Signing of Baptist Faith & Message nearly complete at Southwestern
___By Mark Wingfield
___Managing Editor
___FORT WORTH-- "Almost all" the faculty members at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary have signed the 2000 version of the Baptist Faith & Message, according to Scotty Gray, vice president for academic administration.
___"I think they are probably all signed, but I don't know that they're all signed," Gray said Jan. 9. He cannot give a definitive answer, he said, because each school's dean is responsible for obtaining the signatures of their own faculty members. Also, some faculty members are on sabbatical and have not been accessible.
___ "There may be some sabbatic people and one or two others" who haven't yet signed, Gray said, but "almost all" have signed the revised faith statement.
___The signatures of all faculty members should be collected by March, President Ken Hemphill said. Hemphill said he, too, does not know the exact status of the process at this point because he has not been briefed by the other deans since the Christmas break.
___All full-time and adjunct faculty--including those at Southwestern's off-campus centers in Houston, Lubbock, San Antonio and Shawnee, Okla.--are required to sign the new Baptist Faith & Message in order to teach, Gray said.
___While Gray could not name any full-time faculty members who have refused to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, he acknowledged some adjunct faculty have refused to sign it. He could not give an exact number of those refusing to sign but said he believes it is small.
___"What is being signed by the faculty members is that a person will affirm this, abide by it, teach by it and not teach contrary to it," Gray said.
___The revision of the Baptist Faith & Message and the subsequent requirement that all faculty at the six Southern Baptist Convention seminaries sign it has been a major point of contention between the Baptist General Convention of Texas and the SBC. These were among major reasons the BGCT voted in October to dramatically reduce its funding of the SBC seminaries.
___Many Texas Baptists have objected to the revised document's omission of previous language that called Jesus "the criterion by which the Bible is to be interpreted," as well as new prohibitions on women serving as pastors. Critics of the document also have faulted language that calls the Baptist Faith & Message an "instrument of doctrinal accountability."
___After a BGCT study committee unveiled its proposals for redirecting theological education funds last fall, 20 former professors at Southwestern signed a full-page ad in the Baptist Standard endorsing the shift in funding away from the SBC schools and toward three BGCT schools.
___In the following weeks, those signers, particularly those who are retired faculty members, have been called unethical by the administrative leadership of the seminary.
___Each of the retired faculty members received a letter from Hemphill's office dated Dec. 8 that said signing the Baptist Standard ad "seems to raise questions of ethical propriety."
___"One must ask if any moral dilemma surfaced as you gave assent to this public declaration. One must ask how does one continue to accept the benefits and advantages sacrificially vested in retired faculty such as yourself, who seems to have abandoned or have little regard for our institution," the letter stated.
___The letter then spelled out the estimated cost of retiree insurance benefits to be paid on the faculty member's behalf over the next decade.
___"We hope your trust in and support for Southwestern will be soon restored," the letter concluded.
___It was signed not only by Hemphill but by Gray; Hubert Martin, vice president for business affairs; Lawrence Klempanuer, vice president for student services; Jack Terry, vice president for institutional advancement; David Crutchley, dean of the School of Theology; Daryl Eldridge, dean of the School of Educational Ministries; and Benjamin Harlan, dean of the School of Church Music.
___Asked about the letter, Hemphill said it was not intended to be a threat.
___However, there's no guarantee that the seminary will be able to continue funding retiree medical insurance, he said. "Our commitment has been we will continue to provide this as long as the institution is financially able to do so. It's not a guarantee, that's clear ... You can never guarantee it."
___Retirees who were signers of the ad apparently did receive their annual Christmas checks from the seminary this year--a longstanding tradition--although some reported their checks were delayed as much as a week and a half longer than those sent to others.
___The retired faculty members contend that the Christmas checks and the medical insurance are benefits guaranteed to them at the time of retirement and spelled out in the faculty manual.
The Baptist Standard
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