Just a quick follow-up on my previous post concerning Houston Baptist University and the proposed name change. I begin by giving my background with the University. When I graduated from High School I had applied to and was accepted at Wayland Baptist College in Plainview, Texas as a Ministerial student. Sometime during the summer Troy Womack, who was V.P for Financial Affairs at the brand new Houston Baptist College contacted me and asked for an opportunity to speak with me about coming to Houston Baptist College (HBC) and becoming a part of building a great Baptist institution of higher learning in Houston. I agreed and we met and he shared with me the vision that the founders, trustees, college officers and faculty had for the College and how I could be a part of it all. Needless to say, I called Wayland and told them I was not coming and that I had decided to become a part building a legacy for a new Baptist College.
So I enrolled at HBC and Troy Womack literally became my financial guardian angel. Between him, Dr. Ross Dillion (the Schools first Director of Development) and D.E. Sloan (who was the Area Missionary for Union Baptist Association) I was able to overcome every financial challenge with which I was confronted. It was these men who convinced me that Baptist people will give generously when they know who you are, have trust in your ability and character and you have a noble vision with attainable goals. Because I came from a family of very limited means I became acquainted with just about everybody who had anything to do with money at the University. I still remember with fondness the day I first encountered Ken Rogers. I was a senior student and he was a new employee at the University working in the Business Office. Little did I know then he would be instrumental in helping me get two of my children enrolled and funded at that school. One of these became a second generation graduate.
Dr. Hinton, who became the face of HBC as its first President was a little harder to access but was unusually generous with his time for a man with so much on his plate. During my sojourn at the College I was honored to meet many of the trustees, share ideas with them while sitting in the serene and informal setting of the "Quadrangle" or the then unnamed Student Center. I spent a lot of time in the old Atwood Theology Building were A.O. Collins, Arthur Travis, Glenn Cain, D.D. Tidwell and James Leavel influenced my understanding of the schools core values. Joyce Fan, William Dacres, James Tao, Jack Gunn and some of the most committed students I've ever known and a whole host of others were instrumental in that process as well.
I must add a word of gratitude to the many Baptist lay people who have contributed millions of dollars over the years to the University but especially to those who raised that initial 3 million required to kick-off the university in 1963. During the years I attended the school much of the funding came from retired couples, widows, financially hard strapped Baptist churches, wealthy laymen and large Baptist churches as well as other interested persons. The point is, Houston Baptist College had developed a strong presence in the region and beyond
I have said all this to help explain why the Name "Houston Baptist" is so significant to me and so inextricably connected to the core values of the University. I am not a disinterested bystander to the recent move to change the name. I have a vested interest in the issue because in many respects it represents who I have become. I do not want to see the legacy that has been built over so many years by so many people at such a high cost move away from its Baptist core.
I understand that you don't need the word Baptist in your name to maintain Baptist principles. However, to remove the name in order to get people who are not supportive of Baptist principles to donate their money is both deceptive and dishonest on its face and that flies in the face of the school's core values as a "distinctively Christian" University.
It is deceptive in that it holds the University out as a generically branded institution through a quasi DBA approach to doing business with the world. In short it says, "lets keep who we really are a secret so people who would not like us if they really knew who we were and certainly would not support us with their money. Don't tell them your name because it is offense." I cannot imagine anyone who is proud of their name and what it represents changing it for a few dollars.
It is dishonest in that it seeks to gain money under false pretense. It is essentially a sin of omission. This may be acceptable in the business word (still wrong there too) it is not in the religious world. If I do not make full disclosure then I am deceiving you. In fact, in the business world anyone who solicit an investment without full disclosure is in danger of legal action both criminal and civil. Seems to me you would have to disclose the fact that the school used to be called Houston Baptist University by saying something like, "But we changed the name so we could get you to give to it as if it were not a Baptist institution. Nothing has changed but the name . . . the school is still Baptist in principle." After all, that's what I'm being told.
Either you are Baptist or you are not. Maybe the name was a poor choice in the beginning but it is the right choice now. After over 50 plus years of legacy building the name attached to that legacy should not be sold for a pot of beans. Scripture teaches us and experience has shown us that a good name is made over many years and as Proverbs 22:1 says, " A good name is more desirable than great riches; to be esteemed is better than silver or gold." We should be protecting our good name not casting it aside for a few coins. Instead, give us a vision that we can support . . . sell us on that vision . . . show us how we can embrace it and be a part . . . challenge us . . . step out of your present circle's myopic view the possibilities for funding and embrace the larger Baptist world but please leave our good name. If the University leadership has for the school requires doing away with the Universities good name then the vision is wrong headed and needs changing.
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