Missouri Baptist Home at Center of Controversy

Story Body: By SACHA CHAMPION

Staff Writer –Daily American Republic – Sunday, November 17, 2002

Conflicts between members of an organization arise on a fairly regular basis. But what if the conflict is between a church convention and one of its affiliate organizations? What if no agreement can be reached between the two groups, who have completely different ideas on the same situation?

According to the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC), if this situation arises and the other party won’t agree to binding Christian arbitration, the only course of action is to turn to the legal system to be the deciding factor.     

The MBC currently has a petition for declaratory judgment filed with the Circuit Court of Cole County against five agencies they say are acting illegally.

According to the MBC, the Missouri Baptist College, The Baptist Home, the Missouri Baptist Foundation, Windermere Baptist Conference Center and the Word and Way newspaper all violated a charter agreement when they decided to elect their own board of trustees instead of allowing the MBC to elect board members.

The MBC has even gone as far as to say that these organizations decided to make the amendment to their bylaws “secretly” and that now the groups refuse to “restore the former relationship of accountability to Missouri Baptists.”

“The reason they have done this is because of the conservative resurgence in the convention,” said the Rev. Gary Taylor, chairman of the convention’s legal task force. “They felt that the conservative leadership would not be the best way to serve them.”

The Baptist Home houses aging Baptists and operates facilities in Ironton, Chillicothe and Ozark. The Ironton facility serves Poplar Bluff and the surrounding areas. Several elderly members of local churches have become residents of The Baptist Home.

The Missouri Baptist Home President Larry Johnson said politics are not the reason The Baptist Home made its decision. Johnson said liability insurance, and the lack of it, was their motivation.

“The reason our board voted in September 2000 that we would go back to electing our own trustees had to do primarily with liability,” Johnson said. “Nursing homes became the number one target of litigation.”

Johnson said that at the end of 1998, the home received a letter stating their liability insurance was being canceled, even though there were no claims filed. After finding a new insurance provider, the home was once again notified of a policy cancellation at the end of 1999. They were told that the insurance company would no longer be providing insurance to nursing homes, because of the rising number of claims, even though none had been filed on The Baptist Home.

“We have recently renewed our property/casualty/liability insurance,” said Johnson. “In four years our premium has gone from $40,000 to $252,000.”

Johnson said while this may be expensive, but the home is even lucky to find someone to provide insurance for them. It was in light of this fact that the decision to elect their own board came about.

“Our legal counsel said that we need to take action to protect The Baptist Home, that must be our number one priority,” Johnson said. “You protect it by reducing the exposure to litigation and liability.”

Johnson said by allowing the convention to continue to elect the board of trustees, there would be a line of both ascending and descending liability.

“If we were sued, it could be carried on to the convention and the other eight institutions,” said Johnson. “Vice versa, if they were sued, a major settlement against them could carry into the convention and The Baptist Home.”

Johnson used the Firestone tire controversy as an example of the ascending liability because both the tire company and Ford Motor Company were held liable.

“If there was tire failure you would sue the dealer, Firestone and Ford Motor Company. You just try to build some legal walls of protection,” Johnson said. “What the Missouri Baptist Convention can never acknowledge is that this protected the convention as well as the home because we are always subject to liability.

“This has been viewed as political and everything you will read from the convention refers to our board as being moderate liberals who did this because the convention was becoming more conservative in theology,” Johnson said. “That is absolutely untrue but that is what you will read in every publication. The reason we took this action was to protect the home.”

Johnson went on to say that legal counsel for the MBC issued a statement that it did indeed own The Baptist Home and that Johnson and the board of trustees had “stolen” it from the MBC.

“It was their legal opinion that we had stolen the home,” said Johnson. “The average Missouri Baptist who is caught up in this still believes that the convention, at one time, owned the home and that we took the home from them.

“I am accused of being a thief,” Johnson continued. “In one publication I received yesterday I am compared to someone who breaks down your door and steals your furniture.”

According to Johnson, The Baptist Home was started in 1913, when a pastor and his wife began accepting Baptists into their home in Ironton. Johnson also said the MBC was originally against The Baptist Home and did everything in its power to keep it from opening.

“The home started in 1913 when the local pastor and his wife rented a bigger house and started receiving people into their own home with no support from the Missouri General Baptist Association (MGBA), later known as the Missouri Baptist Convention,” said Johnson. “In fact, the MGBA opposed them starting it. The association claimed that care for the elderly was the responsibility of the family.

“It was several years later that the association began to give any funds or support whatsoever to the home,” Johnson said. “Yet now the convention wants to say that they own it.”

In 1935, The Baptist Home came upon financial difficulties, stemming from the Depression. At this time, the MGBA withdrew all funds from the home for fear of loosing money on an institution that was facing shutdown.

A businessman in Ironton bought the home at that time and deeded the property back to the board of trustees, who formed a new corporation, to ensure that the home would be able to continue to serve Missouri Baptists.

“The new executive director for the Missouri Baptist Convention, who is a Missourian but has been out of state for several years, has said repeatedly that the convention gave birth to The Baptist Home,” Johnson said. “The convention would have nothing to do with this beginning, yet he is claiming that they gave birth to The Baptist Home.”

Johnson said another reason The Baptist Home cannot legally be owned by anyone is because it is a not-for-profit organization.

“Attorney General Jay Nixon ruled recently that not-for-profit institutions issue no stock and therefore are not owned, period,” said Johnson. “They are governed by their board of trustees.”

The third reason that the MBC could not possibly own the home, according to Johnson, is that the MBC isn’t recognized as a legal entity.

“The Supreme Court ruled in 1935 that the Missouri Baptist Convention, which was at that time called the Missouri Baptist General Association, as an incorporated religious association was not a legal entity,” Johnson said. “This means that except for the two or three days that they are in session, the MBC does not exist.”

Johnson said that he is saddened by this situation. “I can also tell you that folks in the Poplar Bluff area who have been my friends for years are now believing the convention,” Johnson said. “And churches that have supported The Baptist Home for years have now cut off their giving. But we still receive their members and we still take care of them.

“Our ministry has not changed,” Johnson said. “Our mission has not changed. But Baptists have been led to believe that we have been illegal and immoral in our actions.”

Today, the MBC only donates around a half a million dollars each year. Johnson said the home does not accept government money, such as Medicare, and that around 60 percent of the residents do not pay for their care at the home. The home has an annual budget of $1.9 million in benevolence care, meaning what the residents cannot pay.

“What the convention only provided one-fourth of our benevolence,” Johnson said. “That half-million dollars is only about 6 percent of our total budget. Yes it hurts to lose that, but it is not a death blow.”

Johnson said while several churches have decided not to donate to the home anymore, they are still sending members who need benevolence. Johnson said the home will take care of those people and the home will not reduce the amount of care given, in spite of the loss of convention donation.

The Rev. Taylor disagrees with nearly every point made by Johnson. “I really did everything I could to get Larry to agree to binding Christian arbitration,” Taylor said. “I told him that if we didn’t agree we would have to find a third party to decide for us. That is why it is in court now.”

Taylor said that when The Baptist Home’s board of trustees, who were at that time trustees elected by the convention, voted to break the charter, that the home also broke Missouri law. The charter states that any amendments made to the charter must be approved by the MBC. This charter was signed in 1960.

Taylor also does not deny that he has hinted that Johnson stole the property in a video made by the MBC.

“Yes it is me in the video and I do believe that they took property that was not rightfully theirs,” Taylor said. “We could dance around the English language all we want but that is what the definition of a thief is.”

Taylor also said that he was unaware of the statement issued by Jay Nixon concerning ownership of a not-for-profit organization.

“I don’t know what he means by saying it cannot be owned,” said Taylor. “I think the record ought to show that they (The Baptist Home) agreed to become part of the convention.”

“I hate that The Baptist Home did what they did,” said Dr. William Vail, pastor of the First Baptist Church in Poplar Bluff. “I am saddened by this. The MBC started the home in the first place and the people who started it and funded it should be able to elect the trustees.”

Vail said his church continues to support The Baptist Home because they currently have six members who now reside there. “I would like to see the home come back to its historic roots,” Vail said.

The Rev. Marshall Link, director of missions for the Cane Creek Stoddard Baptist Association also says the home should come back into accordance with the convention. “Every Missouri Baptist is interested in seeing this solved,” Link said. “There is no real alternative other than to declare who has ownership.

“We would love to see these agencies come back under convention control,” Link said. “I see no real reason why they should not be under our control.”

The liability issue, according to Link, is just an excuse to leave.

“The Baptist Children’s Home have been able to set up liability blocks without having to remove their board,” Link argued. “This excuse is not justifiable. They just did not like the conservative swing which has come back to the convention.”

Link also said that the most frustrating thing about the situation is that The Baptist Home “arbitrarily withdrew from the convention with no concerns about the many Missouri Baptists who support it.”

sachachampion@hotmail.com

Back Home