Let's Get Real About WMU

The most important ingredient now in dealing with the WMU of North Carolina is reality. They are leaving us. They want to get as much money from us as they can and carry as many churches as possible with them. The question for the Convention is whether or not we are going to accommodate them in their schismatic effort because they are not just leaving us they are going as rapidly as they can to the CBF. They have expressed their desire to "partner" with the CBF. When you see that term "partner" you will know that it is a CBF term. They also want to "partner" with other Baptist groups.

This is a part of a much larger picture. It is all a part of a mad dash by several declining Baptist bodies to a meeting of the so-called "New Baptist Covenant" in Atlanta on January 30 to February 1 of 2008. It is being referred to by CBF leaders as a "new paradigm for the 21st Century". The meeting is being called together by Jimmy Carter and Bill Clinton. Carter's anti-American rhetoric as he travels over the world is right up there with Hugo Chavez of Venezuela and Bin Laden the cave dweller. Apparently, Carter has never forgiven the conservatives in the South for his ouster from the White House and the end of his meaningless presidency. Bill Clinton who is a co-sponsor of the meeting is best known for his sexual affair with a young intern at the White House and his lying under oath while he was President. Neither of these men know enough Biblical theology to fill a thimble. At least, Carter is a Sunday School teacher. We don't know what possible role Bill Clinton will play. Maybe he can give a demonstration on how to remove a stain from a dress. Southern Baptists have been practically ignored in the program. One Republican Presidential Candidate was invited but he withdrew. It is obviously an attempt to pull together a large liberal Baptist voting bloc. The Democrat Party was shocked that Evangelical Christians were so turned off by them in the last election. Now they are "getting religion" in the hopes of gleaning a larger vote from Christians in the South. The Atlanta Meeting is viewed largely as a political move to garner votes for Hillary Clinton in the 2008 Presidential Election.

Make no mistake about it, the National WMU organization is deeply involved. They have copyrighted the names of Lottie Moon and Annie Armstrong and the Southern Baptist Convention now has to pay for the use of those names. The national body has refused to become an agency of the Convention and even refused to take over the Royal Ambassadors. It is obvious that the WMU organization, while it has little support in the local churches, is going to try to pull support from Baptist Women to the leftward positions of the Atlanta group.

The issue facing North Carolina Baptists is whether or not we are going to give them the money to make the move and re-establish themselves with the liberal group or whether we are going to have the good sense to terminate the relationship with the organization and begin communicating with the women in the local churches in the promotion of missions for which we don't need the organizational structure of the WMU. Some of the best supporters of missions do not use the WMU in promotion of missions and the WMU has, for years, claimed much more credit for the success in Southern Baptist Missions than they deserve. In many instances, they have become pressure groups on the Pastor which has been widely resented. The North Carolina Convention should make a quick and clean separation from them and here's hoping that someone looks into the legality of giving money at the Convention level to any Baptist entity that unilaterally changes their constitutional relationship with the Convention without the consent of the Convention. The Convention has much more important work to do than to dilly dally with the WMU organization. Most women in local Baptist Churches have no idea as to who the President of the Organization is anyway.