Baptist State Convention of North Carolina cuts ties to 5 rural colleges and universities it helped start

"In a historic vote that came after acrimonious debate, delegates to the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina voted to sever ties to five Baptist colleges and universities they birthed years ago," writes Yonat Shimron of the News & Observer in Raleigh. The schools want "trustees from among alumni who no longer live in North Carolina and may not be Baptist," Shimron reports. "Ongoing theological controversies between Biblical literalists are also a factor in the institutions' desire to go solo."

If the change is approved on second reading at next year's convention, the schools will start electing their own trustees and no longer receive annual contributions of about $1.2 million each from the convention. "Some delegates were sharply critical of the severance plan and skeptical that the schools would maintain their Christian character," Shimron reports. "All five presidents of the colleges, however, said they planned to honor the historic Baptist and Christian principles on which their schools were founded." (Read more)

The colleges are Mars Hill College, Wingate University, Campbell University in Buies Creek, Chowan University in Murfreesboro and Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs. "Many of these colleges have become too big and cumbersome to be controlled by increasingly meager denominational resources," Shimron reports. "Brian Davis, a convention executive who worked with the college presidents, said the money the colleges receive from the convention amounts to less than 4 percent of each institution's annual budget -- a minuscule amount compared to the early days when church support helped keep the colleges afloat."