EDITOR’S NOTE: BP Ledger carries items for reader information each week from various Southern Baptist-related entities, and news releases of interest from other sources. The items are published as received.
Today’s BP Ledger contains items from:
World News Service
Brewton-Parker College
University of Mobile
Governor vetoes New York
adoption tax credit
By Emily Belz
ALBANY, N.Y. (World News Service) — The New York legislature in June unanimously passed a bill providing a tax deduction for families adopting children out of the foster care system. On Christmas Eve, New York Gov. Andrew Cuomo vetoed it.
Cuomo, in his veto memo, said he supported the policy behind the bill but that it was “overly broad” and should be debated in the budget session. The governor’s office did not immediately return a request for further comment.
Despite his rationale in vetoing the adoption incentive, Cuomo had made recent budget decisions without any debate in the legislature, such as ordering the state Department of Health to cover hormone therapy and sex-change surgeries through Medicaid.
“In our state, governors take actions unilaterally that affect funding all the time,” Kathleen Gallagher, who lobbies in Albany for the New York Catholic Conference, said in an email to WORLD News Service. Both state-level evangelical and Catholic groups supported the adoption deduction.
“Where are the governor’s priorities?” asked Jason McGuire, the head of New Yorkers for Constitutional Freedoms. McGuire referred to Cuomo as a “grinch.”
Supporters argue this bill only improves the state’s bottom line. The bill’s text outlines the huge savings the state gains from families adopting out of the foster care system. The state spends $33,000 a year on each child in the foster care system. The estimated deduction would add up to at most $10,000, or a loss of about $600 in taxes to the state. Adoptive families already receive a federal tax credit, but the state-level credit would expand their savings.
New York has 23,000 children in its foster care system, and 6,400 of those children were awaiting adoption as of 2011. Only 417 children were adopted that year.
“[I]t is clearly in the best interest of these children and to New York taxpayers to create incentives to reduce the number of children in government custody,” the bill reads.
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Brewton-Parker College
names interim president
By Staff
MOUNT VERNON, Ga. (Brewton-Parker College) — On Monday, February 2nd, Dr. Charlie Bass was officially introduced as the newly elected Interim President “beginning immediately” according to outgoing Chairman of the Board, Gary Campbell. Campbell told the faculty and staff gathered for the special announcement that during the time Charlie Bass served as Vice-President of Student Services and subsequently left, “he and his wife, Lynn, developed a deep love for the school and area.” “We are very impressed with Dr. Bass’s academic credentials and his previous experience in higher education,” the former trustee chairman indicated to those gathered; therefore “Help me welcome Dr. Charlie Bass as Interim President of Brewton-Parker College.”
After expressing gratitude for the opportunity to return to Brewton-Parker College, Bass immediately addressed the past.
“Most of you know I was here in 2012-2013. I left — you may wonder why. At this point that is immaterial. The past is a great teacher and guide, but it’s a poor residence. By that I mean we can and should learn from the past, but we don’t need to live in it — that’s where we create problems. He who is without sin cast the first stone.”
The new Interim President then expressed two expectations he desires from every staff and faculty member. “First and foremost, in everything you do or say, be a Christian.” Whether dealing with students or discussing people and issues on campus or off, “be a Christian” the president repeated. We all need to be gut-level honest and ask ourselves, “Is this going to improve the situation? Would I want someone else to say this about me? Is this going to bring Glory to God?” The second expectation President Bass indicated was “do you job.” In fact, the President suggested those are the very two expectations by which the faculty and staff should measure his leadership. “What do I want you to expect of me? First and foremost, be a Christian, and secondly, do my job.”
President Bass went on to elaborate on six goals he had earlier mentioned when questioned about being named the new Interim President. (1) Provide stability to the college after a very traumatic time of losing their leader; (2) Begin rebuilding the image of BPC in the community and across the state; (3) Develop a deeper sense of community on campus; (4) Build off recent victories; (5) Reacquaint myself with the people and heartbeat of the campus. I do this through listening first and then building off the many strengths already on campus; (6) Reestablish what it means for BPC to be a Christian college.
In providing stability to the campus after the traumatic loss of a hurting leader, Bass confessed he had never lost a son by death of any kind and would not speculate. “But what I do want to do is help provide stability to this campus as we walk through this time. I will not pretend to have all the answers, but I’ve given my life to the one who does, and I will attempt in all I do to present to you Christ in my life and actions.”
While indicating that the image of Brewton-Parker College has been tarnished in the community and across the state, Dr. Bass remained fully confident that God nonetheless has big plans for Brewton-Parker.
“God didn’t call me nor did He need me here to close this campus. He had the perfect opportunity to do that while we were under probation with SACSCOC. But He didn’t allow it to happen.
We are here today because God is not finished with Brewton-Parker College. And I want folks in Montgomery and Toombs counties, as well as all Southern Baptists in Georgia and across this country to know — Yes we are here, and we are here to the Glory of God!”
Bass insisted that because the Brewton-Parker image needs rebranding, we must develop a deeper sense of community. “I believe this begins with communication not publication. Just because we have produced something does not mean we have communicated anything.” And one of the chief things Dr. Bass insisted we must communicate are the recent victories Brewton-Parker College has achieved. “Do we really understand what it means for us to be reaffirmed by SACSCOC? Do we really understand what it means to be the first school in history to ever come from the brink of losing its accreditation to being fully accredited?”
Additionally, Dr. Bass’s address to faculty and staff was not all about organization, infrastructure, accreditation, and/or educational theory as significant as he believes those areas are for a successful presidency. Instead the Interim President insisted that healthy, personal relationships are a non-negotiable element in making an educational institution viable and full of life.
“A personal goal of mine is to never let people on our campus become secondary in my life and work. I want to get to know you. I want to listen to your concerns. I want to pray with you. We may never become ‘best buds’ but I want you to know I care about you as a person. You are not a means to an end — you are valuable to what we do here and who we are.”
Dr. Bass’s ultimate goal seems clearly to reestablish for Brewton-Parker what it means to be a Christian college. Conceding what he observed as the obvious need for money, students, and property improvements, the President posed a deeper question still.
“Let me pose a question I want you to ponder. Are we a Christian college or are we a college that teaches Christian subjects? There is a profound difference. I’m not willing to answer that right now, but I think we are on the fence. When people walk on this campus, what makes us Christian? What makes Brewton-Parker College different from any other college campus? In the classroom, what makes us different? I think there are some things we can do to make us distinctively Christian in a distinctively un-Christian world.”
According to Bass, Brewton-Parker College “belongs neither to us nor the Georgia Baptist Convention. I don’t say this arrogantly, but this school was established by and will forever belong to God.”
While the President declared that much hard work awaits Brewton-Parker just ahead, “I am so thankful that God has given me a second chance to serve Brewton-Parker College in this way. Even though I physically left here 18 months ago, I soon learned that my heart never moved.”
For Charlie Bass, his new role as Interim President remains clear. “Our greatest challenge is to seek His will in all that we propose to do and then be obedient to follow Him. I ask you to join me in that commitment.”
All inquiries should be directed to the Vice-President of Communications, Peter Lumpkins ([email protected])
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UMobile receives $140,000 grant to
provide scholarships for women
By Staff
MOBILE, Ala. (University of Mobile) — The University of Mobile has received a $140,000 grant from the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation Inc. to provide scholarships for women attending the Baptist university during the 2015-2016 academic year.
The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation is a charity dedicated to the support of women in nine southeastern states. The Foundation provides scholarship grants to schools and colleges for deserving female students. In addition, the foundation supports selected nursing homes and hospices serving the needs of elderly women.
“The Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation provides significant scholarships for women who, because of financial limitations, would have otherwise been unable to further their educational dreams. This grant expands opportunities for many students who want a quality, Christian higher education at the University of Mobile and we thank the Foundation for its investment in our students,” said Claude Bumpers, development officer for foundations and grants at the University of Mobile.
For information about scholarships and financial aid at the University of Mobile, contact Enrollment Services at 251.442.2222 or visit umobile.edu.
Lettie Pate Whithead was born Letitia Pate in Bedford county, VA in 1872 and was educated in private schools in Bedford and Lynchburg. In 1895, she married Joseph Brown Whitehead, a young attorney, and they made their home in Chattanooga, TN, and had two sons.
In 1899, Mr. Whitehead and an associate approached The Coca-Cola Company with the idea of bottling Coca-Cola, a fountain beverage then growing in popularity in the South. The two entrepreneurs secured an exclusive contract to bottle and sell Coca-Cola throughout most of the United States. The Whiteheads moved to Atlanta in 1903 to further develop the Coca-Cola bottling business. It prospered, and Mr. and Mrs. Whitehead quickly became business, church and civic leaders in Atlanta.
Mr. Whitehead died in 1906 at the age of 42, and Lettie Pate Whitehead immediately assumed responsibility for the family’s business affairs, overseeing not only the expansion of the Coca-Cola bottling business, but also the family’s real estate investments. She served as chairman of the Board of the Whitehead Holding Co. and president of the Whitehead Realty Co. She became one of the first women to serve on the board of directors of a major American corporation, serving as director of The Coca-Cola Co. for almost 20 years beginning in 1934.
Seven years after Mr. Whitehead’s death, she married Col. Arthur Kelly Evans, a retired Canadian army officer. They made their principal residence in Hot Springs, VA, where she became active in cultural and civic affairs.
She felt a keen sense of duty to those in need and contributed to numerous charities in Georgia and Virginia during her lifetime. Her benevolence also extended to England and France. She made personal donations to the Queen’s Fund for air raid victims, furnished ambulances for the French, and served on the board of the American Hospital in Paris.
Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans survived both of her sons and her second husband. Her oldest son, influenced by his mother’s generosity, created the Joseph B. Whitehead Foundation as a memorial to his father. Before her death in 1953, she established the Lettie Pate Evans Foundation. Through the benevolence of those two foundations and the Lettie Pate Whitehead Foundation created by her youngest son, charitable institutions and individuals continue to benefit from the extraordinary legacy of Lettie Pate Whitehead Evans.
