Crazy Idea? The BGCO as a Partner in Saving OBU

Thanks for checking out our posts on OBU Homecoming and the Save OBU strategy sessions (see here, here, and here and here).  We've received well over a thousand hits in the past few days and that number is sure to climb as the BGCO meets in Moore today and tomorrow for its annual missions conference and meeting.

From the beginning, we've been suspicious of the BGCO/OBU relationship.  We've seen state conventions elsewhere absolutely devastate Baptist colleges.  But the truth is, Oklahoma truly is a unique case.  We have a really good OBU Board of Trustees.  We have several very prominent pastors in the state who are strong supporters of OBU's mission as a Christian liberal arts university who do not want to see OBU go down a path to becoming a fundamentalist academy.  And, as we'll report in the days to come, we have a convention of churches whose pastors and laypeople overwhelming oppose radical changes to OBU's purpose and direction.

As more and more pastors learn about the administrative missteps at OBU over the past few years, we hope to engage them as allies rather than adversaries.  This week, we'll report on the new slate of OBU trustees (to be elected tomorrow), as well as OBU President David Whitlock's report to the convention.  As one of OBU's most beloved professors preaches at the convention, we hope messengers -- lay and clergy alike -- will recognize and support the need for all OBU faculty to have protection from predatory dismissals, denial of contractual rights, and being shut out of decisions about how their academic divisions will operate in the future.

On behalf of the entire Save OBU movement, I want to welcome Oklahoma Baptists to the Save OBU family.  While we are confident that OBU's recent troubles will not be repeated indefinitely, we do ask for you to stand with us as a watchdog against fundamentalist encroachment at our beloved university.

God bless OBU!