Government Money for Baptists

Southern Baptists believe strongly in the separation of church and state. Tr ditionally, they have refused to accept government funds for the support of their schools and hospitals. But costs are up, church revenues cannot keep up with them, and easily available fed eral loans and grants are beginning to look more attractive. At several annual state conventions this month, the Baptists decided that clear financial need sometimes should allow the bending of religious principle.

The South Carolina Baptist Convention voted to allow Charleston's Baptist College to negotiate for $2.5 million in federal loans to construct a library and a dormitory. Virginia's Baptist leaders decided to let the trustees of individual institutions determine whether or not to take Government grants. At Fort Worth, delegates to the Baptist General Convention of Texas voted 2,960 to 40 to cut its official ties with the Baylor University College of Medicine in Houston. The purpose was to let the school—which has Heart Surgeon Michael De-Bakey on its faculty—receive state and federal grants in order to double its enrollment. Henceforth, the institution will be administered by a nondenominational, nonprofit corporation.

Around the Stump. The reason for the delegates' decision at Fort Worth was summarized by Dr. E. S. James, editor emeritus of Texas' Baptist Standard. "The school is too fine an institution to let it die or stand idle while public-supported institutions smother it," he said. A committee is studying whether other schools subsidized by the Texas Baptist Convention be made independent so that they too can benefit from Government aid. Other state conventions were not so forthright in dealing with the dilemma of federal aid. The Georgia Baptist Convention voted to let a church-run hospital in Atlanta accept a $6,000,000 loan, specifying that the financing be done "at the lowest possible rate." This amounted to approval of Government loans, since they carry the cheapest interest.

Baptist Georgetown College in Kentucky has borrowed $3,756,000 in federal funds for dormitory construction, and recently received a loan from Washington for a new science building. The college got around its dilemma by keeping separate sets of books for funds received from denominational and private donors. The trustees repay Washington from private funds, permitting them to claim that the church itself has stayed clear of involvement with Government money. The Rev. J. T. Miller, president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, smilingly explains that the college has thus solved its financial problems "by beating the devil around the stump one way or another."