OBU Winter 2013 Trustee Meeting: Joys & Concerns

Welcome
Now that the spring semester is well underway on Bison Hill, Save OBU will be returning to a more active blogging schedule.  We hope you saw last week's post on Tom Terry's OBU history speech in Raley Chapel.  Also, check out our story about J. Edgar Hoover's visit to OBU in 1938!  We've had a lot of web traffic in recent days, particularly from other evangelical colleges that are contending with fundamentalist encroachment.  Thanks to the friends and supporters who have sent emails, including a member of the Raley family!  And thanks as well to our new Facebook and Twitter followers.

Winter Trustee Meeting
Last Friday, OBU's BGCO-elected Board of Trustees met on campus.  There were no bombshells, and in our case, no news is definitely good news.  The university's P.R. writeup reports a number of exciting happenings around campus, which we celebrate.
Joy
We are particularly heartened to learn of an OBU anthropology professor being granted Senior Faculty Status (OBU's version of tenure).  Several insiders had been concerned that some administrator(s) may use the tenure as a weapon again, either against this individual or against the anthropology department.  After all, it's not a huge leap from "Philosophy leads to critical thought which leads away from fundamentalism. so let's get rid of philosophy and replace it with Christian apologetics" to "Anthropology leads to cultural relativism and anyway and all we need to know about other cultures is how to convert them, so let's get rid of anthropology and hire another missionary." So, we celebrate.
Concern
A widely-loved and long-serving OBU scientist was granted leave for next academic year to work on research for NASA.  Of course, we celebrate this, too.  But given recent history, we fervently hope there is no effort afoot to purge this scientist.  After all, gravity is just a "theory," and certain other scientific theories have fallen out of favor with some of OBU's newest administrators and faculty...

Moving Forward
While the bleeding seems to have subsided at OBU, at least for the moment, there are more problems elsewhere in evangelical academia than I can keep up with.  (See a brilliantly-titled Patheos blog post, "No one expects and evangelical inquisition.")  I am currently in talks with constituents of several of these institutions to find guest writers who will provide reports for us.  Later this week, I'll introduce an alumna of Cedarville University (OH) who happens to be a freelance journalist.  She's working on an in-depth series on Cedarville's Takeover.  It will be instructive to learn from CU's story and hope we can avoid some of the traps.  And, of course, this will help fulfill our mission to join in solidarity with other evangelicals who value academic freedom and ethical administration.

Jacob's Interview with Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists (w/Video)

Yesterday's post discussed how the group Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists was formed largely over concern for OBU's future.  In 1997.  They didn't make much headway on OBU issues, unfortunately.  But I am pleased to say that the group, under the leadership of Executive Director Rev. Dr. Bruce Prescott, has been a powerful, prophetic witness for social justice, historic Baptist distinctives, and the separation of church and state for nearly 15 years.

Bruce has followed the Save OBU movement with some interest and provided key insights and analysis for us along the way.  I had the pleasure to meet Bruce and spend some time with him when he was in Washington for a conference in June.  He generously offered to interview me for his blog, which will hopefully get our message out to a broader Baptist audience.  The interview is broken into four parts.

Part 1: Who is Jacob Lupfer?
This is mostly biographical.  You can view it here if you're interested.

Part 2: What's Going On at OBU?
I explain why I started the Save OBU blog and offer my opinion about the effect of recent changes on the Christian witness of OBU.

What is Going On at OBU? from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

[UPDATE Monday, July 30, 2012: I said in the video that SWBTS doesn't have any women faculty.  This is not true.  They have a few professors of homemaking, submitting to your husband, and stuff like that.  Also, one of Professor Dorothy Patterson's past research assistants is now on faculty as "Assistant Professor of Theology in Women's Studies."  Sorry for the technical inaccuracy.  But really, my point doesn't really change until SWBTS and the other SBC seminaries have some female deans or professors in homiletics or branches of theology that aren't explicitly gender-focused and committed to a sexist position on women in church, family, and public life.  Who knows, maybe they have black professors of Confederate studies.]

Part 3: How Does the BGCO Influence OBU?
I discuss the repercussions of the Fundamentalist Takeover of the SBC and the BGCO on OBU.  I also describe how the percentage of OBU's budget being contributed by the BGCO has declined as the convention's influence over OBU's affairs has increased.

On OBU's Relation to BGCO from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Part 4: Were is OBU Headed?
I comment on the change in the kind of books offered by the OBU bookstore, describe the turn away from classical instruction in philosophy, and talk about parallels between OBU and Shorter University in Georgia.

Where is OBU Headed? from Bruce Prescott on Vimeo.

Thanks for being on this journey with me.  We may fail in the end.  The people men aligned against us are very powerful.  Win or lose, though, I obviously believe it's important that we fight this battle.  Hopefully these videos will help you get to know me a little better and provide some context for our struggle.  Barely more than twenty years ago, Southern Baptists proudly ran many of the finest universities in the South.  I shudder to think about the state of Baptist higher education twenty years from now if current trends continue.  It's absolutely vital that we spread the word, raise our voices, and fight to protect the distinctively Baptist liberal arts tradition that meant so much to us.  The prospects for future generations of students to experience anything even comparable to the education we received are grim... unless something changes.

Will the Real Christian Worldview Please Stand Up?

Oftentimes I feel like we talk about the dangers of fundamentalism at our school, but it feels a little like railing against an amoeba. It's hard to find definite things which point to the very real dangers. That's why we try to highlight schools like Shorter University, where no one could say anything until it was much too late.

That's part of the problem! We would like to get our school through the perilous waters of post-Takeover Baptist education unscathed and definitely still accredited. We can't afford to wait until 50+ faculty are stomping away indignantly, and watch as the rest of the school inevitably burns to the ground.

So we continue to try and give this amorphous blob a shape, and continue to proclaim its danger.

But finally, here is a solid glimpse.

Last week, there was an incredibly interesting series in the Baptist Messenger which, for us, was lucky in many ways. There are a few things about this particular Baptist Messenger series I would like to highlight.

This series was a series on Christian worldview, written by 6 guest writers -- 5 of whom are recent additions to the OBU College of Theology and Ministry. It is interesting to me that the ones who are writing essays about Christian worldview are all people who've made it through the new litmus test of hiring questions which has been instituted since the new administration has come to OBU.

Please find the entire series of Baptist Messenger "worldview" essays here.

In the days to come, we will go through these articles and show our readership exactly what kind of education OBU will give in our new post-Takeover fundamentalist world.

But why bother with an obscure series in a statewide Baptist newspaper?

First, it is interesting to me that this series is coming out after Save OBU has recently made more and more contacts with Oklahoma Baptist clergy. What better way to counter anything we've said to them than to show them that the REAL OBU is teaching this fundamentalist diatribe. Coincidence? Probably. But as always, we will continue to show that fundamentalism is not the only version of Christianity, and certainly not the version which makes for a good university.

Second, I have always had a particular problem with the idea of worldview.

I have already mentioned that the descent into fundamentalism is moving OBU further and further out of the realm of relevance and into a smaller and smaller echo-chamber where the only voices all mirror each other. This obsession with worldview is the perfect demonstration of that point. I have only ever heard conservative, evangelical Christians use the language of "worldview." I avoid saying fundamentalists, because I don't know if that is a fair assessment. But it is definitely my experience that the concept is only talked about in circles with extreme familiarity with fundamentalism. It's not a real thing worthy of an academic classroom.

Further, worldview is a sneaky word which allows for the obsession with doctrinal purity to be enforced. Talking about a Christian worldview is to say that there is some normative model for the way that every Christian should think. It means taking non-essentials of the faith and then making them essentials. By saying that it is part of a Christian worldview, one can now take any doctrine, highlight and treasure it, and suddenly those who do not affirm it are not Christians-- or at least do not "view the world" as a good Christian should.

The prevalence of talk about worldview at OBU did not arise until the new administration came. Honestly, I'm not sure I had ever heard the word until they instituted a new Christian worldview class into the curriculum. Granted, I was too old for the changes to affect me, so I don't remember everything perfectly. Long story short, J-term became required for freshmen again my senior year. There were a few classes which were offered for free -- and one of them was a new Christian Worldview course, team taught by the new dean of the (then) School of Christian Service and an outside apologist.

So that's probably a good way to get a ton of students to take that class.

Granted, I didn't take the class. So I can't tell you with any sort of certainty what happened there. I can make a few guesses.

But why guess? Now, the newest members who shape the doctrines of OBU have published a 6-part series which will show me exactly what a Christian Worldview is.

So, what is a Christian Worldview? What are we teaching our students is necessary to believe in order to be a Christian? As we go through this series and reveal what those who are taking OBU in a new direction say, you might be surprised.