Budget Actions

by T.C Pinckney                                                                                        Vol. IV, No. 9, December 1991

There was more action on the budget this year than there has been in recent years. As you will see in the following account, though conservatives did not win any of the budget votes, for the first time in the last several years we demonstrated that we are a factor to be reckoned with.

Action on the budget was scheduled at 3:30 p.m. Tuesday afternoon, and very quickly Pastor Michael J. Riley of Little River Baptist Church, Goshen Association, moved to delete the $25,000 line item in Section C, World Missions Causes, for the new liberal seminary in Richmond. After a reasonable amount of debate, the question was called and passed. Chairman Oblinger called for a standing vote and announced that the deletion had failed by about 60% to 40%. Someone asked for a ballot vote, which the chairman initially resisted. That evoked many loud demands from the body for a ballot vote to settle the issue definitively, and the chairman agreed.

The ballot came out 1,103 in favor of deletion (40.3%) and 1,636 opposed to deletion (59.7%). So the $25,000 remains in the budget. However, for conservatives it was a psychological victory since never in recent years have we challenged a major line item and never have we been able to insist successfully on a ballot vote.

There was a motion to delete the $47,000 line item for Associated Baptist Press, the moderate-liberal press agency set up to compete with the SBC Baptist Press. This motion failed by a strong voice majority. No ballot vote was requested.

Next it was moved to delete the $76,000 item for the Baptist Joint Committee on Public Affairs, the anti-SBC lobbying agency in Washington, D.C. This motion also failed by a strong voice majority.

Rev. John M. Herndon of Jefferson Park Church in Charlottesville moved to designate $100,000 of the amount to be sent directly from Virginia to the Foreign Mission Board to go to Ruschlikon Seminary in Switzerland unless the FMB rescinds its recent action cutting out funding for Ruschlikon. After debate this motion passed by voice vote.

As discussed elsewhere in this issue, conservatives are in the process of laying a firm foundation for the future. This year we set in place several blocks regarding the budget. We will be back next year and next, and before long, as increasing numbers of Virginia Baptists have the eyes of their hearts opened, votes will begin to go our way. Plan to be in Virginia Beach at the BGAV convention 10-11 November next year.