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Baptist Message

"Helping Louisiana Baptists Impact the World For Christ"

SBC’s lawyers resign after EC’s vote to waive attorney-client privilege

By Lonnie Wilkey, Baptist and Reflector NASHVILLE — The Nashville law firm of Guenther, Jordan & Price informed the Southern Baptist Convention Executive Committee Oct. 11 that the firm will no longer represent the SBC entity because the board of directors voted to waive attorney-client privilege (See story). The letter, signed by James P. Guenther and James D. Jordan, was sent to Ronnie Floyd, president and chief executive officer of the Executive Committee. According to the letter, Guenther became the general counsel for the EC in 1966 and “that role devolved to now be filled by the firm of Guenther, Jordan and Price.” The letter noted that the firm has “been privileged to work with some good people who have served Southern Baptists admirably. We have endeavored every day to faithfully serve the Executive Committee and the Convention with integrity, competence, and professionalism consistently throughout these 56 years.” The letter noted, however, that “the Executive Committee’s board of directors, by a majority vote, has acted to prospectively and preemptively waive the Executive Committee’s attorney-client privilege without knowing the communications affected by the waiver and without knowing the effect it … [Read more...]

SBC EC waives attorney-client privilege as Louisiana members split votes

By Will Hall, Baptist Message executive editor NASHVILLE, Tenn. (LBM)—The Executive Committee of the Southern Baptist Convention, which is charged by SBC Bylaws to serve as the fiduciary, the fiscal, and the executive entity of the Convention (in all matters not assigned to other SBC entities), voted 44-31, Oct. 5, to waive attorney-client privilege in an investigation of the Executive Committee about mishandling sexual abuse allegations in the SBC and the mistreatment of sexual abuse survivors. There are no accusations of sexual abuse against Executive Committee staff or trustees. The action is a result of a motion adopted by messengers to the 2021 SBC Annual Meeting, presented by Grant Gaines, pastor of Belle Aire Baptist Church in Murfreesboro, Tennessee, and son of Steve Gaines, pastor of Bellevue Baptist Church in the Memphis, Tennessee-area, and former SBC president. The elder Gaines was accused of a sexual abuse coverup in 2006, according to Baptist Press, and the Religion News Service reported that his church was sued in 2020 for allegedly ignoring warnings about a part-time employee now charged with the sexual abuse of a teen. Both incidents fall within the timeframe, 2000-2021, set by the younger Gaines’s motion … [Read more...]

Kennedy, Cornyn, colleagues press Biden administration for answers on release of illegal immigrants into U.S.

By Office of Sen. John Kennedy WASHINGTON, D.C. – Sen. John Kennedy (R-La.) has joined Sen. John Cornyn (R-Texas) and more than 30 other senators to urge Secretary of Homeland Security Alejandro Mayorkas to address reports that thousands of illegal immigrants in Del Rio, Texas were released into the interior of the U.S. instead of facing removal as the Biden administration had previously pledged. “While we applaud the Administration’s original stated intent to expel the majority of migrants under the CDC’s Title 42 order or to expeditiously remove them, we are concerned that DHS did not actually carry out this plan, deployed resources in a manner that weakened border security, and undermined the deterrent effect of any future statements that the Biden Administration will enforce our immigration laws at the border,” the senators wrote. “DHS has openly admitted that the rapid influx of Haitian migrants into the interior was orchestrated by smuggling organizations, which only makes some aspects of the agency’s response more puzzling. . . . And Administration officials have communicated to congressional staff that smuggling organizations strategically bused migrants into Ciudad Acuña in order to concentrate migrants at a … [Read more...]