Georgia Baptist Convention votes to cut Mercer ties

COLUMBUS - The Georgia Baptist Convention voted Tuesday to sever ties with Mercer University during its annual meeting in Columbus.

But under the convention's rules, the split from the Baptist-affiliated college of 7,000 students will not become final unless the convention votes a second time to sever ties during its annual meeting in November 2006 in Duluth, said spokeswoman Diane Reasoner.

Monday, the group's executive committee voted in favor of the split.

The organization's executive committee released a two-page letter Tuesday describing reasons for the intended separation, including a perceived lack of commitment by the university to the convention's affiliate, the Southern Baptist Convention.

Reasoner said Georgia Baptists had questioned ``whether to continue funding for Mercer.''

In addition, Reasoner said Georgia Baptists were ``deeply troubled'' by news articles that discussed the Mercer Triangle Symposium, the school's first gay student group, which held an event last month that included National Coming Out Day.

``More troubling was the disclosure that supporters (of the gay student group) included faculty and members in Mercer's Department of Christianity,'' the letter said.

``For these and many other reasons, Georgia Baptists from around the state recognize that Mercer and the convention have grown apart in their values and commitment and many Georgia Baptists have expressed their desire to end the relationship,'' the statement said.

The committee also criticized Mercer University President R. Kirby Godsey's 1996 book, ``When We Talk About God, Let's Be Honest,'' saying it ``condemned the fact that a president of one of its institutions would publish a book which deviated from biblical theology and doctrine.''

Mercer officials previously said they did not know why the convention's executive panel made the decision.

``I am very disappointed by this action,'' Godsey said in a statement. Godsey pointed to a partnership between Georgia Baptists and the university that has existed for 175 years.

Mercer receives about $3.5 million a year from the Georgia Baptist Convention. The convention previously had donated $30 million to the university's nursing school.

The symposium held its final meeting on Monday after the head of the Georgia Baptist Convention complained the group, which was recognized by the school in 2002, conflicted with the university's Christian roots.

J. Robert White, the convention's executive director, complained about the symposium last month after learning about it in a campus newspaper, saying he received calls from concerned parents.

Monday's vote wasn't the first struggle between Baptist groups and schools.

In May, Georgia's Supreme Court has rejected Shorter College's attempt to sever its ties with the Georgia Baptist Convention.

The court ordered the school to revert to a management structure that gives the Baptists sole power to appoint its board, even though the move might threaten the college's accreditation.

The 900-student, private liberal arts school in Rome became affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention in 1959 but tried to break away in 2003 after a regional agency questioned the school's independence and threatened its accreditation because of the power vested in the Baptist association.

The convention also has ties with Truett McConnell in Cleveland and Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon.

Also recently, the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools placed Louisiana College, a Southern Baptist institution, on a year's probation after the association found a faction of the Louisiana Baptist Convention was exercising control over the school.