The Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee voted on Tuesday (Feb. 18) to recommend allocating $3 million of the budgeted $190 million in 2025–26 Cooperative Program funds to pay legal expenses resulting from the sexual abuse prevention and response effort. The vote was overwhelming but not unanimous, and two of Kentucky’s EC members came to different conclusions — reflecting the difficulty of the problem.
Nick Sandefur of Lexington voted against the recommendation, saying he preferred that the EC make what he admits would be difficult cuts to existing entities. He said the cuts should be based on Southern Baptist’s traditional priorities.
RELATED: Check out more stories on the SBC Executive Committee’s Feb. 17–18 meeting.
“I think Southern Baptists give [through] the Cooperative Program primarily for our mission endeavors, our church planting and our seminary training,” Sandefur told Kentucky Today. “I don’t see the value in decreasing that.”
He says the top priority should be supporting the 3,600 missionaries on the field — and adding to that number.
“I would like to see us prioritize our ministry mandates given from the convention and prioritize those and make our cuts where our priority is not the greatest. When I look at my house budget, I don’t necessarily, when there’s a shortfall, cut everything equally.”
‘Reality’
EC member Susan Bryant of Pleasureville voted in favor of earmarking CP dollars to pay for the ongoing legal expenses because she said it is the best of several bad options to meet the EC’s obligations.
“I don’t like what we’re having to do, but it is the reality,” Bryant told Kentucky Today. “We have to take care of it.”
Bryant points out messengers previously voted to use CP dollars to deal with sexual abuse prevention and response. So far, the EC has avoided doing that but now the bills must be paid.
“This is probably the easiest way to do it. It was a mandate from our messengers at the 2021 convention, and we’re just following their mandate to do that through the Cooperative Program,” Bryant told Kentucky Today.
Continued support
The EC has already spent more than $13 million, nearly exhausting its reserve funds. It has downsized the EC staff and put the SBC Building in downtown Nashville up for sale.
Sandefur, senior pastor of Porter Memorial Baptist Church in Lexington, said he prays the decision will not cause some Baptist pastors to question their participation in the Cooperative Program.
“I’m going to continue to support wholeheartedly the Cooperative Program, and I would encourage my fellow Baptist pastors to do the same,” he said. “I don’t like when I lose a vote but part of being a Baptist is I continue to cooperate even when I do.”
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EDITOR’S NOTE — This story was written by Lawrence Smith and originally published by Kentucky Today.
