Rep. James Lankford Named 2013 Commencement Speaker

[Ed.: Evidently the Lankford adress is a no-go. The OBU website is reporting, as of 5/8/13, that a well loved faculty member will give the address.]

In light of our mentioning the overtly rightward political tilt of OBU's invited chapel speakers, several readers sent in this item yesterday:

U.S. Rep. James Lankford will return to Oklahoma to bring the Spring Commencement Address to OBU’s graduates on Friday, May 17. 

Rep. Lankford was elected to the United States Congress on Nov. 2, 2010, representing Oklahoma’s Fifth District. The Republican legislator serves on the House Committees on Budget and Oversight and Government Reform, where he is the chairman of the Subcommittee on Energy Policy, Health Care, and Entitlements. He also was elected chairman of the House Republican Policy Committee for the 113th Congress.

Apparently there are at least a handful of -- shudder -- Democrats among the Save OBU faithful.  All three of them (!) sent me notes yesterday expressing dismay.

I told them to chill out.

Rep. Lankford represents Pottawatomie, Seminole, and most of Oklahoma County in Congress.  He has deep ties to Baptist life in the state, having been the director of the Falls Creek camp for 13 years before resigning in 2009 to enter the Republican primary to replace retiring Rep. Mary Fallin, who ran successfully for Governor of Oklahoma in 2010.

It's pretty typical to invite governors and members of Congress to speak at college graduation ceremonies.  Graduation speakers are also, I would argue, qualitatively different from chapel speakers.  Yes, this will mark the second Tea Party politician to speak at OBU this spring.  Maybe OBU students should have the opportunity to hear from a moderate Republican (Mickey Edwards, where are you?) or a Democrat from time to time.

But for now, let's just file this away and keep a tally.  If it truly is the case that Democratic politicians are systematically excluded from ever being invited to campus, then yes, we need to protest OBU's ideological rigidity.  But all 5 of Oklahoma's U.S. representatives and both senators are Republicans.  So it's not like there are any Democrats to choose from at the moment.

In the meantime, however, it may be worth considering that some OBU students may want to hear from speakers whose Christian commitments lead them to political and social views that are not in lockstep with the Religious Right.  Even Cedarville University, which recently completed its fundamentalist transformation, recently invited both Shane Claiborne and the Reverend Jim Wallis to speak.  These liberal evangelicals are less enthusiastic about translating their faith commitments into unconditional support for the Republican Party.  Perhaps it would be a helpful educational and spiritual experience for OBU students to consider the ideas of at least someone who is not a footsoldier of the Religious Right political movement.

As for Rep. Lankford, he will be speaking at a graduation ceremony, which even at a Christian college is not technically a service of religious worship (though there will be some hymns and prayers, as there should be).  When former Rep. J.C. Watts spoke about 10 years ago, there was some hand-wringing among the moderates that it would be an overtly partisan political speech.  Most people recall Watts giving a good commencement address.

Also, we may see Rep. Lankford moderate some of his more extreme positions as he develops his career in Congress.  Like his colleague, Rep. Tom Cole (R-OK), Lankford will find that he can have more influence if he works as a partner for the common good rather than a cheerleader for a platform that has no chance of passing.

Already, he may be moderating from the far far right to the merely far right.  As recently as March 29 of this year, Lankford had "liked" a page on Facebook called Outraged Patriots.  You can see the "patriots'" page here:

What could be more patriotic than noose imagery...?  I'll leave it to your imagination what this image connotes to many Americans.

Here's Representative Lankford's Facebook page, "liking" the Outraged Patriots as of March 29 of this year.

After some people expressed concern and asked him to clarify his position, the congressman "unliked" the page, indicating that he does not, after all, endorse the rhetoric and imagery of lynching.

So don't worry, OBU students and faculty.  At least your 2013 graduation speaker is on record opposing lynching.  Practically a moderate!

So chill out.

[Ed: If it matters, I've voted Democratic and Republican.  Presently, I'm not registered to vote and I did not vote in the 2012 presidential election.  Pretty bad for a political scientist, I know... And, to reiterate: Save OBU is completely uninterested in secular politics and supports no outside issues or causes.]

OBU's 2012 Commencement: Beneath the Surface

Congratulations to the OBU Class of 2012!  The Green Book lists 23 regulations pertaining to "College Citizenship," and I hope the graduates went out and broke 1 or 2 of them last night.  God loves a joyful celebration!

I understand it was cloudy yesterday -- perhaps an apt metaphor for the storm clouds of conflict looming over the campus.  I saw part of the ceremony, which was streamed on Shawnee Live and is also available "on demand" through OBU's website.  It was hard to believe a decade has passed since I walked across that stage!  But I was so happy and proud for all the students and their families.  I have to credit last fall's alumni petition for providing the impetus to start Save OBU.  And I credit Contributing Editor Veronica Pistone for helping make sure the movement survived its infancy.  But the truth is, we wouldn't be this far without the hundreds of OBU students who have expressed interest in our movement, read our blog, and kept the issues salient on campus.  I'm especially grateful to the several dozen students -- mostly seniors -- who actively helped out by providing information, context, and nuance on a number of fronts.  We invite you to even more active participation in Save OBU now that you are alumni!  And we trust that the torch of student leadership is passing to students who may not remember OBU under Brister or Parrish, but who nonetheless revere academic freedom, Baptist freedom, and OBU's great liberal arts heritage.

While it was entirely appropriate for the university to pull itself together to honor the 246 graduating seniors, there are a handful of relevant tidbits that curiously didn't make it into the official press release.

Speakers

Commencement Address/Honorary Degree
OBU conferred an honorary doctorate on the Rev. Dr. Tom Elliff, a former missionary, Oklahoma Baptist minister, and current president of the SBC's International Mission Board.  Of course, no opportunity is wasted to remind everyone that OBU sends more missionaries to the IMB than any other college.  And we will not waste an opportunity to a) courteously remind everyone that correlation does not imply causality and b) reiterate our view that Oklahoma's contribution to the mission field owes as much to Falls Creek as to OBU, and that as with all BGCO ministry and mission priorities, funding for Falls Creek suffers because of the BGGO's $2.5 million annual subsidy to OBU.

After hearing Dr. Elliff's rather innocuous homily, I almost felt bad for highlighting his role in the Fundamentalist Takeover (and aftermath) of the SBC.  It's amazing how downright likable fundamentalists can be when they're not waging ideological warfare and destroying our treasured institutions.  The bondservant/slave and kamikaze illustrations seemed a little strange at first, but do indeed point to important servant/surrender aspects of the Christian life.  But given his open disdain for moderates in the SBC and the fact that OBU gave him an award less than a year ago, I continue to feel that honoring him in this way was insulting, particularly to faculty.  Still, they politely applauded the man who likened moderates in Southern Baptist life to "barnacles and parasites" that he himself proudly "removed from the Ship of Zion."

Awards/Acknowledgments

Retiring Faculty
We certainly join OBU in commending the service of six very fine retirees.  At least two of them have been courageously and openly opposed to some of the bad policy and personnel changes we've seen in recent years.  One of the retirees, interviewed in The Bison last fall, said she doubts she would be hired by OBU today.  What a tragedy.  Still, we must thank these very fine folks for their service and leadership over the years.  We wish them all the best as they begin exciting new chapters in their lives.

Faculty Awards
There is widespread suspicion among the faculty that politics played a role in the Promising Teacher Award this year.  Many faculty had assumed the award would go to an effective and well-loved professor who just finished his sixth year -- his last year of eligibility for the award.  Of course, being an Episcopalian may have been the kiss of death, given a certain administrator's recent obsession with church affiliation politics.  OBU may be saying to young professors, "We may not be able to fire you or deny you tenure 'in a winsome way,' but don't think you're getting any extra awards unless you a down-the-line fundamentalist Baptist."  Many were surprised that the promising teacher honor went to a relatively newer hire who is demonstrably more in line with the fundamentalist party line.  As one insider explains:

It's clear that the administration chose him for the award to make a statement, especially in light of Veronica's Save OBU blog post.

This awkward situation underscores the problems created when faculty search committee recommendations are ignored and when politics and ideology figure so prominently in OBU administrators' decisions about who to hire, honor, and reward.  Many faculty suspect this move is administrators' way to try to justify their decision to overrule the faculty search committee, which unanimously preferred another candidate.  Anyone want to take bets that the Christian apologetics professor wins the award next year?

Student Awards
Last year, when our own Veronica Pistone won the Outstanding Religion student award, the OBU website featured a nice writeup and a picture of Dean Mark McClellan giving her the award.  We're told that Dean McClellan was not too happy that one of last year's most decorated graduates (a woman now studying for the ministry at a non-SBC seminary) has become a prominent figure in the growing opposition to the BGCO's mutually draining stranglehold on OBU.  This year, another woman won the Outstanding Religion award.  But Dean McClellan told the religion professors that "we need to be careful who we choose for this award because we don't want someone getting the award and then using it as platform against OBU."  Thankfully, the faculty convinced the dean that their choice would not "turn" on OBU after she graduated and she won the award she so richly deserved.  However, just to be safe, there is no photograph or press release this year.  (EDIT: Yes, there is: here.)

Oh, and just for the record, perhaps Dean McClellan should consider that maybe his bosses in Thurman and friends in the Baptist Building are the ones who are using their positions as platforms against OBU.  And maybe rather than thinking that some of these "gals" (his term for female religion and ministry students) turned on OBU, he might consider that it is OBU that has turned on women, particularly strong, bright women who reject the fundamentalist vision of "biblical womanhood."

We will continue to monitor the distribution of student and faculty awards in the months and years to come.

Music
Just a quick shout-out to the organist, whoever s/he was.  "How Firm a Foundation" is a wonderfully appropriate graduation prelude and I enjoyed the rendition immensely, as well as the rest of the medley.  Speaking of music, we wish the University Chorale a safe and successful tour this week!  And in the coming weeks, we'll be blogging about changes in the College of Fine Arts under the new regime.

--

So there you have it.  OBU may not be in the throes of a full-on faculty rebellion or a dramatic fundamentalist takeover (yet).  But this week's celebrations definitely papered over a number of important conflicts that exist as a result of OBU's relationship with the BGCO.  We'll continue to keep you informed of progress and changes.

Again, our very best wishes to the OBU Class of 2012!  "May thy spirit guide thy sons, keep thy daughters true!"

Money Monday: BGCO Evangelism Conference

We've noted before that the BGCO spends less than one-tenth as much on "personal" and "ethnic" evangelism as it does on OBU.  So today, as Oklahoma Baptist clergy, church staff, and laypeople gather in OKC for the State Evangelism Conference, we are asking people to consider how many more souls could be won for Christ if the BGCO invested heavily in evangelism rather than subsidizing a huge institution with its own $80 million endowment.  Even when you include the BGCO's spending on "student evangelism," the convention still contributes six times more to OBU than it does to evangelism efforts.

Since Oklahoma Baptists are very serious about lostness, it seems that they should want to invest as heavily as possible in evangelism efforts.  Instead, they send 18 cents on every Cooperative Program dollar to OBU, where 99% of students and 100% of faculty are already Christians!

Not only does OBU not save souls, even it is present form (descending headlong into fundamentalism), it still drives more young people away from literalism, strict orthodoxy, and fundamentalism than it indoctrinates.  Empirical evidence shows that Baptists who attend Baptist colleges are more likely to identify as moderates and less likely to be fundamentalists than Baptists who attended secular universities.

Given the fact that hardly anyone who works in evangelism or collegiate ministries for the BGCO came from OBU, Oklahoma Baptists should ask themselves why they are throwing so much money at a school with such a moderating influence on students.

The State Evangelism Conference provides a great opportunity for Oklahoma Baptist clergy and laity to become informed and start a discussion about just how OBU fits into the convention's stated goals and purposes.  They have long worried that OBU is "liberal."  It's not.  Given how dramatically the convention has moved toward fundamentalism in the past 25 years, it's easy to see why they might think that.  But it's not easy to see why OBU is a good investment for the convention.  Sure, it produces a lot of missionaries (who were called to missions at Falls Creek, not at OBU) and a few fundamentalist pastors.  But mostly it produces graduates who leave OBU much more moderate than when they arrived.

OBU graduates will participate in soul winning ministries with or without the BGCO's annual institutional welfare check ($2,500,000.00)  But imagine what more Oklahoma Baptist pastors, evangelists, clergy, and laypeople could do for the Kingdom with $2.5 million to invest in training, education, and equipping activities.

Ask yourself: Did any of the SEC '12 speakers besides the current BGCO president graduate from OBU?  And while you're in OKC, ask the BGCO power brokers why six of your hard-earned offering plate dollars go to OBU for every one that goes toward student, ethnic, or personal evangelism.

Get updates from the conference here.

Money Monday: Falls Creek a Better Bet for OK Baptists

Literally thousands of Oklahoma teenagers walk down the aisle, pray the sinner's prayer, and accept Jesus into their hearts as lord and savior at Fall's Creek every summer.

According to Cooperative Program projections, the BGCO spends $4.3 million a year to operate Falls Creek and derives a little over $4 million in income from rent and registration fees.  The net subsidy, then, is about $250,000 (compared to $2.5 million for OBU).  In other words, the BGCO spends ten times more on OBU than Falls Creek.

Unfortunately for the BGCO, Falls Creek is a significantly better investment.  The camp and conference center reports that each year, 45,000 young people attend summer camp there (almost 15% of the teenage population of Oklahoma).  Usually, more than 5,000 make decisions for Christ (including over 2,000 professions of faith and more than 500 decisions for special service).  In addition, more than 35% of Oklahoma Baptist pastors and church workers were saved or received their call to ministry at Falls Creek. And nearly a quarter of Baptist missionaries with Oklahoma ties trace their call to missions back to Falls Creek.

OBU, on the other hand, has nearly the opposite effect on young people.  Young Baptists who go to OBU emerge less fundamentalist than those who attend state universities.  OBU sends a significant number of its ministry graduates to moderate seminaries like Baylor, Duke, and Princeton rather than the preferred fundamentalist SBC seminaries.  As for missionaries, many OBU students make other plans because they decide they do not want to serve under the banner of the fundamentalist Southern Baptist missions agencies which, among other things, require new recruits (and career missionaries) to sign the revised Baptist Faith and Message.

Yet, for some reason, the BGCO is fine with spending ten times more on OBU than on Falls Creek.  If the limited Cooperative Program dollars were spent more efficiently, the BGCO could easily commit more money to Falls Creek capital and operating expenses, offer scholarships to needy campers, and dramatically increase the number of people saved through its robust camping ministry.  But BGCO elites would prefer the power and prestige associated with making sure OBU becomes a fundamentalist Bible academy.  They would apparently rather tell the power brokers in Nashville that they resisted moderates than that they dramatically increased the number of people were saved or heard and answered calls to ministry and missions.

One final note:  When Baptist Building elites attempt to justify their need to continue to own and operate OBU, they frequently cite the number of IMB and NAMB missionaries who attended college at OBU.  This is a bit misleading, and I think the Falls Creek people know that their camp has more to do with Oklahoma Baptists' outsized contribution to the missionary ranks:

During the past 90 years, there have been over 200,000 documented decisions. Many of these decisions have been in response to God's call to full-time missions and ministry. Falls Creek is one of the reasons that Oklahoma Baptists have more missionaries on the foreign and home mission field than any other state in the Southern Baptist Convention.

With or without BGCO control of OBU, Oklahoma would send just as many people into the mission fields and just as many men into the clergy profession.  In fact, given OBU's moderating influence on students and the BGCO's opportunity to increase Falls Creek funding if it relinquished control of OBU, it's plain to see that Oklahoma Baptists would contribute even more missionaries and pastors to Southern Baptist life if the BGCO gave up its control of OBU.