NAMB Must Stop Tampering With State Baptist Conventions

There is evidence to suggest that the North American Mission Board of the Southern Baptist Convention may be interfering with the autonomous decision-making of our state conventions by exercising their authority to release or withhold mission dollars donated by all Southern Baptists. NAMB may be leveraging these financial gifts in order to dictate matters of policy and personnel that are properly at the discretion of our state conventions.

This may have been accomplished by means of Strategic Partnership Agreements—legal documents drafted by NAMB lawyers and funded by Southern Baptist donations—that clearly favor NAMB over the state conventions. As a condition of receiving NAMB funds, state convention leaders were forced to sign Confidentiality Agreements. These gag orders prevented state convention leaders from publicly addressing concerns. We believe such documents are not conducive to the kind of transparent business that should characterize any organization claiming to be run on Christian principles.

The evidence suggests that NAMB has interfered with autonomous state convention decisions in Maryland-Delaware, the Northwest Baptist Convention, Michigan, West Virginia, and Alaska, among other states. There is even evidence going well beyond state convention relations, to suggest that Dr. Ezell, using NAMB time and office equipment, went out of his way to prevent former state convention executives from conducting ministry that had nothing to do with either Dr. Ezell or NAMB. The reason an Independent Investigation is needed is that NAMB's claim to have fully investigated the matter rings hollow in light of the fact that they did not even bother interviewing the Plaintiff or the Chief Witness. Clearly, an outside investigation into this controversy is required if Southern Baptists are going to learn the truth.