What Tennessee Baptists Can Learn From North Carolina

The News and Observer, of Raleigh, North Carolina, has a grand essay about the separation of five Baptist schools from the State Convention of North Carolina. The amicable way the separation is taking place could teach Tennessee Baptists a thing or two about how Christians behave under somewhat trying circumstances.

The News and Observer reports, in part,

According to a plan approved by the convention’s executive committee, the colleges and universities would be allowed to start choosing their own trustees in 2009. Meanwhile, the state convention, which gives each school about $1.2 million a year, will begin phasing out its monetary contributions, eliminating them altogether by 2013.

And

“They’re working with us in a gracious way that seems to be effective,” said the Rev. Allan Blume, a Boone pastor and president of the convention’s executive committee. “They want to have a different kind of relationship. I think it can be very successful.” The executive committee unanimously agreed to the colleges’ proposal earlier this month.

It would be grand if the leadership of the Tennessee Baptist Convention could explain why this procedure hasn’t been followed here in Tennessee. Anyway, kudos to the good people of North Carolina for behaving as Baptists should behave.