First, no decision has been made on what the Baptist General Convention of Texas will actually do. That cannot happen until their state convention in late October. We must remember that the money we receive from Texas does not belong to the Baptist General Convention of Texas, nor does it belong to the Southern Baptist Convention. It belongs to Texas Baptist churches and is to be used as they want it used. We need to be praying for Texas Baptist churches in the next few weeks as they decide what they want to do.

Second, the Texas study committee acknowledged to us that they know they do not represent all Texas Baptist churches, and that they know not all Texas Baptist churches will go along with their proposal. I am a native son of Texas, and the Texas I know always had the world on its heart. To defund the education of more than ten thousand mission and ministry volunteers solely because they are not Texans, in order to give millions of dollars to three Texas schools educating less than four hundred students, knowing that at least one of those schools already has an endowment of nearly one billion dollars, is not something every Baptist church in Texas will want to do. I am confident there will be churches who will continue their support of the Cooperative Program and its Great Commission approach to missions, evangelism, and theological education.

Third, our security never has been and will never be in the hands of the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Our security is in the hand of God, and we are confident He will provide what is necessary for our Seminary's future through the means He chooses to use.

Fourth, we will not compromise on doctrinal integrity. It is and will remain one of our core values. In a news release the Texas committee misquoted and completely misrepresented me in an alleged comment about the Baptist Faith and Message. What is true is that we always have and always will expect our faculty to voluntarily and joyfully teach in accordance with and not contrary to the Baptist Faith and Message. As I shared with you one week ago, in an address you can find on my page at our web site, it was during my days as a student in a Texas Baptist school that I first heard a Southern Baptist professor teach Genesis was myth and legend, and a man named Moses never received ten commandments from God. I personally witnessed the effect of that theology on ministry students, and over my years as a professional scholar in evangelism and church growth, I have seen its effect on churches. To quote Dr. Daniel Vestal, leader of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, in comments he made during a panel discussion on the campus of an American Baptist seminary, as reported by Associated Baptist Press, the moderate Baptist news agency:

          "To be honest, as I look at ABC (American Baptist Convention), I guess I don't see ABC churches and folks being really aggressively evangelistic. They don't win a lot of folks to Jesus. However, having said that, I don't see most moderate Southern Baptist churches being aggressively evangelistic. We're not really passionate about the gospel changing people's lives. We're . . . [Associated Baptist Press omission] more oriented to political correctness and relevancy." (Associated Baptist Press, September 7, 2000)

Thus said the leader of the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship. With every fibre of my being I tell you this school is not going there. Not on my watch. Not as long as I have breath. So that we might remain faithful to our mission, we will remain faithful in our doctrine.