Critical Victory Won
by T. C. Pinckney Vol. IV, No. 9, December 1991
Praise the Lord, the unfair and undemocratic attempt by liberal state leaders to destroy the voting power of Virginia conservatives failed. This was the most critical issue of the 1991 BGAV convention and took the form of an amendment to Article III of the BGAV constitution. Any amendment requires a two-thirds majority to pass. The proposed amendment had four parts which were separately debated and voted.
The first part was not controversial, for it suggested that small churches which make even a token contribution to the budget be authorized two messengers rather than one. This provision had widespread support and passed 2,326 (87%) to 347 (13%).
The second part was the most crucial. It stated that only money donated to the Virginia portion of the budget would count toward authorizing messengers. In the past money contributed to any and all portions of the budget counted. The major impact of this change would be that money going to the SBC would not count toward state convention messengers. Even liberal churches giving through the Virginia Plan of the budget would have seen the dollar requirement for ten messengers climb from $7,500 to over $23,000. A church contributing according to the conservative recommendation, the 17/83 plan, would have had to give more than $88,000 to receive ten messengers! After considerable debate this proposal failed by a vote of 1,744 (62.3%) in favor, 1,056 (37.7%) opposed. Remember, it needed 66.7%.
The third element was doubling the cost of messengers beyond the first two. It failed by 1,601 (60.4%) to 1,051 (39.6%).
The final part was an effort to limit the maximum number of messengers from 15 to 10. That lost by a lopsided 1,033 (39.7%) ayes to 1,567 (60.3%) nays.
This was a major and strategic victory. Conservatives can continue to follow their consciences and also be fully participating Virginia Baptists.