Thoughts on the legal battle, homosexuals, departure of a friend
Thoughts on the legal battle, homosexuals, departure of a friendApril 19, 2005
One of the often under-reported aspects of the Missouri Baptist Convention’s (MBC) legal case against its five renegade agencies is the impact the outcome of the case could have on other church and not-for-profit organizations.
MBC lead attorney Michael Whitehead addressed that subject in an interview with Jefferson City News Tribune reporter Bob Watson following the April 5 hearing in Cole County Circuit Court.
“I’ve talked to a number of lawyers who work with non-profit organizations, including ministries,” Whitehead told Watson. “There’s a multitude of organizations (such as) nursing homes that operate with a network where each (nursing home) is a separate, non-profit corporation.
“If that right can be changed by the child – by the subsidiary – and it can walk away with all the assets the parent gave to it, then every corporation that operates in the subsidiary-parent association model is jeopardized and the could lose all their assets.”
In the MBC’s case, the five agencies have assets worth more than $240 million.
Predictably, agency attorneys disagreed.
“I don’t know what he’s (Whitehead) talking about,” said Clyde Farris, an attorney representing Missouri Baptist College. It was Farris, who while taking the deposition of former MBC President Bob Curtis, ridiculed the truthfulness of the Bible.
“When the head of an organization is eliminated by a legal process – especially when we claim it was an illegal process – it is disingenuous to say that ‘Everything is just the same,’ because we still have good intentions,” Whitehead told Watson.
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It appears the homosexual movement is making considerable progress in getting the sinful lifestyle accepted in Missouri public schools.
More than 80 Missouri middle and high schools participated in the Day of Silence observance April 5. the day of silence is the homosexual’s way of protesting alledged discrimination and abuse against homosexuals in public schools.
The observance is the work of the pro-homosexual Gay, Lesbian, and Straight Education Network (GLSEN), and represents the latest attempt to use schools as a platform to promote the homosexual lifestyle. It is nothing more than the gay rights movement manipulating children, who are a captive audience in public schools.
GLSEN has chapters in St. Louis and Kansas City. Two other Missouri organizations were involved with the day of silence. They included the Kansas City Anti-Violence Project and the St. Louis-based Growing American Youth (GAY).
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It is with mixed emotions that we bid farewell to Don Whitney, the outstanding professor of biblical spirituality at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City.
Whitney has been a friend and contributing columnist to The Pathway and his most recent book, Simplify Your Spiritual Life, is one of the finest works ever written on the subject.
Whitney is leaving Midwestern to become associate professor of biblical spirituality at my alma mater, The Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky. Missouri Southern Baptists will miss Whitney, but thankful he will continue to influence the next generation of Southern Baptists ministers.