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A Plan So Broad
What is the fundamental purpose of Baylor University? Discover a former president‘s perspective.
By Abner V. McCall
Editor's note: Judge Abner V. McCall
(pictured below) became Baylor's tenth president in 1961 after having
served as dean of Baylor's law school and as Baylor’s executive vice
president. He stepped down as president in 1981 and served as
chancellor until 1985, holding the title of president emeritus until
his death in 1995.
The following article by McCall, written when he was chancellor, first appeared in the February 1985 issue of the Baylor Line
under the title “Why Baylor?” At the time, the Baylor Health Care
System, which included Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas, was
affiliated with Baylor University. In addition, at the time Baylor
University was governed by a Board of Trustees wholly elected by the
Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT). Today, Baylor is governed
by a self-perpetuating Board of Regents, with the BGCT appointing only
25 percent of regents.
 In
1840 the Texas Baptist Educational Society resolved "to found a Baptist
university in Texas upon a plan so broad that the requirements of
existing conditions would be fully met, and that would be susceptible
of enlargement and development to meet the needs of all ages to come."
In fulfillment of this resolution the Educational Society in 1845
procured a charter from the Congress of the Republic of Texas to
organize Baylor University. The trustees elected Professor Henry
Gillette, an Episcopalian, as the first teacher, and Baylor began
operation.
It should be noted that, while all three of Baylor's principal founders
and most of the first trustees of Baylor were Baptists, from the
beginning Baylor was chartered and operated as a liberal arts
university with teachers and students of different faiths. Baylor was
not chartered and organized as a church, Bible college, or an
institution with the primary purpose of sectarian indoctrination.
Baylor was chartered before Texas had state colleges and universities.
It was organized by Baptists to meet the need for higher education for
the youth of Texas. It is still operated to help meet this need in our
society.
Many years later the Baylor charter was amended to include the
operation of a hospital, and Baylor University Medical Center in Dallas
came into being. It, too, was organized to meet a pressing societal
need not otherwise being met. There, physicians, nurses, and
technicians of many faiths have in the past and today continue to
minister to patients of various faiths. The health care program is not
sectarian.
Thus both the university at Waco and the hospital at Dallas were
chartered and have been operated by Texas Baptists to render needed
services. As such, they are witnesses to the Christian concern of Texas
Baptists for the proper education of our young men and women and for
good health care for the suffering.
Because these eleemosynary purposes have been served, the federal,
state, and local governments have exempted these institutions from
taxation. Donors of many faiths other than Baptists have made
tax-deductible contributions to the university and hospital to enable
these institutions to render the services for which they were
chartered. In a similar manner, secular foundations and corporations
have contributed millions of dollars to the university and hospital.
Legally, Baylor is a public trust incorporated under the Non-Profit
Corporation Act of Texas. While we customarily say that the Baptist
General Convention "owns" Baylor and the other Texas Baptist schools,
hospitals, and children's homes, this is not strictly true. All these
institutions have been by their charters dedicated to the public
service and in a larger sense belong to the people of Texas.
Texas Baptists, by the reservation of the right to select all trustees,
exercise control over these institutions; but the control is limited to
carrying out the purposes of the charters. The assets of these
institutions cannot be diverted to other purposes. Should the trustees
attempt to do so, the Attorney General and Courts of Texas are
empowered to enforce and protect the trust.
This is the reason that, when Texas Baptists for different reasons
decided to no longer exercise their control over the Baptist Memorial
Hospital of Houston, Corpus Christi University at Corpus Christi, the
College of Medicine of Baylor University at Houston, and the College of
Dentistry of Baylor University at Dallas, the assets of these
institutions were delivered by the Baptist trustees to new
nondenominational, independent boards of trustees, which have continued
to use the assets for the health care or educational purposes to which
they were originally dedicated. This was done in accord with the laws
of Texas under which these trusts were chartered.
It should be noted that once trustees of such a nonprofit corporation
are elected or otherwise selected, their primary legal obligation is
not to those who elected or selected them but to carry out the purposes
of the trust they serve. Should they fail to do so, they may or may not
be accountable for their failure to those who elected or selected them,
but they are always definitely accountable to the people of Texas
through its Attorney General and courts for such failure. Not all
trustees of Baptist institutions seem to be aware of this primary legal
obligation.
What it Means to be "Christian"
We usually refer to Baylor and other Baptist universities as
"Christian" universities and to Baylor Medical Center and other Baptist
hospitals as "Christian" health care centers. What do we imply by such
descriptive designations?
While not all the students, patients, and employees are Baptists, or
even Christian, those who control and direct these institutions—the
trustees and top administrators—are all Baptist Christians. This does
not mean that our Baptist institutions claim any monopoly on
Christianity or that their trustees and administrators are perfect or
morally superior to the trustees and administrators of similar secular
institutions, but it does signify that our trustees and administrators
look to Jesus Christ for their salvation and strive to live in
accordance with his precepts. In so doing they seek in Christian love
to render needed beneficial services to their fellowmen.
The description "Christian" should imply that all who operate our
institutions should strive to give the quality of excellence to the
educational or health care services of our institutions. Jesus Christ
inspires our best, and nothing less than our best is worthy of him. We
should be ashamed to describe as "Christian" that which is mediocre and
second-rate whether it is higher education or health care. What we do
as a witness for our Savior should be winsome and praiseworthy.
True piety abhors mediocrity and demands excellence. Under no
circumstances should piety ever be used to justify mediocrity or be
presented as a substitute for excellence. We pray that Texas Baptists
will never seek to excuse shoddy education and shoddy health care by
calling it "Christian." Our Baptist universities and hospitals should
in all respects be as good as educational and health care institutions
as the secular state or private universities or hospitals. The
Christian characterization and emphasis should always be an added extra
dimension.
Further, when we designate our institutions as "Christian," we profess
that their services are rendered in a Christian manner—with respect,
concern, compassion, and love for those serving and those served. The
Scriptures clearly and repeatedly proclaim that the sine qua non of
Christian living and service is love for each other.
Do our hospital trustees, administrators, physicians, nurses, and other
employees have such respect and compassion for each other and for every
patient? Do our university trustees, administrators, teachers, and
other employees have such respect and compassion for each other and for
every student?
If this be true, we can rightfully claim that our hospitals and universities are "Christian" institutions.
If it is not true, no matter what rules, policies, or declarations of
orthodoxy are adopted, our institutions are not "Christian." There is
no substitute for Christian love in our institutions. As Paul wrote in
his letter to the Corinthians, without love we are nothing.
Too often some Texas Baptists seem to minimize this and lose sight of
the main goal for which our Baptist institutions should strive. Too
often they judge and condemn our institutions and those who serve our
institutions on the basis of narrow sectarian goals which they seek to
set for our institutions.
All who are truly concerned that our Baptist institutions render
excellent service in a Christian manner in accord with their charters
should strive to help those with limited or distorted visions of our
institutions to understand the true nature of a Christian university or
health care center.
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