Southwestern responds to
BGCT Seminary Study Committee
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH--Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has issued a six-page written response to the Baptist General Convention of Texas Seminary Study Committee declaring the seminary's intention to be "open and responsive to our Texas Baptist supporters."
___"No words can adequately express how much Southwestern Seminary treasures the relationship it enjoys with Texas Baptist churches," the unsigned document begins.
___The document is posted on the seminary's website at www.swbts.edu.
___It addresses six areas of concern cited by the Seminary Study Committee, which has recommended a dramatic reduction in BGCT funding for the six SBC seminaries.
___In presenting their report, study committee members said despite changes at Southwestern they perceive as troublesome, they considered making funding recommendations that would treat Southwestern more favorably than the other five seminaries. However, Southwestern President Ken Hemphill and his five colleagues took a firm position with the committee that the BGCT must treat all six seminaries equally, the committee reported.
___That point is not mentioned in the Southwestern response.
___The seminary document does address some of the most controversial charges against Southwestern, though, including the 1994 firing of President Russell Dilday, who was at odds with some ultra-conservative trustees.
___"We can only respond by saying that Southwestern's president and trustees had a tragic divorce that wounded many," the document says. "As is the case with most divorces, fault can be found with both parties."
___The BGCT committee had noted Dilday's firing created a "chasm" between the seminary and the BGCT.
___"To this date, there has been little substantive attempt by current administration and trustees to mend the relationship or establish a new basis of cooperation," the study committee wrote.
___The seminary document contends this is not true.
___"Any query of our faculty would have discovered the open door to work in partnership with the BGCT," it states. "We have consistently invited members from the BGCT to speak in chapel. We have encouraged church planters to work in accord with the BGCT strategy. Faculty members have been encouraged to speak for and participate in BGCT-sponsored events."
___The document also responds to concerns cited by the BGCT committee about distribution in seminary classes of materials highly critical of the BGCT produced by the Missouri Baptist Laymen's Association and promoted by Bill Streich, a member of First Baptist Church of Wichita Falls. The materials have been criticized for leveling charges against BGCT leaders based on guilt by association.
___"No one was pressured to hand out materials," the seminary response states. "Materials were made available because of concern expressed by students that the actions of a Texas Baptist church had been presented in a negative light. We agree that we could have handled the matter better."
___Second, the seminary response addresses concerns about trustee mismanagement and trustee antagonism toward the BGCT. The study committee report specifically had cited trustee intrusion into the faculty hiring process as a problem, giving as an illustration the case of Steve Harmon, who was recommended for a faculty position by the president but whose nomination was derailed by a small group of trustees.
___According to testimony given to the study committee, Harmon was interviewed privately by two trustees, who asked his positions on biblical inerrancy, the current direction of the BGCT, the "conservative resurgence" in the SBC and on women in ministry. All four areas of questioning at the time fell outside the stated doctrinal guidelines for hiring.
___"The president takes full responsibility for the decision to withdraw the candidate's name," the seminary response says. "It was an administrative decision, not a trustee decision."
___Both the Harmon nomination and the Dilday firing are illustrative of deep-seated problems at Southwestern based in the trustee board elected by the Southern Baptist Convention, said Ron Cook, pastor of First Baptist Church of Brownwood and chairman of the BGCT subcommittee that visited Southwestern.
___"The antipathy toward the BGCT and our Texas Baptist leaders runs very deep with key trustees who have control over every major decision and all policies and procedures at the seminary," Cook said. "A few key trustees, in sync with the few key people who control the Southern Baptist Convention, have established a strategy to change the nature of Southwestern Seminary and distance her from the Baptist General Convention of Texas."
___Further, the president and current administration "do not relate effectively to the BGCT and our leadership, and they are not allowed to," Cook countered. "Those in control have instituted not only creedalism, but political tests for employees of the seminary directly scrutinizing and keeping score of any positive feelings about the Baptist General Convention of Texas, and every employee at Southwestern knows the consequences."
___For the last two years, Southwestern trustees have elected as their board chairman Miles Seaborn, a retired Fort Worth pastor who was instrumental in forming the new Southern Baptists of Texas Convention and has been a leading critic of the BGCT over the last two decades.
___Cook recounted that in the meeting between the BGCT committee and Southwestern representatives, Seaborn reiterated his concern that the BGCT is going one direction and seminary trustees are intent on going the other direction.
___"This tragic misperception of where Texas Baptists are going, and the actions taken, are evidence of what I consider a malignant ideology operating among the few who have total control of the seminary," Cook said. "Yes, the fine new dean at Southwestern Seminary, David Crutchley, made an impassioned plea to mend the relationship. But it sounded more like a 'what ought to be' speech to me than a defense. Crutchley is very likeable, but he is in the impossible situation of working against the will of those in control, and he has come to the scene after those in control have distanced the seminary beyond the reach of Texas Baptists."
___Third, the seminary response addresses allegations of employees being mistreated, leading to faculty resignations and a sense of "oppression."
___"Termination and resignation are sadly a part of any institution or church," the seminary response states. "We can only say that anyone terminated by Southwestern during the tenure of our present president has been terminated for cause and has been dealt with according to the seminary's adopted guidelines. Further, we can assure Texas Baptists that the dismissed faculty members have been treated with fairness and kindness out of Christian concern for the individual and the family."
___The seminary response addresses concerns about narrowing requirements for faculty and an altered atmosphere and quality of education.
___Hiring requirements such as affirming the revised Baptist Faith & Message and expressing distaste for the BGCT are narrowing the field of candidates employable as faculty, the study committee charged. "Present and potential faculty who are fully acceptable to the vast majority of Texas Baptists are excluded by these requirements from teaching at Southwestern Seminary, even at a time when the seminary is having difficulty filling faculty positions."
___The seminary response explains that Southwestern "unapologetically" requires faculty adherence to the Baptist Faith & Message "as amended from time to time."
___However, complaints against faculty are handled appropriately, and due process is given, the response adds. "Both our Christian values and our accreditation standing mandate a fair and impartial procedure."
___Seminary officials also refute claims by the BGCT committee that the quality of faculty, morale of faculty and students, and the atmosphere on campus have declined: "We would invite any and all Texas Baptists to visit Southwestern to sense the spirit and morale on campus."
___In reply, Cook reasserted the committee's claim that Southwestern is a changed institution.
___"If you take the once-great faculties in biblical studies, church history, ethics, theology, pastoral ministries and lay them name-by-name alongside current faculty, you see a shocking reality," he said. "Some fine people continue to teach at the seminary, to be sure. But the number and overall quality of the faculty in key departments has so diminished on balance that the word 'decimated' was the only word that could come to our minds.
___"Those trustees who have forced some of the finest young professors out and have derailed the candidacy of some of our finest young scholars have done so as a deliberate strategy to purge the seminary of people most Texas Baptists would treasure as faculty members," Cook asserted.
___"Employees in all categories--current, retired and former--gave us the same picture in bold relief. Supporting documents of a significant variety, including Ombudsman Committee minutes that we do have, all revealed the same strategy. Trustees with deep-seated antipathy toward rank-and-file Texas Baptists and our leaders have taken over the seminary, changed her very nature and created a chasm between Southwestern Seminary and Texas Baptists."
___The Southwestern document also responds to committee concerns about stewardship. The study committee said enrollment has been declining as funding has increased.
___Southwestern officials counter that enrollment has held steady, with a non-duplicating headcount between 3,751 and 4,190 over the last seven years. According to figures cited by the seminary, enrollment took a drop of nearly 10 percent the year after Dilday was fired but has rebuilt to about the level it was before.
___In its report, the study committee said Southwestern's enrollment has dropped from 3,504 in 1989 to 2,720 in 1999.
___The official enrollment report given to the SBC and published in the 2000 SBC Book of Reports shows a relatively steady non-duplicating headcount over the past five years, with about 3,300 students enrolled in graduate-level courses. That data does indicate a decline in enrollment in basic master's level degrees such as the master of divinity, but those losses are offset by increasing enrollment in the doctor of ministry degree.
___Yet another perspective on enrollment is given by the Association of Theological Schools member directory, which shows a total enrollment of 3,220 students at Southwestern, with a full-time equivalent enrollment of 2,178.
___The BGCT committee also said graduation levels have dropped.



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