By Scott Barkley
Baptist Press
NASHVILLE — The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee (EC) voted June 2 to revise previously recommended budgets in order to fund recommendations made by the Sexual Abuse Task Force (SATF).
A special-called Zoom meeting, attended by 57 of 67 current members, addressed reallocating funds given in excess of the 2021-22 national Cooperative Program Allocation Budget approved at last year’s annual meeting in Nashville as well as the 2022-23 budget passed by the EC in February 2022, which was included in the current Book of Reports. A third motion authorized additional funding for legal fees to be taken from EC operating reserves.
All three motions were brought forward by the EC’s Committee on Convention Finances and Stewardship Development. Messengers to the 2022 SBC Annual Meeting in Anaheim are scheduled to consider recommendations from the SATF and subsequently, the funding of those recommendations.
Discussion Thursday included clarity of language in the motions as well as the potential ramifications of the EC’s directly addressing sexual abuse and thus positioning itself for litigation.
EC Chairman Rolland Slade acknowledged those concerns before voicing his own perspective. [Read more…]