BJC moves forward in property search for religious liberty center

WASHINGTON — The Baptist Joint Committee for Religious Liberty is one step closer to having its Center for Religious Liberty on Capitol Hill.

Directors voted Oct. 1 to engage the services of a real estate agent to identify a specific property for the BJC to purchase and renovate. The center will provide offices, research space for visiting scholars, meeting space for coalition partners, and a training center to teach supporters how to relay the BJC’s message of religious liberty and church-state separation.

“We have turned a corner,” said Reginald McDonough, a retired Baptist General Association of Virginia executive who is chairing the capital campaign. Noting that the campaign has received gifts and pledges totaling more than half of its $5 million goal, the next phase will require having actual property to show potential donors.

“We need to begin, now, to say … we have found a piece of property, and we have an option on that piece of property, and we are working toward completing that,” he said. “And we believe that would be the trigger that we need to re-energize our donors for the rest of our campaign.”

Directors approved the motion without dissent. The motion instructed BJC Executive Director Brent Walker to appoint a task force comprised of real estate, development and legal professionals to investigate ways to finance the project. For decades, the BJC has used a rented office suite on Capitol Hill in the Veterans of Foreign Wars building. Although located a block from the Capitol and across the street from both the Supreme Court and Senate office buildings, McDonough said the space is expensive and doesn’t provide the BJC with “a front door” or “a face on Main Street.”

In other news, directors voted to accept the Baptist General Convention of Missouri as a member body of the BJC. The statewide body — formed in 2001 as an alternative to the Missouri Baptist Convention — joins 14 other national and regional Baptist groups that support the BJC.

“The Baptist Joint Committee exists to support causes that the Missouri Baptist Convention no longer supports or encourages, and there are still many Baptists [in Missouri] who want to be Baptists and still want to be part of the process of advocacy for religious liberty,” said Jim Hill, executive director of the BGCM.

Directors also approved a $1.2 million budget for 2008, a slight increase over the 2007 budget of $1.15 million, and welcomed a new development officer. Kristin Clifton, a graduate of Virginia Tech University, joined the staff from Columbia Baptist Church in Falls Church, Va., where she served as communications manager.

— ABP and staff