We are going to need a Guidepost probe of Kevin Ezell’s NAMB after another NAMB VP caught having inappropriate relationship.

Another North American Mission Board (NAMB) Vice President faces allegations of marital infidelity as Michael Crawford resigned Friday as the Executive Director of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware (BCMD). A letter from the BCMD President Glenn Swanson, General Mission Board President Byron Day and Administrative Committee President Jeremy Dickson announced the departure citing “moral failure involving marital indiscretions.”

Note the plural “indiscretions.” The entire letter is embedded at the bottom of the post.

In the new SBC terminology, doesn’t a pastor having an affair necessarily mean it is abuse? We need a Guidepost to investigate NAMB! After all, NAMB VP Johnny Hunt was accused of inappropriate conduct involving a woman—and that made it into the Guidepost report. Now another NAMB VP resigned his state job over “indiscretions.”

Again, plural.

Was it abuse? We don’t know. Thus, we’ll need an outside investigation.

Anyone denying an investigation is actively furthering abuse.

Isn’t that how this works?

Anyway, this entire incident shows you just how sleazy NAMB is. Crawford’s name is missing from a NAMB press release naming him a VP for Strategies & Development. Compare: Current Press release vs. Press release archived.

Odd.

When did NAMB delete his name and picture from the website?

Was it following the “marital indiscretions?”

Or, was it after the Capstone Report wrote a December 2022 story pointing out that Crawford suffered from a conflict of interest in running BCMD and being paid by NAMB.

Here is what we wrote in December:

“Perhaps NAMB and BCMD coordinated to have their discovery “dispute” land in this Court, rather than elsewhere. There is evidence suggesting it.

“For example: · NAMB issued a subpoena demanding the production of documents outside Rule 45’s 100-mile limit, even though it easily could have called for production in Maryland, where BCMD is located, or in nearby Washington, DC (where NAMB’s counsel have an office); · BCMD strenuously resisted the subpoena, moving to quash (Doc. 37, 38) but neglected to raise this glaring defect in the subpoena; and · NAMB then joined BCMD’s motion to quash NAMB’s own subpoena (Doc. 45)”

You can hear the sarcasm. Note the quotation marks around “dispute.” And it does appear that NAMB and BCMD “coordinated” on this issue.

And there is even more evidence that NAMB has significant influence, perhaps undue influence on the Baptist Convention of Maryland & Delaware. The current Executive Director of BCMD Michael Crawford was hired in March 2022 to lead BCMD; and then Michael Crawford was named in October 2022 as a SEND Network VP. Note also that Crawford was the SEND Network Director for Maryland/Delaware when he was hired by BCMD.

And the close ties between BCMD and NAMB do not stop there. A past President of the General Mission Board of the Baptist Convention of Maryland/Delaware, Frank Duncan is a NAMB Ambassador.

Did NAMB delete Crawford’s name because it is trying to coverup it hired another unfaithful pastor as a VP? Or, did NAMB delete Crawford’s name because we exposed how it was paying someone to fight its battle against justice in a federal lawsuit?

Whatever the explanation, NAMB is sleazy.

Why are you supporting it with your tithes and offerings?

NAMB trustees meet next week. What will be on the agenda? Where are they meeting? What time? And what hotel? Will it be the Ritz? Or another Las Vegas casino? Will some of the recent and looming depositions be on the agenda? Will any trustee ask demand an investigation?