Eying Federal Money

For the Southern Baptist Convention, the wall of separation between church and state is almost as sacred as the infallibility of the Bible. For administrators of Southern Baptist colleges and hospitals, the ready availability of federal grants and loans is a tempting answer to the pressing need for expanded facilities. At the annual meetings of the Southern Baptist state conventions last month, federal aid was unquestionably the leading topic of debate--and the wide variety of conclusions reached by the "messengers" (delegates) measured the extent to which it has become a real problem for the nation's largest Protestant faith.

In Florida, the state convention cut its annual support for Stetson University from $270,000 to $150,000, and seriously debated whether to cut off all funds for the Baptist school. Stetson's offense was accepting $845,000 in federal grants to construct a science building and add to its law school. By contrast, the Kentucky convention in effect authorized Baptist-backed schools in the state to accept federal loans if their administrators saw fit.

Other state Baptist conventions tried to define what forms of Government aid their institutions could accept without violating church principles. Arkansas and Louisiana rejected federal grants but ruled that loans were acceptable. The conventions of Texas and Georgia, after stormy debate, rejected even federal loans. The Arizona convention also rejected loans and grants, but ambiguously left church institutions free to accept certain Government payments "for services rendered."

Advocates of federal aid argue that church-founded schools and hospitals are already receiving millions of dollars in indirect support through Government assistance to students and patients. They also point to the progress made by institutions of other conservative churches that have been willing to accept federal money. A case in point is Tennessee's struggling Belmont College, founded in 1951, which refuses all federal aid and is kept alive by doles from the state Baptist convention. In plant and personnel, Belmont cannot compare with nearby David Lipscomb College, supported by the Churches of Christ, which took in more than $6,000,000 in federal funds during 1965 alone.

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