Glen Stassen, a Baptist theologian widely known for his work on the ethics of war and peace, a topic he explored with seminary students for 30 years, died April 26 in Pasadena, Calif., following a battle with cancer. He was 78.

Glen StassenStassen, who taught 20 years at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., had been professor of ethics at Fuller Theological Seminary in Pasadena since 1997. He also was executive director of Fuller’s Just Peacemaking Initiative. Earlier he taught at Duke University, Kentucky Southern College and Berea College.

For three decades Stassen was a leading Baptist voice for peacemaking around the world. His groundbreaking book Just Peacemaking outlined an alternative to pacifism and just-war theory in the form of positive and practical steps to abolish war.

Last year the Baptist World Alliance conferred on him its Denton and Janice Lotz Human Rights Award. In 2012 he was EthicsDaily.com’s Baptist of the Year.

His book Kingdom Ethics: Following Jesus in Contemporary Context, written with David Gushee, was awarded Best Book of the Year in the theology/ethics category by Christianity Today in 2004. His last published book, A Thicker Jesus: Incarnational Discipleship in a Secular Age, was named a top 10 book by The Christian Century.

Stassen is survived by his wife, Dot, and three sons.

Judge dismisses Caner suit against blogger. A federal judge has dismissed a Georgia Baptist college president’s lawsuit against a blogger who posted video to support allegations that a famous “Jihad to Jesus” testimony is bogus. A U.S. district judge in Fort Worth ruled Jason Smathers, a Southern Baptist pastor in Arizona who blogs at Witnesses Unto Me, was entitled to post government videos he obtained through the Jason SmathersFreedom of Information Act under the “fair use” doctrine of copyright law. Ergun Caner, president of Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, Ga., filed a lawsuit last summer claiming ownership of two videos Smathers posted of Caner speaking as an expert on Islamic culture in training for U.S. Marines preparing to deploy in 2005. U.S. District Judge Terry Means ruled Caner failed to make a case and Smathers used the material fairly, as copyright law permits, for “purposes such as criticism, comment, (or) news reporting.” The judge determined Smathers’ sole purpose “was to expose the inconsistencies in Dr. Caner’s biography and criticize a public figure.” If the unauthorized reproduction of his lectures caused Caner any financial loss, he continued, it was the result of “legitimate criticism” of his words. Smathers reposted video he obtained in 2010 of Caner telling Marines he came to the United States at age 14 from Turkey and learned everything he knew about America from watching Andy Griffith, Chicago Cubs baseball and championship wrestling on TV. Smathers posted legal documents indicating Caner was in fact born in Sweden, came to America when he was about 3 or 4, and grew up as a normal teenager in a suburb near Columbus, Ohio.

Merger plans collapse for struggling Virginia college. Plans for Virginia Intermont College to merge with a large Florida university have collapsed, leaving the struggling Baptist-affiliated school “financially distressed,” its president said. Earlier this year, the Bristol, Va., college said it had initiated discussions to merge in July with Webber International University, based in Babson Park, Fla. But Virginia Intermont President Clorisa Phillips announced April 15 the two schools “have reached the joint and difficult conclusion that we do not have a viable model for merger.” Within hours of the announcement, the college’s faculty overwhelmingly voted to declare no confidence in Phillips, the Bristol Herald Courier reported. Since then, the school has launched a “teach out plan,” a legally recognized agreement to allow students to complete their academic programs, typically by transferring to other schools. Administrators also announced they will shut down all sports teams. The college’s primary accrediting agency already had placed it on probation because of financial instability, but the agency agreed to leave the school’s accreditation in place until July 1, which will allow students to complete the current semester and a summer session, which concludes June 27. Virginia Intermont has struggled with financial viability since at least 2007. Last fall, the school reported 378 students, a 35 percent enrollment decline since 2010.

CBF to name new global missions coordinator. The Cooperative Baptist Fellowship will introduce its new coordinator of global missions during an April 30 news conference. Jim Smith has served as interim coordinator of global missions since Rob Nash left CBF for Mercer University’s McAfee School of Theology to be professor of missions and world religions and associate dean. Nash led CBF global missions from 2006 until June 2012. Linda Jones, missions coordinator for CBF of North Carolina, chairs a 12-member search committee formed in October to help select the new global missions coordinator.

The “conservative resurgence” that transformed the Southern Baptist Convention three decades ago began in the halls of Second Baptist Church in Houston, the movement’s chief architect told seminary students April 15.

Paul Pressler, a former Texas Appeals Court justice known principally for his idea of using the appointive powers of the SBC to effect change in Baptist institutions by appointing only trustees who affirm biblical inerrancy, shared the story in a panel discussion with co-founder Paige Patterson—now president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth—during the dedication of a new chapel at Midwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Kansas City, Mo.

Paul Pressler is interviewed during an SBC annual meeting. (Baptist Standard file photo)

is interviewed during an SBC annual meeting.

“I created a little fuss at Second Baptist in Houston,” Pressler recalled. “We had a pastor who was supporting Ralph Elliott and was lying about it.”

Elliott was a professor at Midwestern Seminary when his 1961 book, The Message of Genesis, sparked controversy by taking a symbolic rather than literal approach to Genesis and stressing its “theological and religious purpose” over historicity.

Pressler said he doesn’t like being misled, so he brought a resolution to the church council about it that nearly passed.

“So Johnny Baugh, who later financed the liberals, said that they’d set up a committee to study the seminaries,” Pressler said. “Well, when I saw the ones on the committee, it was a whitewash committee.”

“But one member resigned before the next deacons’ meeting, and they changed the chairman of deacons, who put me on the committee,” he said. “So I got into the middle there. We studied it. It was obvious that there were problems, and Ralph Elliott was really the catalyst for me to become concerned about it.”

That set the stage for a famous meeting to discuss a long-term strategy with Patterson, then a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, at the Café Du Monde in New Orleans in 1967.

Controversy over Ralph Elliott and his book The Message of Genesis sparked an early confrontation over biblical interpretation in the SBC.“As a result of this committee of deacons at Second Baptist, there was a deacon named Bill Price, who had been a deacon at First Baptist, Beaumont, and watched Paige grow up,” Pressler said.

“So he came up to me after my dispute and said, ‘Do you know Paige Patterson?’ I said, ‘I’ve never heard of him.’

“He said: ‘Well, he’s the only other person in the world who I know of that thinks just like you do. You ought to meet him.’”

“So we got Dorothy and Paige’s name,” Pressler said. “Nancy and I were over for a layman’s conference at New Orleans. We went and knocked on Dorothy and Paige’s door, and they said, ‘We’re tired of studying; let’s go to Café Du Monde.’”

Patterson, who often clashed with professors over his conservative views, said something to his dean when he received his doctorate that proved prophetic.

“I said, ‘Dr. Kennedy, you will hear from me,’” Patterson said. “He said ‘fine,’ but I don’t think he thought much more about it, but as things worked out, he did hear from me.”

Paul Pressler met with Paige Patterson, then a doctoral student at New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary, at the Café Du Monde in New Orleans in 1967, a meeting they say spawned the “conservative resurgence.”The movement began in earnest in 1979, when Pressler mobilized conservative churches to send messengers to the SBC annual meeting in Houston. Pressler said he hadn’t managed to find a candidate for president prior to the convention and feared disappointment until Memphis pastor Adrian Rogers agreed to be nominated.

Pressler said another low point came in 1984, when Atlanta pastor Charles Stanley told colleagues in a hotel room he would not be their candidate. Pressler said he was so despondent he sobbed into a pillow.

“The way I looked at things was if this was of God, we’ll have a candidate,” he said. “If this is not of God, then it’s been our own will and we’ve just been wasting time and money and effort and everything where God wasn’t really in it.”

“All of us were crying,” Pressler said. “Then Charles comes in the room, and he sits down. And he sits there about five minutes, and he said: ‘Men, I’ve got to tell you something. God knocked me flat on the floor in my room this morning before I came over here and told me I had to run for president of the convention.’

“He said: ‘I don’t want to be president. I don’t want to run. I think God is doing this just to humiliate me, because I’m not going to be elected. But if God wants to humiliate me that way, then let him do it.’

“Well, you have never seen such a Pentecostal Baptist meeting in all your days,” Pressler said. “We were shouting and yelling and whooping and hollering, and the low point turned into a confirmation that this is God’s battle, and no matter how much we planned, how much we planned ahead on things, he’s going to bring it victory.”

Paige Patterson talks to the press at a Southern Baptist Convention during the “conservative resurgence.” (Baptist Standard file photo)Needing someone to deliver a nomination speech, the group settled on Jerry Vines, at the time co-pastor of First Baptist Church in Jacksonville, Fla.

“The really funny thing about that was that Vines was not in favor of Charles running,” Patterson chimed in. “He loved Charles very, very much, but he did not think that Charles would stay with it. He thought Charles would do what Adrian did. If he got elected to one term, he wouldn’t serve two, And so Vines was opposed to Charles being the candidate.

“Well, we’re all out looking for him, and I turn the corner, and there he is,” Patterson said. “And I said, ‘Vines, thank goodness I found you.’ It was about 8:30 the morning of the convention; he’s got to nominate him at 2:00. I said, ‘You’re nominating Charles.’ And Vines says, ‘I’m doing what?’ and I said, ‘You’re nominating Charles Stanley for president.’ He said, ‘Charles said he wasn’t going,’ and I said, ‘He changed his mind.’ I said, ‘He’s going, and you’re nominating him.’ He said, ‘I’m not even for him,’ and I said: ‘It doesn’t make any difference. You’re nominating him.’”

Pressler said he received unexpected encouragement when a friend returned from a conference with a message for him from Francis Schaeffer, an evangelical theologian whose writing influenced a number of young preachers who went on to become leaders in the Religious Right.

“I’m shocked that Dr. Schaeffer would know who I was,” Pressler said. The message was, “You tell him that I pray for him every day, because the future of evangelical Christianity in America depends on what happens in the Southern Baptist Convention.”

“If that’s what Dr. Francis Schaeffer believed, then that jarred me,” Pressler said. “And it meant that winning was not optional; winning was mandatory.”

Rather than losing his job or getting a contract extension, an embattled Baptist college president in Louisiana will return to the classroom with an honorary title, and trustees will search for a new president to replace him.

Joe AguillardLouisiana College trustees voted April 15 to designate President Joe Aguillard as president emeritus, a title typically used in academia to recognize distinguished service, effective Aug. 1. Argile Smith, associate dean of the Louisiana College Caskey School of Divinity, will function as interim president while trustees seek a new president.

Aguillard, 57, will remain at the Louisiana Baptist Convention school in Pineville as a tenured professor in the graduate teacher education program. Aguillard served on the faculty as assistant professor and chair of the education division prior to his election as eighth president of Louisiana College in 2005.

Controversy over Aguillard’s hiring

Controversy surrounded his hiring. First, a nine-member presidential search committee interviewed six candidates and narrowed the field to three before offering the job to Malcolm Yarnell, now a professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

Yarnell withdrew his name from consideration after failing to reach a contract agreement. Rather than moving to another finalist, trustees added six members to the search committee, and Aguillard was nominated as president.

Argile SmithAt a subsequent meeting, Aguillard was nominated again, this time with another candidate, John Traylor, a retired pastor who had served as interim president.

Trustees voted 17-13 in favor of Aguillard. A group of alumni filed a lawsuit accusing trustees of violating bylaws and asking a judge to limit selection to a nominee recognized by the original search committee. A district court agreed a majority of trustees did not follow established procedure but ruled the election valid nonetheless.

Controversy about Aguillard’s leadership intensified in 2013 when he declined to renew contracts of three faculty members who supposedly were promoting Calvinism.

Two vice presidents filed whistleblower complaints, prompting a meeting in April 2013 where trustees voted to retain Aguillard as president 17-13.

Documents allege misdeeds by Aguillard

Previously unreleased internal documents recently surfaced alleging misdeeds by Aguillard, including misappropriation of funds, lying to donors and trustees and ignoring sexual misconduct by a staff member paid hush money after threatening to go public with inside information.

Timothy Johnson, former executive vice president at Louisiana College, filed a lawsuit March 11 claiming wrongful termination in retaliation for obeying the school’s whistleblower policy. The other whistleblower, former vice president Chuck Quarles, released audio recordings that appeared to contradict a press release on the college website declaring Aguillard “fully exonerated” of the whistleblower claims.

Timothy JohnsonThe Southern Association of Colleges and Schools indicated it would investigate allegations in the leaked documents that signatures were forged on documents submitted prior to SACS reaffirming Louisiana College’s accreditation after two years on warning status.

Aguillard reportedly told senior staff he had no plans to step down as president, after a local newspaper reported he had lost trustee support and been asked to resign. Bloggers critical of Aguillard said trustees, who as recently as last month reportedly planned to renew his contract, had no alternative except to fire him.

The Town Talk newspaper in Alexandria, La., reported Aguillard will begin a one-year paid sabbatical June 1 at his full $202,007 base salary. When he returns to the classroom he will receive 50 percent of his current base salary—$101,003.50—for his first year as a senior professor and 30 percent of his current base salary—$60,602.10—for all subsequent years he works at the college.

Trustees honor Aguillard

Trustee Chairman Tommy French released a statement crediting Aguillard for serving the college “with diligence, fortitude and Christian commitment.” He announced trustees “voted to bestow upon Dr. Aguillard the honor of continuing his contributions to Louisiana College in the role of president emeritus.”

According to the Town Talk, trustees also voted 18-14 to approve a new confidentiality agreement that French reportedly told trustees was required by SACS. The newspaper contacted a SACS official who said the agency has no such requirement.

French told the Baptist Message, news journal for the Louisiana Baptist Convention, Aguillard’s last day as president is May 31.

Russian and Ukrainian Baptist leaders meet in Kiev. The heads of the Baptist unions in Ukraine and Russia met recently for the first time since a political crisis began last November, putting the two nations on the brink of war. Presidents of the All-Ukrainian Union of Associations of Evangelical Christians-Baptists and the Russian Union of Evangelical Christians-Baptists issued a joint statement indicating the two groups want to continue their strong fraternal relations despite geopolitical differences. Vyacheslav Nesteruk, head of the 2,300-church and 125,000-member Ukranian Baptist Union and President Aleksey Smirnov of the 1,800-church and 76,000-member Russian Baptist organization, called on churches “to pray continually for peace between our peoples as well as for those who have suffered during the course of the recent political stand-off.” The Baptist leaders condemned “acts of violence and brutality against persons as well as the resolution of political problems by military means” and appealed to members of various religious groups “to contribute to the process of forgiveness and agreement between our peoples.”

Oklahoma pastor nominee for SBC 2nd VP. Former Southern Baptist Convention President Johnny Hunt announced he will nominate Oklahoma City pastor Hance Dilbeck for second vice president of the SBC in June. Hance DilbeckDilbeck has been senior pastor of the 4,600-member Quail Springs Baptist Church in Oklahoma City since 2003. Previously, he served seven years as senior pastor of First Baptist Church in Ponca City, Okla. He earned his undergraduate degree from Oklahoma Baptist University and his master of divinity and doctor of ministry degrees from Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Dilbeck and his wife, Julie, have been married 28 years and have three grown sons, D.H., Dax and Leighton. Other SBC officer nominees announced to date are Ronnie Floyd, pastor of Cross Church in northwest Arkansas, for president and Clint Pressley, pastor of Hickory Grove Baptist Church in Charlotte, N.C., for first vice president.

Baptist agencies urge court to uphold ministerial housing allowance. Three entities of the Southern Baptist Convention called for a federal appeals court to overturn a decision invalidating the ministerial housing allowance. The Ethics & Religious Liberty Commission and the International Mission Board signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief with other religious organizations filed by the Becket Fund for Religious Liberty in the church-state case before the Seventh Circuit Court of Appeals in Chicago. The brief urges the circuit Court to reverse a federal judge’s November 2013 opinion invalidating the portion of a 1954 federal law that allows clergy to exclude for federal income tax purposes a portion or all of their gross income as a housing allowance. GuideStone Financial Resources also signed on to a friend-of-the-court brief with other denominational benefits boards as part of the Church Alliance, in support of the housing allowance. In her November decision, Judge Barbara Crabb of the Western District of Wisconsin ruled the allowance violates the First Amendment’s prohibition on government establishment of religion but blocked enforcement of her opinion until the appeals process is complete. The Obama administration appealed Crabb’s decision to the Seventh Circuit.

Tennessee Baptist school fights Obamacare. Union University filed a lawsuit challenging insurance coverage of contraceptives mandated for employers by the federal Affordable Care Act. The Tennessee Baptist Dub OliverConvention-affiliated school in Jackson joined numerous secular and religious employers who have gone to court citing religious objections either to birth control in general or to certain forms they believe end a human life. Lawyers for the university claim two pharmaceutical drugs and intrauterine devices on the FDA list of approved methods can prevent the fertilized egg from implanting in the uterine wall. Union University’s president-elect, Samuel “Dub” Oliver, applauded his predecessor David Dockery for taking legal action “to defend religious liberty and protect innocent life.” Oliver’s current institution, East Texas Baptist University, joined Houston Baptist University in a lawsuit challenging the rules of Obamacare in 2012. In December, a federal judge ruled in their favor, ordering the government not to enforce the contraceptive mandate on the two schools affiliated with the Baptist General Convention of Texas.

Loss of the historic Baptist commitment to religious liberty has left U.S. evangelicals ill-prepared for current threats to the free exercise of religion, the Southern Baptist Convention’s top spokesman for moral and public policy concerns suggested.

“I think one of the problems is that for a long time evangelical Christianity, at the lay populist level, has had a narrow vision of religious liberty, because we haven’t had a lot of threats to it in a real sense,” Russell Moore, president of the SBC Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, said in a Q&A podcast on the agency’s website.

Moore noted that makes his job harder in a couple of ways.

“You have some people who haven’t thought through that what our Baptist forebears were saying is right—that religious liberty is an image-of-God issue; it’s not a who-has-the-most-votes issue,” he said.

“That means we’re the people who ought to be saying the loudest: ‘We don’t want the mayor and the city council to say that a mosque can’t be in our town,’” he said.

“The mayor and the city council that can say that is a mayor and a city council … that has too much power. The government doesn’t decide that. We’ve got to be the people who are saying that.”

Crying ‘wolf’

“And then secondly. we’ve had a lot of people who have cried wolf over situations,” he continued. “They’ve cried persecution when there is no persecution.

“So, you have kind of these fake senses of where we’re aggrieved, we are persecuted, because the lady at Wal-Mart says ‘Happy Holidays’ instead of ‘Merry Christmas.’

“What happens when that goes on long enough and it’s every single year the same sort of thing happens, then you wind up with people saying, ‘Well that’s what they always say.’

“So, they don’t pay attention to you when there really are serious restrictions of free exercise of religious liberty that are now coming upon us.”

Debates now are about sex

Most of the religious liberty battles Baptists fought in previous years were against efforts by the government to establish a state religion, Moore said. Today, he said, most are about sex.

Practically every day, Moore noted, he deals with issues such as Christian photographers being required to participate in same-sex weddings they believe are sinful, the Affordable Care Act that requires business owners to cover birth control methods they believe cause abortion and Catholic adoption agencies going out of business because they cannot receive public funding unless they agree to place children in same-sex households.

Jeb Bush to meet with Southern Baptist leader. Former Florida Gov. Jeb Bush will meet privately next month with Southern Baptist Convention Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission President Russell Moore, the Washington Post reported April 8, an effort to reach out to evangelicals should he decide to run for president in 2016. Evangelical leaders including Samuel Rodriguez, president of the National Hispanic Christian Leadership Conference, and Mark DeMoss, a public-relations specialist who spearheaded Mormon candidate Mitt Romney’s outreach to evangelicals in the last election, have said they think Bush would do well in winning over conservative Christians. Moore, who took over as head of Southern Baptists’ agency for personal morality and public policy last year, has expressed little interest in presidential politics but has been vocal on issues like immigration, same-sex marriage and public prayer. His predecessor, Richard Land, was regarded as a mover and shaker in the Religious Right, although he never formally endorsed a candidate until Romney in 2012. Moore told the Post he does not endorse candidates but is happy to counsel any potential contender, whether Democrat or Republican.

Top D.C. Baptist exec stepping down. Ricky Creech will step down as executive director/minister of the District of Columbia Baptist Convention April 24 to take the helm of a faith-based nonprofit in Kentucky that provides services to troubled youths in Ricky Creechparts of Appalachia. Creech, who has been the convention’s chief executive since 2011, announced his plans April 3 to its board of directors—the first meeting of the group created in a major governance reorganization adopted in February. Before his election to the convention position, Creech was executive director of the Birmingham (Ala.) Baptist Association. Earlier, he was a church and community missionary in Montgomery and Birmingham for the Southern Baptist Convention’s Home Mission Board.

Lipper honors GuideStone again. The annual Lipper Fund Awards recognized GuideStone Financial Resources for outstanding fund performance, honoring the GuideStone extended-duration bond fund as the best fund over three years and the best fund over five years in the corporate Debt A-Rated Funds category. In each category, which ended Nov. 30, 2013, the extended-duration bond fund bested more than 50 eligible funds. It marks the third consecutive year the Lipper Fund Awards has recognized GuideStone. In 2012, the entire GuideStone funds family was ranked No. 1 out of 182 eligible fund families with up to $40 billion in assets and was honored with Lipper’s best overall small fund group in the United States over the three-year period ending Nov. 30, 2011. In 2013, the MyDestination 2025 Fund was ranked No. 1 out of 92 similar funds for its performance over the three-year period ending Nov. 30, 2012.

Tyler pastor chairs SBC resolutions committee. Southern Baptist Convention President Fred Luter named David Dykes, David Dykespastor of Green Acres Baptist Church in Tyler, as chair of the resolutions committee for the June 10-11 annual meeting in Baltimore. Proposed resolutions may be submitted as early as April 15 but no later than 15 days prior to the SBC annual meeting, giving the resolutions committee two weeks to consider submissions. For more information, click here. 

FORT WORTH—Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary released a statement by women and for women to counter misunderstanding and negativity the authors say abound on what they call biblical womanhood.

Biblical Woman, online home The Biblical Woman website is the online home of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s Women’s Programs.for women’s programs at Southwestern Seminary in Fort Worth, posted a 12-point statement March 27 outlining “the counter-cultural convictions that guide us as we strive to live out (God’s) wisdom for our world.”

An accompanying article introduces the Biblical Woman Statement as “a positive value statement about the 12 aspects of womanhood that impact us most.”

“Sadly, many times our efforts to define our values lead to misunderstanding and even negativity,” the article says. “Here at Biblical Woman, we’ve encountered these misunderstandings about what we believe about women and what we teach at Southwestern Seminary. And we decided to do something about it.”

Sponsors say the statement isn’t intended to replace the 2000 Baptist Faith & Message, which teaches that wives should submit to their husbands in the home and that women cannot be senior pastor of a church, or the Danvers Statement, the doctrinal basis for the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood based in Louisville, Ky.

‘For women, by women’

“These remain two primary statements that help define what we believe, and we’re not trying to replace either of these,” the article says. “But we do want to share a biblical foundation for the issues concerning a woman’s life that is for women, by women.”

Recently, a group calling itself the Freedom for Christian Women Coalition posted an online petition at Change.org accusing the Council on Biblical Manhood and Womanhood of putting the issue of female subordination ahead of the gospel and demanding the retraction of teachings the petitioners say are harmful to women.

The Biblical Woman Statement doesn’t mention that controversy, but it defends “complementarianism,” the view that males and females complement each other in their different roles and duties. A 2013 blog entry titled “Biblical Womanhood 101: What We Really Teach at Southwestern” defines the view as “equal yet distinct.”

It contrasts with “egalitarianism,” the view that “the Bible teaches that men and women are both created in the image of God (equal in essence) and that God has no distinction of roles or functions for men and women in the home or church.”

Candi Finch“Some Bible-believing evangelicals and some of my good friends hold this position, but I believe that this position is incorrect based on some biblical passages,” said author Candi Finch, assistant professor of theology in women’s studies and executive assistant to Dorothy Patterson, wife of Southwestern Seminary President Paige Patterson.

The Biblical Woman Statement affirms “that every woman has been created in the image of God and is infinitely valued by and significant to him.”

“We believe that God has given women and men distinctive roles within the family and the church; that these roles were intentionally created and given prior to human sin; that according to God’s design, these roles are interdependent but not interchangeable,” the statement says.

Married and unmarried

“Women are called to honor God in marriage by submitting to their own husbands voluntarily and purposefully,” the statement says. It also affirms women who are unmarried, “that by their chaste and set-apart lives they may especially devote themselves to service in the kingdom of God during either their season or lifetime of singleness.”

“We believe that every woman is called to make her home a place of service and that such service is ultimately to Christ,” the document says. “We believe that investing in the next generation is every woman’s task; that women are uniquely gifted to nurture, teach and train children; that children, as blessings from the Lord, are the most worthy investments for a woman’s energies whether as biological, adopted or spiritual children.”

The statement says “women are indispensable” to the life of the church, but their Christian service must be “according to biblical guidelines,” specifically “that women are exhorted to instruct and mentor other women.”

The statement supports educational opportunities for women, affirming “that the God-called woman warrants the investment of theological education and preparation for service to Christ according to biblical guidelines.”

Southwestern, a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated seminary, boasts “the largest women’s programs faculty of any evangelical seminary.” It offers courses of study ranging from certificate to a doctorate in women’s studies, women’s ministries and, since 2007, homemaking.

Course offerings at SBC seminaries

All six SBC seminaries offer courses to equip women to minister to other women or to support their husbands in ministry.

New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary was the first Southern Baptist school to offer formal, specialized theological education in the area of women’s ministry, beginning in March 1997. New Orleans offers two certificate programs for women’s ministry, as well as a bachelor’s degree and three master’s degrees.

Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in Louisville, Ky., offers a Seminary Wives Institute led by Mary Mohler, wife of President Albert Mohler. “At Southern Seminary, we recognize the need for God-called ministers’ wives to be prepared for ministry,” says a program description. “We believe that a minister’s wife needs to be educated and equipped as she and her husband prepare for service in the churches and beyond.”

Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary encourages “partnering in the ministry” in an unaccredited training program designed for seminary student spouses, “enabling ministering couples to maximize their time at seminary by preparing both partners to be co-laborers for Christ.”

The Midwestern Women’s Institute in Kansas City, Mo., “exists to prepare the women of Midwestern Seminary to serve their families, their churches and the Great Commission by providing them with ministry training, spiritual encouragement, biblical fellowship and practical equipping.”

As their male counterparts take courses in preaching and pastoral leadership, women in Midwestern’s master of divinity degree program are assigned courses including “Principles of Teaching” and “Introduction to Adult Ministry.”

Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C., offers graduate programs with a concentration in women’s studies to “prepare women for a wide variety of family, care-giving and mission ministries.”

The Biblical Woman Statement acknowledges there is no such thing as “cookie-cutter” biblical womanhood.

“We don’t pretend to have all the answers, but we do believe our convictions reflect the guidelines God has given us in his word,” the authors say. “And it’s so much bigger than the few, controversial issues that have unfortunately surrounded it.”

MILL VALLEY, Calif. (BP)—Golden Gate Baptist Theological Seminary reached a sale agreement for all its campus property in Mill Valley, Calif., and initiated relocation of its primary campus to Southern California.

Jeff IorgPresident Jeff Iorg announced the agreement with North Coast Land Holdings, noting the seminary’s board of trustees approved the sale agreement unanimously.

“The final sale agreement will result in resources for a new primary campus in Southern California, a new commuter campus in the Bay Area to continue to service this area, as well as a substantial addition to the seminary’s endowment,” Iorg said.

Steve Sheldon, chairman of the board of trustees, added, “The board has been fully engaged in land development decisions for years and is unified in the direction we have chosen for the future.” Full details about the sale agreement will be announced after the sale is finalized.

Golden Gate has faced many land development challenges over the years, Iorg acknowledged.

“For the past four years, we have been involved in a lengthy and difficult process trying to further develop the Mill Valley campus property,” he said. “We have engaged top planning firms, real estate specialists, financial analysts, legal counsel and political consultants to help us with this process. Despite these skilled professionals—and much prayer—we have been stymied. Gradually, we have realized these difficulties are not obstacles to overcome but rather signposts pointing us in a different direction.”

The terms of the sale agreement will enable the seminary to remain fully operational during the transition. The seminary will lease back the Mill Valley campus property and continue present operations for at least two more academic years. After that, the seminary will operate a new commuter-style campus in the Bay Area, much like its current Southern California campus.

‘Not abandoning the Bay Area’

“Current Bay Area students will be able to complete their programs at the present campus over the next two years or at the new Bay Area campus. We are not abandoning the Bay Area and will continue to provide a quality program for this region,” Iorg said.

The decision to build a new primary campus in Southern California reflects church and population demographic projections for that region. The new seminary campus will be in the center of the largest area of projected population growth in the American West.

“Building a new campus does not mean replicating what we already have, only in a different location. It’s an opportunity to build a new kind of seminary campus reflecting the way educational delivery methods are changing in the 21st century. We see it as a once-in-a-generation opportunity to advance our seminary into the future,” Iorg said.

Iorg assured currently enrolled students at the Mill Valley campus their degree progress will not be interrupted for the next two years as the school has a lease-back agreement for the current campus. All student housing also will remain open during for the next two years. This agreement allows students enrolled at the Mill Valley campus to complete their degrees before the seminary relocates to its two new campuses in Southern California and the Bay Area. Iorg also said the seminary will work closely with those who cannot finish their degrees in the allotted time to assure degree completion.

‘Not closing our doors’

“We are selling a campus, not closing our doors. We are relocating and repositioning for future success, not abandoning our vision. We are sacrificing short-term comfort for long-term fulfillment of our mission,” Iorg said.

“We are positioning ourselves strategically, geographically and financially to impact the Western United States and the world like never before. We will all pay a personal cost for fulfilling our mission and vision this way. It will, at times, be scary and unnerving. Nevertheless, … the mission matters most. Like perhaps no seminary in recent history, we are standing behind that declaration with our actions today.”

A judge in New Mexico ruled March 20 that a federal court has jurisdiction over a lawsuit challenging last year’s sale of Glorieta Conference Center and lifted a stay so that the case can proceed.

U.S. Magistrate Judge Robert Hayes Scott determined that the United States District Court for the District of New Mexico is the proper venue for a lawsuit filed by an Arkansas couple who claim LifeWay Christian Resources of the Southern Baptist Convention lacked legal authority to unload the 2,400-acre retreat center opened in 1952 that officials say had been losing money for years.

Kirk and Susie Tompkins of Little Rock, Ark., seek $400,000 for loss of their vacation home built on property leased from Glorieta. They want an additional $12 million to be divided among about 65 homeowners who built or purchased homes on Glorieta property secured by what the couple says were understood to be a perpetually recurring lease.

Glorieta’s new owners, a group of Texas investors who formed a corporation called Glorieta 2.0, aren’t interested in continuing the decades-old arrangement and offered leaseholders options for moving off the property.

Ruled damages exceeded lawful minimum

The magistrate upheld federal jurisdiction, finding that the alleged damages exceed the $75,000 minimum established by law and all the defendants reside in states other than Arkansas. SBC lawyers had argued the lawsuit didn’t meet the latter standard, but that became moot when two of the defendants who live in Arkansas were dropped from the case.

The leaseholders say Glorieta wasn’t LifeWay’s to sell, because a 1950 warranty deed granted the conference center property to a different entity, the SBC Executive Committee. They claim LifeWay officials committed fraud when they presented themselves as having authority to dispose of the land for $1.

SBC lawyers say the convention has the right to interpret its own constitution and bylaws and courts cannot interfere in ecclesiastical matters due to the constitutionally mandated separation of church and state.

Allows judge to resolve motions

Thursday’s ruling authorizes U.S. District Judge James O. Browning to proceed in resolving motions pending in his court in Albuquerque.

Magistrate judges in the federal court system assist district judges in administering justice. Unlike most federal judges, who are nominated by the president, confirmed by the Senate and appointed for life, magistrates are elected by district judges for a term of eight years.

SACS to investigate Louisiana College. The Southern Association of Colleges and Schools plans to investigate media reports that documents submitted leading to reaffirmation of Louisiana College’s accreditation in December may have been forged, The Town Talk newspaper in Alexandria, La., reported. The newspaper quoted Michael Johnson, senior vice president and chief of staff at SACS, one of six regional accrediting organizations recognized by the U.S. Department of Education, as saying, “Obviously, it’s something of concern to us, and we will investigate.” The allegations surfaced after The Town Talk and Pulpit & Pen blog obtained previously internal documents indicating trustee leaders were aware of allegations that documents were doctored, but did not self-report the information to SACS. After SACS reaffirmed the Louisiana Baptist Convention-affiliated school, Louisiana College issued a press release declaring President Joe Aguillard “fully exonerated” of allegations in two whistleblower reports that led to a meeting last April where trustees voted 17-13 to let him keep his job.

Early CBF missionary Cleary dies. Tom Cleary, one of the first field personnel appointed by the Cooperative Baptist Fellowship, died March 19 after suffering a ruptured aneurysm in Tampa, Fla. He was 76. Cleary and his wife, Joyce, joined CBF as Tom Clearyfield personnel in 1993 after more than 20 years as missionaries and campus ministers. Following pastorates in Florida during the 1960s, the Clearys went to Austria as Southern Baptist Convention Foreign Mission Board missionaries from 1971 to 1980. They returned to Florida and served as campus ministers for the Florida Baptist Convention at the University of South Florida from 1981 to 1990. After watching television reports of the fall of the Berlin Wall in November 1989, the Clearys felt a call to serve in Eastern Europe, and left Florida for Poland the next year to serve again as FMB missionaries. Three years later, the Clearys were part of a group of 25 missionaries, mostly serving in Europe, commissioned as field personnel at the 1993 CBF General Assembly in Birmingham, Ala.