You may remember the report from the Washington Post last year that accidentally told on its own people when it reported that the Southern Baptist Convention’s North American Mission Board (NAMB)—a corrupt and spiritually bankrupt “church planting” organization that really acts more like a political action committee for leftists—had been using Southern Baptist tithe dollars to send pastors who are likely to vote for progressive and woke candidates to the annual meeting.

According to the report, “One insider said NAMB has been pouring money into getting urban church leaders to the annual meeting to get enough votes to secure the presidency for Ed Litton, an Alabama pastor who has promoted work on racial reconciliation.”

Ed Litton’s wife, Kathy, was the leader of NAMB’s women’s ministry. The Washington Post then confirmed that “A NAMB spokesman said it will send 150 church planters to the meeting this year.”

With Ed Litton’s close ties to NAMB through his wife, one must consider the conflict of interest in NAMB sending 150 messengers to the convention to vote. Would there really be no bias in that vote? To be clear, 150 votes is a lot considering his closest competition, Mike Stone, the conservative candidate, only lost by a couple of hundred votes.

Once again, in 2022, the Southern Baptist Convention is finding itself facing the same dilemma. This year, one of the three candidates for Southern Baptist president, Willy Rice, is First Vice Chairman of the NAMB‘s Board of Trustees.

Reformation Charlotte reached out to the board asking if they believed there was a conflict of interest and received no response.

The North American Mission Board is funded by the Southern Baptists cooperative program which in turn is funded by Southern Baptist tithe dollars. NAMB pretends to be an unbiased organization yet the corruption that is spread throughout the NAMB is far-reaching. NAMB is currently in litigation with a former employer who blew the whistle on the organization’s nepotism and wasteful spending which, he claims, lined the pockets of non-Southern Baptists.

Rice has been sitting on the board all throughout this litigation.

With NAMB’s penchant for corruption, and the conflict of interest that arose last year at the annual meeting, should we be comfortable believing that NAMB is neutral in who it sends to the convention to vote? Should we be okay that our tithe dollars are likely being used to solidify votes for candidates who are running against our supported candidate? Is that okay?

To break this down further and try to make it clear, NAMB uses our tithe dollars to fund and pay for new church plants that are unable to sustain themselves financially—particularly, in urban areas. These churches are dependent on funds and handouts from NAMB. Willy Rice, who is basically second in command at NAMB, plays a huge role in how these funds are distributed. NAMB, in turn, will use more tithe dollars to send the pastors of these churches as messengers to the SBC to vote for our next president. Willy Rice is running for president.

If Willy Rice is second in command at NAMB, and NAMB is paying to send hundreds of voters to the SBC annual meeting, should we believe that these voters are going to vote against the hands that are feeding them? Really, if you believe so, you’re naive.