CBF General Assembly

A couple of weeks ago, I got a chance to participate in the CBF General Assembly.

Now, this was not, as some of our objectors have supposed, a political move on the part of Save OBU. I went to the assembly because I am in seminary, I am a member of a CBF church, and, because it was in Ft. Worth, my seminary paid the fees for a few of the events for Baptist Brite students. (There aren't a lot of us, but we are there!) Getting to talk with like minds about Save OBU was merely icing on the cake.

With that said, I'd like to take a post to briefly share some of my thoughts on the experience. Later this week, Jacob will share some of his thoughts on the SBC assembly.

At Save OBU, we are pushing for a split from the BGCO. We have cited many reasons why we believe the split would be beneficial for both organizations and you can click on pretty much any post in this blog to find them. But some have seen this as an argument that OBU should quit being Baptist. This is not the case at all.

Rather, we believe (and we are not alone) that the mission of the SBC and the mission of Higher Education are no longer in line. But that does not mean that OBU should not be Baptist or that we don't think Baptists care about higher education. I count myself as one such Baptist.

Being at the CBF assembly reminded me of something I have sought to say over and over on this blog. Splitting with the BGCO is not a refusal to be Baptist. It is a refusal to accept the SBC's increasingly narrow definition of what it means to be a Baptist.

I'm not arguing that OBU should join up with the CBF instead-- although I do think that OBU could benefit from partnering with organizations like the CBFO and already does many things with the two substantial CBF (I think they are both dually aligned with the SBC as well) churches in Shawnee.

No, I stand by my claim that OBU can only protect its academic inheritance if it is a free-standing body with a board of trustees, administration, faculty and staff which are loyal only to OBU and its mission. However, the existence of organizations like the CBF which has refused to allow the SBC to define what it means to be a Baptist gives me hope for OBU to stand up and do likewise.

All of this is to reiterate the point we have made all along. In order for OBU to remain both truly Baptist and an excellent institution of higher education, it must part ways with the BGCO.

For anyone who still does not see the incompatibility of the SBC and higher ed, please see Clayton's excellent post on the matter.

Money Monday: OBU - The Baptist Building's Newest Tenant

Well here's an interesting little gem several of you sent in.

OBU announced this morning that it will relocate its graduate school in May.  The university had leased space in a building downtown, but is now moving to the BGCO headquarters at 3800 N. May Avenue.  After a 5+ year run downtown, it looks like OBU and the convention worked out a win-win to move OBU's graduate programs to the mother ship.

Now, ordinarily, this administrative decision is not something we would have an opinion about, since it apparently has nothing to do with any of Save OBU's concerns and it may, in fact, be a great idea.  But given the recent unprecedented changes in OBU's academic affairs, this move has struck many people as disconcerting just in the few hours since the news was announced.

I don't really know the details of the BGCO's recent tenants or the amount of office space it occupies.  But it seems reasonable to assume that OBU will pay a much lower rent since a) the new location is not in downtown and b) the new landlord pays no property taxes whereas the present landlord presumably does.  So OBU's graduate programs can save on overhead and the BGCO gets a large new tenant.

Why, then, does this rub so many of us the wrong way?  Probably because we are already highly suspicious of the BGCO's interference in OBU affairs.  So much about OBU's governance and administration since even before the current president's election smacks of BGCO meddling.  It's difficult to demonstrate clear and direct orders from the convention to University administrators, but we're working on it.  And even without evidence of direct interference, we can still see that the BGCO's agenda to transform OBU is being enacted, incrementally but deliberately.

Think of all that has happened:

• President Brister's complaint that "Anthony thinks he's my boss"
• The presidential search committee's concerns about OBU sending too many of its graduates to moderate seminaries and too few to BGCO pulpits
• The president's plan to remake the School of Christian service
• The strained relations with Oklahoma City, First and Shawnee, First (two CBFO churches that the BGCO can't stand)
• The demotion of a moderate female administrator
• The creation of the provost position for a fundamentalist enforcer
• The dismissal of two religion professors in spite of tenure considerations and against Faculty Handbook policies
• The gutting of the philosophy curriculum in favor of "Christian apologetics"
• The early retirements of many moderate professors
• The installation of an avowedly fundamentalist bookstore that refuses to sell mainstream books
• The new practice of ignoring faculty search committee recommendations in hiring
• Refusing to admit mistakes in the forced dismissal debacles
• Dismissing student, faculty, and alumni protests and continuing to remake OBU in the BGCO's image

At the moment, we are only able to connect a few of these concerns directly back to the BGCO.  We continue to document conversations and events, and are working tirelessly to paint a more vivid picture of BCGO meddling.  But make no mistake: BGCO power brokers are overjoyed about every item on the above list and more.  In their minds, President Whitlock is God's man for this hour.  And Provost Norman is a godsend because they can get their dirty work done without even having to ask!  He's enough of a true believe that he does all this stuff without having to be told!

So when OBU moves a new and growing part of its operation into the BGCO's own headquarters, it is clearly symbolic of a new dynamic that they love and we are rightly suspicious about.  How wonderful it would be if the landlord-tenant dynamic was the extent of OBU's relationship to the BGCO!