beast. It has supported corrupt leadership. It has stiffled constructive conversation. It has ostracised those who are not 100% on their team. And all the while they are allowing the BGCT to become irrelevant. Their courageous propheticism only extends to fundamentalism but does not include standing up to incompetent leaders who hide under the shadow of their great wings. The test of the character of any organization is how it deals with those in the ranks who fail. TBC did not lovingly confront and remove, they stonewalled and gaffed and hoped that Texas Baptists would forget the past as soon as a "Not Charles" appeared. That hasn't worked well, so now they recast those who are deeply concerned as neo-fundamentalists and they change the conversation. Some of us, we are not budging. Nothing is right until it is made right. And frankly, nothing, absolutely nothing has been made right.

As I leave the BGCT in my rear view mirror and head to the prison, I hear that old Country-Western song on my radio, "I have moved up to a better class of loser."