“It is our understanding now that ‘to abide by,’ means ‘to accept without objection’ and ‘to accept as our own.’ ”

Even though Baptist Collegiate Ministry was approved as a recognized student organization on the campus of Vanderbilt University, the BCM will decline that status.

Randy C. Davis, executive director of the Tennessee Baptist Convention, informed members of the TBC Executive Board of the decision to not accept the recognized status in a letter e-mailed to them this week.

Originally, the Vandy BCM planned to seek the recognized status and remain a registered organization on campus though many other religious organizations said they would not seek to be registered on campus after the policy was announced.

The issue surrounds the decision announced by Vanderbilt earlier this year that the university intends to enforce its non-discrimination policy and a new all-comers policy. The all-comer policy means that any student at Vanderbilt is entitled to become a member and to seek a leadership position in any registered student organization on campus.

In a nutshell, if a non-Christian wanted to seek leadership in the BCM at Vanderbilt, he or she could do so under the university policy.

In his letter to the Board, -Davis wrote that he was originally supportive of the decision to seek recognized student organization status at Vanderbilt.

Davis noted that the Vanderbilt BCM applied as it has over the years and was accepted.

“However, on April 22, it came to my attention that the application included our representatives signing the revised non-discrimination policy,” he wrote. “It is our understanding now that ‘to abide by,’ means ‘to accept without objection’ and ‘to accept as our own.’ ”

[Editor’s note: This article is incomplete. The source for this document was originally published on www.tnbaptist.org – however, the original URL is no longer available.]