Colleges could cut ties to Baptist group

Five North Carolina colleges that remained in the fold of the State Baptist Convention moved a step closer to cutting financial ties with the religious leadership after a debate this morning.

At its annual meeting in Greensboro, a majority of the 2,332 delegates, who are called messengers, approved the move to cut funding and official ties to the colleges. The action must clear one more step before it is ratified. It must be approved at the convention once again next year, on a second reading.

Despite the majority approval, many voiced concern today that, without the affililation to the State Baptist Convention, the colleges would veer from their Christian principles.

Jerry M. Wallace, president of Campbell University in Buies Creek, assured delegates that the college would not go "wayward."

"The assumption that Campbell will turn its back on 120 years is a wrong assumption," Wallace said.

The presidents of the other four colleges also attended today's meeting. Those colleges are Chowan University in Murfreesboro; Gardner-Webb University in Boiling Springs; Mars Hill College in Mars Hill; and Wingate University in Wingate. Wake Forest University and Meredith College split from the convention years ago.

In other action, convention delegates voted overwhelming to oust a Charlotte congregation, Myers Park Baptist Church, that has said it welcomes gays as they are. That stance goes against the convention's rules requiring churches to encourage homosexuals to repent.