The Baptist Message is the associational paper for Louisiana Baptists. This is how many Baptists in Louisiana get their news about what is going on at Louisiana College. Unfortunately, the Message is extremely compromised when it comes to LC. Today, Kelly Boggs wrote an article for the Message about the issues at LC. He follows many of LC’s methods when it comes to handling controversy. The adjectives are important to pay attention to. JD Hall is labelled a Calvinist pastor and blogger and Jay Adkins is an “outspoken critic.” These are not dishonest adjectives but they certainly point to the author’s bias. To be fair, we all have a bias. That is not the issue.
As was discussed in the post Louisiana Baptist Executive Director David Hankins: The Consolidation and Corruption of Power, Hankins has consolidated a great deal of power over the last few years. Part of that includes Hankins both serving on the Board of Directors for the Baptist Message and Hankins having a huge voice in setting the budget that the Message receives from the LBC. In short, Hankins has a voice that could help fire Boggs and a voice that could cut Bogg’s funds. But, there is more. Bogg’s wife also works for the LBC (See ETA below). There is a tremendous disincentive for Boggs to report contrary to the narrative that Hankins is advocating. This is yet another aspect of how the Executive Director’s power needs to be kept in check.
I hope that Boggs has never intentionally obscured the truth. But, there clearly is little professional incentive for him to find it.
ETA: Immediately after posting this I received one piece of additional information and one correction. The correction is that Mrs. Boggs works for LC, not the LBC. However, that further underscores the point that there is a real disincentive for Kelly Boggs’ to look critically at LC. The additional piece of information is that the LBC in 2012 provided $480,389 to the Baptist Message. The funding from the LBC and the employment of one’s wife, especially when the leader demands 1000% loyalty, are powerful disincentives for insightful journalism into issues related to Louisiana College.
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