“We’re just not in favor of tax money being used to support ministry objectives,” said Barber.
A former SBC president, Barber said he felt so strongly about separation of church and state funding, that his church, First Baptist Church in Farmersville, Texas, did not apply for a Paycheck Protection Plan loan during the COVID-19 pandemic, which would have been used to pay the salaries of pastors. For Barber, that was out of bounds.
First Baptist did allow the local city to build a parking lot on a property the church owns. The city needed more parking, Barber said, and the church would be able to use the lot on Sundays or for special events. The difference, said Barber, is that the parking lot was a secular amenity that the church also supported, while the PPP loan represented government funding for a purely religious purpose.
Barber also said that many Baptist charities, such as children’s homes or hospitals, have received grants from the government for the work they do for the community. That, he said, is not seen as a violation of the SBC’s statement of faith or of Baptist principles.
Albert “Al” Mohler, longtime president of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, said that until recently, there had been a consensus among leaders of national entities on the issue of government funds.
“When I was elected president, there was an absolute consensus among SBC leaders that SBC institutions should not take government money of any kind,” he said. “If that sentence did not end in a period, it ended in an exclamation point.”
That consensus was so strong, said Mohler, that SBC seminaries only accepted funds under the G.I. Bill because they paid for the tuition of specific individuals. Mohler said that by the same logic, Baptist colleges and universities eventually began to take government funds, like Pell grants and federal student loans.
His seminary, however, decided not to accept federal student loans, foregoing millions. Nor did the seminary take out a PPP loan. “I believe it’s a simple principle of maintaining our independence from the government and our ability to be absolutely free from government interference,” he said. Other seminaries, he added, have made their peace with taking the loans.
When it comes to other charitable work, such as health care or disaster relief, government funding and oversight are difficult to avoid, but Mohler said such payments don’t compare to theological education or pastors’ salaries.
He also believes the Baptist Faith and Message assumes a strict line between the church and the government. “It definitely wants the church to be free from the interference of the state and Southern Baptist institutions, to follow the very same … principles,” he said. “I have colleagues who hold different positions, but, you know, they’re the ones who moved.”
The Baptist Center for Leadership did not respond to a question of whether it objects to Baptists accepting funding like PPP loans. The SBC Executive Committee, which governs the denomination day to day, did not respond to a question of whether accepting government grants violated the Baptist Faith & Message. The Executive Committee, like a number of SBC state conventions, institutions, and churches, did take a PPP loan.
