Changes Coming for Save OBU

Happy 2014 to each of you!

As you may have noticed, the Save OBU effort has slowed considerably over the past 8 months. We got off to a fast start in late 2011 and made our biggest impact in the period from January 2012 to May 2013.  I wrote more than 200 blog posts during that time, and a handful of thoughtful of writers contributed dozens more.  Our blog reached tens of thousands of people and our Facebook and Twitter communities were active.

Lately, things have been quieter.  The primary reason is that (as far as I know) there is less evidence of fundamentalist encroachment at OBU today than there was in 2010 and 2011.  I claim no credit, of course.  I'm just glad that OBU administrators and trustees have wisely chosen to avoid the path of Baptist colleges like Shorter and Cedarville, where newly-empowered presidents forced out dozens of faculty members.

The time has come for new leadership to emerge in our movement.  I was never the right person to lead this effort.  I am too far away.  I am too liberal.  I have never been a Southern Baptist.  My particular background made it difficult to be a credible spokesman for the overwhelming majority of Save OBU supporters -- conservative-to-moderate alumni who value academic freedom at OBU.  I am grateful for the opportunity to publicly stand up for the things I love about my alma mater.  I am proud to have put my name to this effort.  For a while, I tried my very best.  I hope it made a difference.  But I obviously do not have the time or inclination to carry this movement forward.  There are surely people "closer to home" that will do a better job standing up for academic freedom at OBU the next time it comes under attack (a question of when, not if).

Later this month, I plan to feature some guest blog posts that will emphasize the role a Christian college like OBU can and should play in forming a vital piety and authentic spirituality that is true to the best of the Baptist tradition.  Beginning immediately, I call on all of our supporters to be in prayer and discernment about the future of "Save OBU."  (The name should probably change -- I'm not sure the implication that OBU needs to be saved from something is helpful at this point.)

I can share some of my own reflections on what I have learned through this process and offer some ideas about the future.  But I hesitate to say too much -- you have heard enough of me.

There are so many great things happening at OBU.  I want to make sure I acknowledge that.  All I have ever criticized were a handful of policy and personnel decisions that implied an unmistakable break with the parts of OBU's heritage that make it great.  Aside from those few decisions (and their implications), I have great pride and confidence in OBU.  The university has two trajectories that are going to be in tension with one another.  First, there is a majority among the trustees, faculty, and alumni that wants OBU to remain academically strong, respected, and rigorous (while, of course, being true to its Baptist heritage).  At the same time, there is a powerful force within Southern Baptist life today that wants doctrinal conformity, is more trustful of authoritarian leadership, and is less tolerant of dissenting perspectives (while also wanting, if possible, academic respectability).  These two forces will continue to collide.  Those of us who cherish the norms and values that made OBU a first-rate Christian liberal arts university have already lost enough.  We need a strong voice to hopefully ensure that we do not lose even more.

If you wish to confer with me about how you think we should move forward, please contact me.  My email address is my first initial and last name at gmail dot com.

Stories We're Following (Please Circulate)

Last week, I mentioned that, after a quiet spell earlier this spring, we're actually monitoring quite a few issues at the moment.  Through mid-May, I'll try to keep this post at the top of the blog's front page and link to more detailed content as we're able to post it. Here's a brochure detailing what we're all about. Follow us on Facebook and Twitter.

Student Journalism at OBU

Though the writing is very good and the production value is high, The Bison simply isn't what it once was in terms of journalistic inquiry into serious campus issues.  There are lots of impressionistic columns, general debates, and personal advice features, but there is no investigative reporting.  Editorial pages (with real editorials) have disappeared.  Journalists go berserk if you accuse them of censorship, but I don't know what else to call it.  I'll say it as nicely as possible: The gaps in news coverage and editorial content could lead a reasonable person to speculate that there is a) censorship, b) fear of censorship, or c) blow-back that creates self-censorship.

Of particular note here is the fact that The Bison recently decided against printing an open letter to "the OBU Family" (edited for length) in response to a chapel sermon by an "ex gay" evangelist on the grounds that Save OBU endorsed the letter (which is simply not true) and that we tried to bully the paper into printing the letter.

More on this soon.  We've addressed this issue before, and will tread softly.  But I feel strongly that aside from being an important educational experience for journalism students and other relevant majors, a campus newspaper has an obligation to its community to fill a vital need for rigorous inquiry and debate of campus issues that is, arguably, not being met.

Fine Arts Fiasco

Last month I wrote two posts about a perceived reorientation of the Warren M. Angell College of Fine Arts.  But before I could finish the series, several people asked me to hold off because (unbeknownst to me) a student was collecting opinions from other students and attempting to present them to college administrators.  Unsurprisingly, this did not go over well.  The student lost his or her on-campus job and endured some unfortunate treatment from administrators.  We've been down this road before.   It's amazing how one small, innocent act can unleash such a disproportionate reaction.  God forbid anyone actually have a legitimate disagreement with these people!

Finances & Priorities
New coaching hires and football scholarships have been big news on Bison Hill this year.  The incoming freshman class will be the biggest ever, which is wonderful.  Yet some people are concerned that the administration is scrimping in basic core area courses by increasing class sizes rather than approving departmental recommendations for additional faculty.  Of course, these challenges are not unique to OBU and don't necessarily impinge on academic freedom or ethical administration.  But more paying students should mean more paid professors.  Almost all alumni agree that small classes and top-notch professors are what made OBU great.  Let's not renege on those cornerstones of OBU's greatness!  And, as an adjunct instructor myself, I have to say: It's not the same.  If there are more adjuncts than ever teaching basic courses, that will be a shame.

Kentucky Baptist Convention/Colleges

Even as many non-denominational and non-Baptist evangelical colleges are doing quite well by rank, reputation, and recognition, what remains of Baptist academia is struggling -- almost across the board.  Kentucky Baptists will soon have a unique opportunity to either kick out or fully take over one of its colleges, Campbellsville University.  We've been so focused on following the fundamentalist power grabs at Shorter University and Cedarville University that we've lost sight of what we know to be the source of that power: the precise legal relationship between Baptist colleges and their state conventions.  More on that story as it unfolds.

OBU Chapel/Ideology

We spoke recently about what a sensible person might perceive as a lack of ideological, theological, and political diversity among the speakers who are invited to the Raley Chapel pulpit.  My co-editor, Veronica Risinger, wants to weigh in on the issue... As soon as she finishes the coursework for her seminary degree.

Christian Spirituality

Believe it or not, I've had a resurgent interest in spirituality of late.  It's very personal to me and may be of little interest to anyone else.  But I might, from time to time, share resources that I've found compelling.


At the present time, blog readership is high and interest seems high as well.  But I do plan on taking most of the summer off.  We'll have some book reviews and respond to significant OBU and Baptist news, of course.  But fewer people pay attention, and I need a break.  Until then, however, we're going full force!  I expect the next few weeks to be some of the most exciting in Save OBU's history.

God bless all of you.
-Jacob

A Kinder, Gentler Save OBU?

This has been a big week for us! In terms of site traffic, it's been our biggest week ever -- even bigger than when Veronica took up the issue of gender and when I wrote about the process (or lack thereof) by which OBU's newest religion professor came to Bison Hill.  In addition to high alumni and faculty interest, more and more students are reading the blog and educating themselves at what has happened over the past few years at OBU.

This week, both Veronica and I reported on homecoming.  We also discussed last Sunday's Save OBU strategy meeting.  As the BGCO convened in Moore Monday and Tuesday, we wondered whether some within the convention could help OBU stand strong academically.  We also reported on the wreckage at Shorter University in GA, a year after its president declared war on academic freedom and abandoned any pretense of ethical administration.

Many perceptive readers have asked about the subtle change in tone.  This comment was typical of the emails I received:

The sudden change to a more positive tone fascinates me as a (very) casual member of SaveOBU. I am not sure I understand why it is warranted. What has changed? A brief pause in an agenda pursued by a president and provost does not indicate a turnaround, nor does it cancel out the latest professorial appointments. It might be a useful tactic on the part of an advocate or activist to give their quarry a moment of relief before sharpening their attack, or it might be that some direct communication from credible sources confirms that some redress of grievances is forthcoming. Absent of either, I am not sure why SaveOBU has become a cooperative venture.

So I'd like to reiterate my response to that comment and speak a bit more about how to most effectively move forward.

These are all good points. 

What has changed is that the administration has come to an awareness that it severely alienated the faculty with the botched dismissals and bizarre actions of the past few years, especially its attempts to unilaterally re-orient the aims of entire academic divisions. Whatever Whitlock's, Norman's, and McClellan's long-term intentions, people on the ground are satisfied that the triumverate now knows it can't just come in and wreck shop without a lot of blowback. Norman seems to be almost completely neutralized for the time being. Current faculty do not believe the same hostility exists today that was everywhere apparent just a year or two ago. Faculty leaders are open to repairing relations with Whitlock and Norman. They now have a chapter of the American Association of University Professors, which will hopefully provide some legal and other support if another unethical dismissal is attempted, or if the tenure process is used as a weapon. Our feeling (reflected in the comments of current and retired faculty, as well as students and alumni/ae last weekend in Shawnee) is that we could undermine efforts at peace if we are throwing bombs all the time. So there is some consensus that we need to be more of a watchdog and less of an attack dog, at least for now. 

Are we still angry about what happened to John and Jerry? Of course. Are we disappointed that faculty are being shut out of hiring decisions for decanal and certain faculty positions? Yes. The model of trust, academic freedom, and faculty-administrative collaboration that existed at OBU for decades has suffered a severe breach. But many on campus are hopeful that the breach can be repaired. Some people on campus are satisfied that there are pastors in the BGCO (mostly OBU grads) who can be counted on to make sure the board of trustees is not dominated by fundamentalists. And we know that there are a number of people who share our concerns but who reject that BGCO separation is even possible. But both active and retired faculty have said that the existence and persistence of Save OBU has helped make the administration think twice before they pull any of this crap again (although it did not stop them from going full steam ahead with shutting the faculty out of the most recent religion hire, and that is still extremely troubling).

Personally, I am less hopeful. I agree that we're in a lull right now, but at some point, the provost will assert himself again and/or the fundamentalists will ratchet up the pressure on the president. It's in their nature. They can't help themselves. As for the ones who talk out of both sides of their mouths -- saying they champion academic freedom and want OBU to be a legitimate academic institution but still love to play nice with the fundamentalists -- I wouldn't trust them any farther than I could throw them. But that's just my personal view. As someone coordinating a movement, I have to defer to the people on the ground and try to build consensus around how we can help protect OBU most effectively. 

To date, we haven't asked people to write a letter, withhold a donation, dissuade a prospective student, or do anything other than raise awareness about what has happened. For now, there is a consensus that we should continue as a watchdog, build ties with constituents of other institutions who are fighting different versions of this same battle, be a resource for students and alumni who want non-fundamentalist avenues for graduate study and ministry service, and let faculty pursue redress of grievances through their own channels.

In the long term, we'll need get the trustees off the fence and find out whether they are going to be cheerleaders for or defenders against a fundamentalist takeover.  The fact that Stan Norman still has a job makes me think they don't realize how serious the breach of trust between the faculty and the administration has been.  The easiest way forward would have been for the trustees to nudge President Whitlock to tell Stan it's time to move on.  Then Whitlock could have hit the reset button with faculty and maybe we could all be confident that things would be different moving forward.  Instead, the inaction (and even refusal to acknowledge harm/mistakes) sends the signal that the trustees and administration either don't get it or don't care.  Neither attitude inspires much confidence.

Even so, a consensus is emerging around a wait-see attitude.  Faculty seem confident that their junior colleagues will be tenured based on ability and achievement.  We can't imagine that the administration would attempt another unethical dismissal, given the outrage such an action would cause.  The core of OBU is still intact.  And the faculty in fine arts and theology/ministry will just have to endure the current regime, however joyless it may be at times.

Has Save OBU become kinder and gentler?  I don't know.  I hope so.  I always hope we embody the Fruits of the Spirit (Gal. 5:22-23).  For me, the fact of meeting Provost Norman (very briefly) and having a (very brief) exchange with Dean McClellan may give me pause about speaking in such strong terms about people I don't even know.  But it's nothing personal, and I truly wish them well on their journeys.  I may not know them, but I do know OBU.  And some of their actions have been very out of place at the OBU so many of us have known and loved through all these years.

As a young Methodist boy who saw pastors come and go, I was taught never to say "I was here long before you came here and I'll be here long after you're gone."  That wasn't the right attitude.  But the truth is, there is a tradition of excellence, rigor, academic respectability, and collaborative decision-making that is woven into the fabric of OBU culture.  Two or three administrators can poke holes in that fabric, but they can never tear it asunder.  Time will tell if OBU will be restored to its former greatness in the vital areas where it's been attacked.

The attack days are never fully over.   There are more sad stories to tell and violations to report.  But I think the reorientation from attack dog mode to watchdog mode is wise at the moment.  I am satisfied that it represents a broad consensus of thinking from many quarters.  And I hope we can all move forward together as we stand strong for academic freedom and ethical administration at OBU.

A Report on the Save OBU Strategy Session

I posted Saturday morning, Saturday night, and Sunday afternoon about my wonderful experiences at Homecoming Weekend.  But I felt compelled to return to Bison Hill to continue raising awareness about and pushing back against lapses in ethical administration and suppression of academic freedom at OBU in recent years.  To that end, I convened two strategy meetings today.

The first included retired and active faculty.  For obvious reasons, I am keeping the participants' identities and our deliberations in confidence.

Veronica met with several current students in the GC this afternoon, some who had knowledge of her involvement with Save OBU and, somewhat to my surprise, some of whom had never heard of Save OBU until they saw a poster on campus advertising the meeting.

In the days and weeks to come, Veronica, I, and perhaps other Save OBU leaders will offer some perspectives about what changes will be necessary to be an effective watchdog moving forward.

Veronica ('11) and me ('02) with

Bill Jones ('73) of Texas Baptists Committed.

Some of the items discussed at the public strategy session were:

Mission/purpose.  From the beginning (and frankly since my freshman year at OBU), I have believed that the BGCO's legal stranglehold over OBU (it owns the property and elects the trustees) is, ultimately, the root of all these problems.  Furthermore, separating from the BGCO is the only necessary and sufficient condition to making the problems go away.  But there are a few problems.  First, almost no one (including many people who would otherwise be inclined to support OBU) believes BGCO separation is possible.  And second, while we find BGCO Executive Director-Treasurer Rev. Dr. Anthony Jordan's fingerprints on some of the problem issues we've addressed, we do not have a BGCO-elected Board of Trustees that is trying to remake OBU in the image of the post-Takeover SBC.  In fact, we have generally impressive and solid board.  In any event, we have more pressing problems.  We have professors who literally fear for their jobs.  Until the convention proves untrustworthy (e.g., starts packing the board with fundamentalists who want to turn OBU into a mini-Southwestern Seminary), we're inclined to trust that there are still good pastors (including some OBU alumni) who will use their influence in the BGCO nominations process to see that the convention elects trustees that support OBU's mission and respect its traditions.  In short, we'll be backing off the issue of BGCO separation somewhat.

Sense about where things stand.  Things seem to have quieted down this year, thankfully.  It's been gratifying to hear from current and retired faculty who believe that Save OBU's advocacy has been instrumental in dissuading the administration from violating faculty contract rights and using ideology as a litmus test.  We have a sense that, at least at the moment, there are no plans afoot to use the tenure process as a weapon to weed out moderates, though we are concerned that offering 5-year contracts rather than senior faculty status is a disappointing trend.  The faculty are pursuing redress of their grievances through their own channels, and we want to let those processes continue without doing damage to them.  We are investigating rumblings in the Fine Arts department, and are still horrified at the abysmal treatment a former chief academic officer has suffered.  Yet in spite of all this, we feel it is more appropriate to be a watchdog than an attack dog.

Building alliances and coalitions.  One surprising blessing has been the connection's we've made.  OBU is back on the radar screen of Mainstream Oklahoma Baptists and the Cooperating Baptist Fellowship of Oklahoma.  We've shared and received stories from friends at other Baptist-affiliated universities who are fighting their own versions of these same battles.  Alumni/ae of different generations are connecting, networking, and building relationships.  We want to continue this vital work as a sign of our commitment to integrity and excellence in all Baptist institutions.  Unfortunately, integrity and excellence are too often compromised when fundamentalists take over.

Current students.  I had erroneously assumed that most students simply aren't interested in Save OBU.  After speaking with some students yesterday and meeting with students interested in Save OBU today, I now know that most OBU students do not yet know about Save OBU!  So we have our work cut out for us.  Students will need to educate themselves about the issues at stake, but they need to remember that their professors are not yet free to speak openly about what has happened.  Therefore, we now have plans in place to increase students' awareness of what has happened to their university.  Of course, some students will oppose academic freedom and ethical administration, claiming "OBU is a godly school where godly  administrators are hiring godly men to teach godly things."  But we trust that most students will be horrified to learn what has happened.  OBU students have a fierce love for their professors, and we trust that their love will translate into support for Save OBU.

Our message to the president, provost, and certain deans is clear: If you continue to violate the agreed-upon norms of OBU with respect to policy, personnel, or any other matter, we will call you out on it publicly every time.  And when you respect those norms, we are here to support you.

Here is my prayer from our meeting today.  It is also my prayer for OBU moving forward.

Almighty God, we are united before you this day by our overwhelming love and gratitude for this place.  We praise you for the ways each of our lives have been changed and shaped here.  We especially praise you for your ineffable and sublime Truth -- so inscrutable that we can spend a lifetime pursuing it yet so simple that even a child can understand.  We wonder at the world you imagined into being -- the order, the beauty, the randomness, the mystery, all of it.

Yet even as you have given us minds to know, our hardened hearts do not always understand.  We have not always lived up to your purposes for our lives, and we humbly confess our shortcomings.  I especially confess that I have at times been too harsh in criticism and too quick in judgment.  For these and all other transgressions, we plead for forgiveness.

We give you thanks for the great history and traditions of our beloved OBU.  And we pray that her greatest days may yet lie ahead.  In spite of setbacks, problems, and mistakes, we pray that this institution may live up to the highest ideals of its founding.  We pray wisdom, guidance, health, and success for President David Whitlock and for OBU's trustees and administrators.  We pray for the professors, that they might live out their calling as Christian scholars.  We pray for students, that they may be inspired to pursue truth wherever it is to be found -- for all truth is your truth.

Be with us, Lord, as we risk ourselves in faith, hope, and love and engage the life of the mind.  Make us fearless seekers not merely of information, but true wisdom.  Meet us in the gaps in our knowledge and the places where our faith truly seeks understanding.

Finally, O Lord, we pray for the courage, wisdom, grace, and strength to advocate plainly and with conviction for this cause which you yourself have laid upon our hearts.  Be present among us even now, and grant that we may be found to be faithful disciples of your son, the Master Teacher and savior of us all.

We pray all these things in the name of our Lord Jesus Christ, who lives and reigns with you in the unity of the Holy Spirit, one God, now and forever.  Amen.

A Note of Thanks to Our Readers

Though it indicates a great deal of thoughtfulness and Christian charity in our growing community, it is not necessary to email me and ask if the reason there hasn't been a new post today is that the BGCO sued me.

I assure you, I have not been sued or even approached by the BGCO or any OBU administrators or trustees.  A number of people expressed concern in July, when posting was sparse.  And others of you have written since that time, which I appreciate.  But I want to let you know there is no need for concern.

Although, if I ever get a legal threat, summons, order, or injunction, I'll post it right here for your viewing entertainment, Dear Reader!  It might help get the word out.  So far, we haven't pursued media attention.  Our friends at Save Our Shorter were quite successful with their aggressive media strategy.  If things get much worse at OBU, I suspect we'll have no trouble raising awareness among a large audience.  But for now, we are trying to make connections with students and alumni.

I'll offer a few comments on the relatively less frequent posting.  First, we're fairly satisfied that things are somewhat better right now than they were this time a year ago.  (If we're wrong, please let us know immediately.)  This is not to say that things are as they should be -- the damage already done is significant.  Second, Veronica is a newlywed, I'm a new father, and we're both consumed with the demands of a new semester of graduate student life.  Third, we haven't received much multiply-attested inside information since last spring.

If you're interested in doing some guest writing on the blog, send me a note and let me know what you have in mind.  If you want to help with research or promotion, let me know.  And if you're a current or former trustee, faculty member, or administrator, I would, of course, be most eager to hear from you.  I assume most faculty members think their careers could be in jeopardy if they publicly advocated that OBU separate from the BGCO.  And maybe most faculty members are okay with BGCO control in principle, but are just angry about how it has manifested itself in recent years.  In any event, one faculty member even created a pseudonymous email account to communicate with me, though s/he eventually learned to trust my discretion.

However you prefer to communicate and whatever you have to say, I'm all ears.  My email address is jlupfer -at- gmail -dot- com.  I'd love to hear from students, alumni, or anyone else.  But there's no need to ask if I've been sued by the BGCO!

Our Recent Hiatus

Greetings to friends and foes alike!  Our regular readers will by now have noticed that there have been no new posts in almost three weeks.  I wanted to take a break from blogging this summer, but I should have let everyone know what was happening.  I was pleased to leave my interview videos with Bruce Prescott on the front page, but I didn't realize so many of you would be wondering what happened to Save OBU after more than 7 months of almost daily blogging.

To answer your questions: No, the BGCO's lawyers have not threatened me.  It's still a free country, after all.  No, I'm not ill.  Veronica is also doing great.  In fact, she is getting married a week from Saturday!  For my part, I have been enjoying time with my 3 1/2 old daughter, Amelia.  We are presently in Florida introducing Amelia to many friends and relatives, including her great-grandparents!

In the weeks to come, I'll be releasing the results of our survey of Oklahoma Baptist pastors and church ministry leaders.  We'll also be unveiling Save OBU's new Advisory Board.  With any luck, this month will end the first summer since 2009 that OBU did not unethically force out a professor.  With your help, we'll continue to stand for excellence in Christian liberal arts education and expose and oppose all attempts to thwart academic freedom and the institutionalize fundamentalist-inspired personnel practices or policies at our beloved Oklahoma Baptist University!

The Next Two Weeks

Happy Saturday, everyone!

I'm in the middle of teaching a monthlong summer school course on Comparative Political Systems at Georgetown.  Veronica will be squeezing in another condensed, weeklong seminary course at TCU later this month as well.  Even if the pace of our blog posting has slowed somewhat, a lot is going on behind the scenes.  We're continuing to build collaborations with other teetering Baptist institutions and learning from their experiences.  (Take a moment to read Save Our Shorter's description of its trustees' negligence.  Then say a prayer of thanksgiving that OBU still has good trustees!)

Recent Posts
This week, we noted that OBU conferred an honorary doctorate upon Rev. Fred Luter, the New Orleans pastor who will be elected president of the Southern Baptist Convention next week.  I still don't have a straight answer on whether a committee decides who should get honorary degrees or whether it's based on the president's unitary executive authority.  But we were fairly alarmed to learn that OBU has given doctorates to two post-Takeover SBC presidents in the past year alone.  Until now, we hadn't typically used the honorary degree as a way to cozy up to fundamentalist SBC elites, especially one without any OBU or Oklahoma connections besides being Stan Norman's friend.  If you look at the list of post-Takeover SBC presidents, OBU has only honored Luter and the Rev. Dr. Tom Elliff.  Though Elliff did enough damage on his own, it would be horrendous for OBU to go back and start giving honorary doctorates to Takeover-era SBC presidents, since many of them shamefully abided the destruction/fundamentalization of once-proud Baptist institutions.

On Thursday, I took at pass at blaming the SBC's membership decline on fundamentalism.  It took some restraint.

The Next Two Weeks
Next week, the SBC Pastor's Conference and Annual Meeting take place in New Orleans.  We'll be providing updates through our Facebook and Twitter feeds, but here on the blog we'll be taking a holistic look at the history of fundamentalism in the SBC.  Clayton Mauritzen ('06) who has written here before, will be leading us through a six-part series that seeks to understand and explain the causes and consequences of the convention's institutionalization of fundamentalism.

The following week, past contributor Caitlin Dacus ('11) will lead us through a four-part examination of the Takeover's effect on Baptist missionaries.  This is a tragic story that not many people know, and Caitlin's interests and experiences make her the ideal person to tell it.  I definitely look forward to welcoming Clayton and Caitlin back to the blog!

We also have some exciting guest posts planned for later in the summer.  Of course, we'll also be releasing the results of our BGCO pastor/church staff survey.  And we have some interesting facts to present that will highlight Oklahoma Baptists' need to beef up their BCM funding, even if it comes at the expense of subsidizing OBU.

Save OBU Connections Continue to Build
Now that our movement is more than six months old, we're starting to see the positive, snowballing effects of connecting geographically- and temporally-dispersed faculty (current and former), alumni, retirees, students, and concerned Baptists.  I'm hearing reports of Save OBU helping people connections, sharing stories, and building friendships at conferences, churches, and educational institutions.  This is so wonderful to hear!  Please keep the stories coming!  (jlupfer [at] gmail [dot] com).

We didn't act in time to get a booth at the CBF General Assembly (June 20-23 in Ft. Worth), but please don't let that stop you from talking up OBU at an event where many concerned constituents will be present!  We'll try to have a formal presence at next year's CBF assembly.  And since next year's SBC is in Baltimore, I may just go myself.  Until I get kicked out along with all the other barnacles and parasites :-)

Finally, if any of you are going to be in the Washington, D.C. area this summer, let me know!  I'd love to compare notes and get to know you better.

-Jacob

Save OBU 6 Months Later

I've been busy this week with teaching responsibilities at Georgetown.  But I didn't want to let the day pass by without noting a nice little milestone for our movement: The Save OBU blog has been online for six months!  Our first post (December 6, 2011) is here.

Save OBU was founded on the heels of an alumni petition that circulated last fall.  The alumni effort followed a period of sustained protests from faculty and students against two unethical dismissals carried out by OBU administrators.  In addition to the two botched dismissals, we've raised awareness about restrictions on academic freedom, administrative interference in curriculum matters, preferential hiring of avowed fundamentalists, the installation of a non- (anti?) academic bookstore, and a general tendency to reward ideological purity over professional achievement.  All these issues are new at OBU since the arrival of the Whitlock-Norman regime.  These problems, while tragically common in what remains of Southern Baptist higher education, are blatantly contrary to OBU's proud and distinctive Christian liberal arts tradition.

I remain convinced, as I have been since I first set foot on Bison Hill in 1999, that the root of the problem is OBU's relationship with the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.  Without the BGCO to appease, Stan Norman, Mark McClellan, and at least a handful of recent hires would have never ended up at OBU.  Because of the BGCO, however, fundamentalist encroachment is advancing.  Conveniently for the convention, Provost Norman is apparently acting out of his own volition as he works to transform our beloved OBU into a fundamentalist Bible academy.  So it's hard to point fingers at the Baptist Building.  But as long as the BGCO calls the shots, there will always be a Stan Norman-type figure (or figures) trying to remake OBU in the BGCO's own post-Takeover self image.  Fundamentalism is simply incompatible with true, honest, and rigorous education.

Six months into our effort, let me respond briefly to the two major criticisms I have received.

Don't you know that OBU and the BGCO cannot be separated?
Yes.  Of all the legal arrangements between Baptist colleges and state conventions, OBU's is unquestionably the absolute worst.  Not only does the convention elect all the trustees, it literally owns OBU.  OBU is completely at the mercy of the BGCO.  Thankfully, a generation of BGCO leaders (Joe Ingram and Bill Tanner) and a generation of OBU leaders (James Ralph Scales, Grady Cothen, Tanner, Eugene Hall, and Bob Agee) managed that relationship quite well.  But in the 1990s, the BGCO leadership was taken over by fundamentalists and even turned on Joe Ingram.  Since Anthony Jordan became executive director-treasurer, OBU has had reason to worry.  The Brister years had their ups and downs, but ultimately Mark Brister realized that Anthony Jordan was not his boss and refused to aid and abet fundamentalist encroachment at OBU.  With David Whitlock, the fundamentalists have had a field day.  It's as if Whitlock agreed to abide the fundamentalists' long-awaited transformation of OBU as a condition of his election.  We're looking into the search process as deeply as we can to get as much insight as possible.

As I said on day one, at a minimum, OBU needs to be allowed to select a majority (if not all) of its trustees.  Short of that, we'll lose this fight.  In that case, I only hope that the professors who I count as mentors can finish their careers satisfactorily and that their pensions will be paid before OBU descends into irrelevance and ruin.

Following the pattern of fundamentalist domination of Baptist colleges, we can expect an all-out takeover of OBU's Board of Trustees in the coming years.  Now, while we actually have a really good board, OBU needs to take action to protect itself.  In the coming months, we'll talk more about what that might look like.  And we'll finally be in touch with the trustees in a formal way.

Why do you give David Whitlock a free pass?
Whitlock is going to be the president of OBU for quite a few years -- maybe for as long as he likes.  He will personally have a decisive impact on whether OBU remains a leading Christian liberal arts college or faces a fate like Shorter or any number of other Baptist colleges that the fundamentalists have destroyed.  If Whitlock left OBU, it's a near certainty that we would end up with someone much, much worse.  The best thing about Whitlock is that he doesn't have a Ph.D. from a post-Takeover SBC seminary.  He wasn't modled and formed in the trenches of the Takeover.  In fact, some professors have described him as theologically naive or "theologically an infant."  Multiple people recounted an instance where he appeared at First Baptist Church of Oklahoma City and seemed genuinely perplexed about why that congregation had a troubled relationship to the BGCO (something that any insider would know and understand very well).  Most people have the impression that he is more of a politician/manager than an ideological warrior.  If we didn't have David Whitlock, the odds are overwhelming that we'd have someone who is a committed Takeover activist who has been formed and molded over many years in one of the increasingly insular and ever more fundamentalist SBC seminaries.  Think Stan Norman.  If not Whitlock, we'd probably have someone very much like Norman.  I know a lot of you are angry at President Whitlock.  But I would still submit for your consideration that it could actually be worse.

Now, it's true that Whitlock has been able to hide behind his hatchet man.  Occasionally, he's had to clean up messes.  But in general, Whitlock does not seem to have the inclination to fight the fundamentalists' battles for them.  Which is why if Stan Norman left OBU, everyone keeps telling me things would be much better.  But I must concede the point so many of you have made in your emails, comments, and calls: David Whitlock has sat idly by while good men's careers were needlessly disrupted and while Stan Norman has begun to undermine generations of greatness at OBU.  And from what I can tell, Whitlock has not lifted a finger to protect academic freedom in any of the several instances where it is being undermined.  I agree that this is unacceptable.  But sometimes there's no way to hold people at the top accountable.

Looking Ahead to the Next 6 Months
We have plans to release our survey of BGCO pastors and church staff in the coming weeks.  We also plan on featuring a handful of new guest writers.  As I've mentioned, we're compiling a dossier to send to OBU trustees.  And we'll closely monitor the trustee selection process, or at least the election of 8 new trustees in November.  We'll also continue to form relationships and forge alliances with constituents of other Baptist schools whose great traditions are being eroded by fundamentalists.  Eventually, I plan on doing some writing for higher ed trade publications to help raise awareness about the plight of Christian liberal arts in the context of post-Takeover Baptist schools.

I also have a family to love and a doctoral dissertation to write.  So I'm going to scale back my involvement as we bring on a new, broader leadership structure.

A Personal Word of Thanks
I am so grateful to each of you for indulging my outspoken voice these past six months and supporting me to the extent you are inclined and able.  I've certainly made a few mistakes.  But I stand by the work we've done together as vital and hopefully decisive in protecting the OBU we all love so dearly.  I'm especially grateful to Veronica Pistone for adding her voice and passion to our effort.  But I'm also grateful to all those whose activism paved the way for Save OBU: Chris Jones who spearheaded the alumni petition effort, the faculty who pushed back hard against the botched and shameful dismissals, and the students who courageously spoke out against negative policy and personnel changes.

I've learned a lot about Baptist higher education -- more than I ever thought I'd know!  I'm grateful for the new knowledge and (I hope) better perspective I now have.  But mostly, I'm grateful that I reconnected with old friends and made many new ones.  It's been a joy.

God bless OBU!

Looking forward to the next 6 months!

-Jacob

From the Archives: "Why I Do This" Series

Sorry for the late post tonight.  I've been busy with my family celebrating my bride's law school graduation!  It's a pretty remarkable achievement, considering that Cara gave birth to our daughter barely 5 weeks ago.  She excelled on her final exams and graduated with honors.  It's been very sweet to celebrate her accomplishments this week with our friends and parents (who also happen to be first-time grandparents).

During the week of OBU's commencement (when we weren't busy commenting on OBU's decision to honor a leading BGCO/SBC fundamentalist and presenting our letter of congratulations to 2012 OBU graduates), we published a series of posts on why we have invested our time and energy promoting the Save OBU cause.    (Short answer: We do this as an act of love for OBU.)  Veronica explained why she does this and followed later in the week with posts on the need for continuing vigilance as well as a vision for OBU's place and meaning in the wider world.  I also gave a brief reflection on why I've devoted my energy to this effort.

We'll try to keep the blog updated over the long weekend.  But get excited!  Next week promises to expose the problem of encroaching fundamentalism at OBU in the most vivid possible way.

Plans for the Week and for the Summer

This week, we're taking a break from our usual blogging schedule.  Veronica is taking an intensive weeklong course at Brite.  I have family in town to celebrate my bride's graduation from the Catholic University of America School of Law (and, of course, to shower our month-old newborn daughter with love and attention).

We've covered a lot of ground since Spring Break, our last week off.  Our readership has grown significantly in that timespan.  So this week, we're featuring some highlights from the past two months, since many in our coalition may have missed them the first time around.

I want to expand briefly on Veronica's Friday note about summer plans.  As the summertime approaches, we will scale back and retool our blogging efforts, but only a little bit.  We still have posts planned about the fine arts area, some trustee issues, and the results of our recently completed survey of over 100 BGCO pastors and church staff.  But in the summer months, we'll also try some new things.  We want to tell more peoples' OBU stories.  We want to build bridges to concerned constituents of other Baptist institutions.  We will continue to present and defend the Baptist distinctives that stand at the core of what we're trying to accomplish.  And we may try to facilitate some online book reading/discussion groups.  (Let us know if you want to help out: SaveOBU@gmail.com).

A lot of people have been asking, "Where do we stand?" and "What can I do?"  OBU is definitely in a better place today than it was nine months ago.  We believe the cumulative effect of vocal faculty opposition, last fall's alumni petition, passionate protests from retirees, and the Save OBU movement has been to put the administration on notice that there will be no fundamentalist takeover at OBU.  We still have trustees and a president who want the best for OBU.  The provost, who had been a one-man Takeover architect, was severely chastened this year, even before a sobering set of job evaluations made it crystal clear that the faculty do not want his meddling -- and many (if not most) do not want him -- at OBU.  Our website statistics indicate that we are not really being read in Thurmond Hall.  But we are being read in the Baptist Building.  We've presented a number of inconvenient truths about the OBU/BGCO relationship.  But some of our hardest-hitting arguments will be hard to make without data that we don't have (i.e., how few BGCO pulpits are filled with OBU ministry grads, how many OBU grads attend non-SBC seminaries, etc).

Here are a few things you can do:

• Like us on Facebook and follow us on Twitter.  This increases our social reach dramatically.
• Tell your non-fundamentalist friends and classmates about what has gone on at OBU and what Save OBU is doing to stop it.
• Share the news of Save OBU with friends who are faculty/students/alumni at other Baptist colleges.  Chances are, their schools are experiencing versions of the same problems.
• Use the link at right to donate $30 via PayPal to fund a Facebook ad campaign.  (These have been extremely effective.)
• Learn as much as you can about the state of Baptist and evangelical higher education.  Remain in prayer and discernment about how to ensure the best possible future for OBU students and for the university's greatest asset -- its faculty.

Organizationally, we will be convening an advisory board for Save OBU this summer.  Ideally, members should be active laypeople in Oklahoma Baptist churches.  Sadly, I don't think BGCO clergy will have the freedom to be leaders in our effort, although we know from many emails that a number of them share our concerns.  If you would like to help provide leadership in this way, please let us know.  Also, please let us know if you would like to nominate someone for the Save OBU Advisory Board.

Thank you for your continued support.  Most of all, thank you for your love and passion for OBU!

The Downward Spiral: Save OBU's Vital Role

Over the past four days, we've looked at Baptist schools whose headlong descent into fundamentalism makes OBU's recent missteps seem minor by comparison.  Just as we began the Downward Spiral series with an optimistic note about things stabilizing at OBU, we want to end with an appropriate balance between acknowledging progress and sticking to our guns about the ultimate source of the tension -- the tenuous, mutually draining relationship between OBU and the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.

First, credit where credit is due: After nearly a year of protests, I absolutely believe that OBU President David Whitlock is in a position to do right by OBU.  The faculty and retirees' efforts, in particular, have let let him know the seriousness of dismissing two professors without providing Faculty Handbook rights to them.  He is now much more aware of the widespread displeasure with the orientation of OBU as a consequences of the several bad policies his administration has adopted.

More good news:  At least one academic department reports being able to move forward with two new hires, both their first choice.  Dr. Norman is not getting to play the Doctrinal Enforcer role he obviously envisioned for himself.  As long as he is constrained by appropriate pressure, he will not be able to do further harm.  Whether he will ever be able to repair broken trust and lost confidence is unknown.  But to the extent he is willing to try, we have to honor that effort.

So if we are ending a crisis-filled year on a tentatively hopeful note, why do we still need Save OBU?

Let's not forget the ugly facts of the matter: Two professors were unethically dismissed.  Several core curriculum areas have suffered.  Faculty search committee recommendations have been ignored and overruled.  Legitimate doubt exists about whether Whitlock and Norman want to be loyal to the BGCO's wishes or to the interests of students and faculty.  That doubt will exist as long as BGCO control does, but given the breach of trust, we need to be vigilant.

Faculty can only do so much.  Yes there was widespread anger, fear, and sadness in the wake of two ideologically-motivated firings.  But the faculty really can't continue to beat the administration over the head with this.  Mistakes were made.  OBU's reputation is suffering.  But the faculty have to move on, though they do not have to forget what has happened.  They have to move forward, engage other issues, and allow trust to be rebuilt if the administration repents and makes a genuine effort to uphold academic freedom and the Christian liberal arts tradition that made OBU great.

We may not be heading down the path of mass firings and a wholesale abandonment of everything we hold dear.  But we have to be prepared for things to get ugly.  While we stand in solidarity with the Save Our Shorter coalition, we are well aware of the dangers inherent in waiting until after another major defilement of academic freedom or our cherished Baptist principles before we get organized and stand up for what we believe is right.

Unfortunately, the past two years have made it abundantly clear that OBU needs a watchdog that brings together the interests and perspectives of students (current and prospective), parents, alumni, faculty, and Oklahoma Baptists.  Just because OBU's takeover is in its infancy while at other Baptist schools it is complete does not mean that we could never go down that road.  We welcome any progress, but we remain absolutely convinced that ending BGCO control is the only necessary and sufficient condition for eliminating threats to academic freedom, integrity, and respectability on Bison Hill.

The Downward Spiral: Activism Thwarts Imminent Disaster at OBU

This weekend, we'll examine what the incremental devolution of a Christian liberal arts university looks like.  I like the way Veronica has organized her posts into brief, topical series (see posts on administration here, here, and here; students' experiences under the new regime here, here, here, here, and here; gender here, here, and here; and diversity here, here, here, and here).  I'm going to follow that pattern this weekend as we look at schools that have been taken over and are in various stages of destruction at the hands of state convention power brokers and their lakeys in university administration.

But before we turn to our attention to Baptist colleges that fundamentalists are presently wrecking, I think we've finally earned the right to brag a little.  In the midst of all the sinking ships and in the context of non-denominational colleges supplanting Baptist ones as leaders in Christian higher education, OBU refuses to lay down and die the death that all six SBC seminaries and many Baptist colleges suffered at the hands of the Takeover architects and their henchmen.

Activism On Many Fronts
Here's how it all started.  When a very accomplished, well-loved, and exceedingly devoted Christian philosopher was forced out of his position at OBU (the administration offered him a steaming pile of crap instead of the contract he deserved according to basic fairness and the Faculty Handbook), the faculty quickly realized something was badly amiss.  About a year ago, once it became clear that the administration wanted to scale back philosophy (a core discipline in the liberal arts) and replace it with "Christian apologetics," a group of concerned students started an underground newspaper to raise awareness of this unprecedented new direction and to protest the negative changes.  After another professor was unjustly forced out, faculty anger intensified.  An alumni petition circulated, further raising awareness about OBU's alarming and unprecedented new direction.  Retired faculty documented the administration's abuses and stood up for their friends and former colleagues.  Only after all that did Save OBU emerge.

Eight or nine months ago, OBU's path to becoming just another marginally accredited preacher boy camp and teacher/nurse vo-tech looked like a sure thing.  It would take time, of course, but the wheels were in motion.  Today, that march has slowed almost to a halt.  Sure, the provost might still be screening applicants with his theological, social, and political litmus tests.  Apparently the new policy is mainline Protestants need not apply.  He's still the chief academic officer, but now literally thousands of OBU stakeholders know how grossly he overestimated his mandate, such as it was.  His zeal for waging ideological warfare is most unwelcome at OBU, and  he has definitely backed down for now (faculty report that he barely spoke in a recent meeting for fear of being "misinterpreted" later).

Claiming a Victory in the Battle, but the War Rages On
There will be no ideologically-motivated firings this summer.  Too many people are paying attention now.  I seriously doubt they will override any faculty search committees this year, either.  Dr. Norman's wholesale disregard for faculty committees' expertise and judgment has created a huge embarrassment for the university and an impediment to maintaining an excellent faculty over the long term.  We will closely monitor the process this year.  Even amid the excitement (distraction?) of adding programs and conducting a capital campaign, administrators have had to focus more deliberately on their relationships with students and faculty -- relationships they took for granted and carelessly sacrificed in order to please people in the BGCO who have long had it out for the OBU religion department which, in spite of being thoroughly conservative by any objective standard, just isn't conservative enough for today's post-Takeover BGCO.  President Whitlock has endured a "brutal" trustees' executive session and has had to abandon other plans in order to demonstrate that he is on campus showing leadership and proving that he understands the difference between a liberal arts college and a Bible academy.  Just as President Brister once complained, "Anthony thinks he's my boss," we trust that President Whitlock now knows that there are a lot of people not named Rev. Dr. Anthony Jordan whose opinions also matter.

So yes, we're claiming a victory, albeit a tentative one.  As we'll see over the next few days, it's nothing short of remarkable that we've disrupted the fundamentalists' agenda for OBU.  But the way we've done it is just as remarkable.  We have no staff and no budget.  A few writers have shared their time and skills.  A few people have donated $30 for Facebook and Google ad campaigns.  And hundreds of stakeholders have shared information, expressed interest and support through Facebook and Twitter, and spread the word to classmates, colleagues, and friends.  Also, there are so many things we could have done but haven't.  We have not sought any media attention.  We have not encouraged the wrongfully dismissed professors to seek legal recourse or financial damages against OBU for their shameful treatment.  We have not contacted major donors or encouraged anyone to stop giving to OBU.  We remain hopeful that providing information, offering commentary/analysis, and slowly building a movement are superior to hardball tactics.

The Bad News: Things Will Get Worse
Just because we don't expect any firings this year does not mean we are out of the woods.  The provost's office still seems intent on incrementally remaking the faculty in the image of the post-Takeover SBC and BGCO.  We still face a dramatically limited faculty applicant pool and the constant threat that OBU will hire based on ideological purity rather than accomplishment or academic promise.  We will continue not to have a legitimate bookstore on campus.  Whether President Whitlock continues to give his blessing to Dr. Norman's war on OBU and his weapons for waging it remains to be seen.  But it will be impossible to drive a wedge between those two.

The only thing keeping OBU from going down the path of schools we'll discuss over the next few days is YOU.  Our network of concerned stakeholders is large and growing -- and we are ever on alert.  We're confident that the trustees would not abide another unethical dismissal by the administration.  But mainly we're confident that if administrators forced someone else out, they will awaken a sleeping giant.  The Bison Nation is not prepared to sit idly by while their beloved OBU is destroyed from the inside, its legacy of excellence in Christian liberal arts education dismantled piece by piece.

The moment we let up -- the moment we think we've won -- the agenda we're opposing will start moving again.  This will continue indefinitely as long as the BGCO is in charge.  As we'll see over the next few days, the pressure to make Baptist colleges fundamentalist always originates within the state convention.  After we see how badly some of these schools have suffered, we trust that our argument for independence from the BGCO will be more persuasive than ever.

But for now -- maybe for today only -- celebrate!  You have truly made a difference.  Tomorrow, we get back to work.

Progress Report on Save OBU Updates and Changes

So much has been happening at Save OBU, it's hard to keep track of it all.  About two weeks ago, I announced some changes to the blog designed to give voice to a new generation of OBU alumni.  Today I'll briefly report on some new initiatives and lay out a sketch of our vision going forward into the spring.

New Contributing Editor

After researching and writing 72 blog posts and generating more than 12,000 pageviews on the website, I invited Veronica Pistone ('11) to join me as a Contributing Editor.  Already, Veronica has impressed our readers with her knowledge, insight, and clarity.  She has not shied away from difficult topics, and her commitment to Baptist freedom and her love of OBU shines through in every post.

Veronica receiving an award for outstanding academic

achievement from SCS Dean Mark McClellan in 2011

Guest Bloggers

On Sunday, we ran our first in a series of occasional guest blog posts.  Caitlin Dacus ('11) shared an informative and passionately written essay on early Baptist hero John Leland.  Her connections to OBU's current situation show how far our alma mater has fallen.  Tomorrow and Friday, I am pleased to welcome Clayton Mauritzen ('06) as he shares his OBU story.  Look for more guest posts in the weeks and months to come.  If you have a perspective or story and would like to be considered for publication here, be sure to email us at SaveOBU@gmail.com.  Remember, our focus is on protecting academic freedom at OBU and advocating for independence from the BGCO.

Spotlight on Recent OBU Disasters

In giving voice to a younger generation of OBU alumni, we are hearing from people who had a front row seat for the Norman-Whitlock administration's authoritarianism, new fundamentalist-inspired direction, and assaults on Baptist freedom.  If you missed it last week, take a look at our three part series on administration at OBU.

A Broad View of Evangelical Academia

Initially, I invested a lot of time in learning about other Southern Baptist colleges that parted company with their state conventions.  As inspiring as those stories are, OBU's situation is unique in that the convention literally owns the university.  The BGCO has OBU in a legal straitjacket from which we cannot easily escape.  That's why they are able to advocate for a fundamentalist agenda with such impunity -- we really have no recourse (which is why our protests must be loud, passionate, and unyielding).  For now, we just have to hope and pray that current leaders will not do any more damage to OBU and its reputation than they already have.

But it occurs to me that while many Baptist schools were fighting battles from which Joe Ingram, Bill Tanner, and Bob Agee wisely and deftly shielded OBU during the Fundamentalist Takeover era, OBU quietly established itself as one of the premier evangelical colleges in the U.S.  Sadly, we are losing ground to other fine colleges like Wheaton, Gordon, Biola, and Whitworth -- institutions that do not have to kowtow to fundamentalists like OBU unfortunately does.  Some are suggesting that we are witnessing an "evangelical renaissance" in academia.  Not only is OBU not taking part, we are actually regressing.  In fact, we just received word that Wheaton hired an outstanding young New Testament professor that OBU passed over for a job in 2009 in spite of her being unanimously recommended by the search committee.

Next Steps

Now that I have help with the daily blogging duties, I am going to start assembling an advisory board for Save OBU.  I'm looking for a handful of people with ties to SBC churches (both BGCO and CBFO) in Oklahoma.

Then, we'll work on compiling a dossier of issues that we can submit to OBU trustees later this spring.

One idea that seems fun and might be effective is to hold a Save OBU rally in Shawnee sometime this year or next.

And we'll begin investigating the politics and processes involved in trustee selection.  With luck and extensive planning, we'll be able to influence trustee election at the BGCO meeting in November.  Given all the student, faculty, alumni, and retired faculty protests, Anthony Jordan is not going to let any non-fundamentalists on the Board from now on.  We need to make sure OBU continues to have good trustees who understand Baptist freedom, academic freedom, and the importance of not ruining an institution's hard-earned and well-deserved reputation for excellence just to satisfy a few Baptist power brokers in OKC and Nashville.

A Word of Thanks
We have received invaluable support and encouragement from Bill Jones ('73) of Texas Baptists Committed.  Bill featured Save OBU on the TBC blog yesterday and we really appreciate all he's done.

And, of course, thank to all of you for your kind words and assistance in spreading the word.

God bless OBU!

Save OBU Updates and Changes

Happy Saturday, everyone.  Our movement continues to gain strength every day.  When the blog first started, I posted a lot of weekly updates and recaps.  But then we got so busy collecting new information and addressing problems at OBU that I didn't take time to give general updates and recaps.  We continue to receive new information all the time -- some of it good, but a lot of it very bad.  We will soon have details to report on the dumbing down and watering down of certain curriculum areas.  But for now, let's focus on some very exciting changes and new directions.

From the very beginning, I have been clear about seeking to recruit leaders for our effort.  At first, I was concerned with getting some help for the blog.  That is now happening, as I'll explain in a moment.  Next, I'll be working on assembling an advisory board for Save OBU.  These two developments will help bolster our credibility and ensure that we are not perceived to be just one blogger, but rather an organized movement.

New Contributing Editor -- Veronica Pistone ('11)
Today, I am pleased to announce that Veronica Pistone is joining me as a Contributing Editor for the Save OBU blog.  In addition to posting regularly, she will provide significant editorial direction for the blog and our Facebook page.  I will continue to post here, as well as manage our Twitter presence and advertising.

Veronica brings a great deal to our effort, including:

• Female perspective
• Recent student perspective
• Young alumni/ae perspective
• Dozens of personal relationships with relevant people
• Hundreds of personal relationships with students and young alumni
• Former "Bursting the Bubble" columnist for The Bison
• Significant inside knowledge of the religion/philosophy department, both in terms of faculty and administration
• Baptist by choice, not by birth
• And, perhaps she is the BGCO's worst nightmare of all: an award-winning female religion major whose OBU degree prepared her to study for the ministry at a very fine (non-SBC) seminary

Look for Veronica's inaugural blog post tomorrow, and keep an eye on her contributions as we move forward.  She has a wealth of information to share, as well as an unyielding passion for our mission of separating OBU from the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.  I enthusiastically welcome her to the Save OBU blog.

Guest Blog Posts
We are arranging for several friends of the movement to write guest blog posts in the coming weeks.  Two are OBU alumni, and one is involved with a simliar effort at another SBC college.  More details to tome!

Site Stats
I hesitate to brag too much here, lest our opponents realize just how fast and wide our message is spreading.  But know this: we are reaching literally dozens of new people every single day, and our traffic is growing at a very rapid rate.

As we move forward together, I want to thank each of you for your love of OBU, your kind words, and your support.  I have enjoyed leading this movement, and I will of course continue to be a leader.  But this was never my effort.  It has always been and will always be about giving voice to the hundreds if not thousands of OBU constituents who share the concerns we talk about here.  We are making significant strides toward doing just that, and I look forward to the months to come.

-Jacob

How to Fight the Man

The other day, one of our astute young alumnae sent along a recent David Brooks column that has interesting implications for the growing Save OBU movement.

Brooks noted that the Jefferson Bethke, the creator of a viral YouTube video, backed down immediately when challenged about the accuracy and implications of what he suggested.  To this dynamic, Brooks commented:

Bethke responded in a way that was humble, earnest and gracious, and that generally spoke well of his character. He also basically folded. 

[...] 

Bethke’s passionate polemic and subsequent retreat are symptomatic of a lot of the protest cries we hear these days. This seems to be a moment when many people — in religion, economics and politics — are disgusted by current institutions, but then they are vague about what sorts of institutions should replace them. 

This seems to be a moment of fervent protest movements that are ultimately vague and ineffectual.

Fortunately, this is not a problem in our case.  Rather than grasping in the dark for something novel, we already have a set of time-honored guiding principles on which we are building our alternative to the unacceptable status quo.  Thus we have already avoided what Brooks thinks causes nascent social movements to sputter.  As for why so many would-be reformers fail, Brooks points to their lack of grounding in a historical-intellectual tradition:

My own theory revolves around a single bad idea. For generations people have been told: Think for yourself; come up with your own independent worldview. Unless your name is Nietzsche, that’s probably a bad idea. Very few people have the genius or time to come up with a comprehensive and rigorous worldview. 

If you go out there armed only with your own observations and sentiments, you will surely find yourself on very weak ground. You’ll lack the arguments, convictions and the coherent view of reality that you’ll need when challenged by a self-confident opposition. This is more or less what happened to Jefferson Bethke. 

The paradox of reform movements is that, if you want to defy authority, you probably shouldn’t think entirely for yourself. You should attach yourself to a counter-tradition and school of thought that has been developed over the centuries and that seems true.

Obviously, it's not enough to merely bemoan a disappointing present reality.  We can't just wring our hands over our litany of grievances.  Our disapproval alone is no match for the powerful men who wrought these disastrous changes.  We will continue to, in Brooks's words, "attach [ourselves] to a counter-tradition and school of thought."  For us, that means a deep, abiding, and searching Christian faith first and foremost.  It also means reverence for and fidelity to ideals that have been cast aside such as academic freedom, open inquiry, and a fearless quest for a faith that can withstand even the most rigorous intellectual scrutiny.  We, not they, are the true bearers of a unique Baptist heritage that prizes soul freedom, liberty of the conscience, priesthood of the believer, separation of church and state, and all the old Southern Baptist distinctives that the fundamentalists cast aside.  Frankly, they are the ones who came to power on very weak ground and who failed to attach themselves to a coherent school of thought.  We carry the legacies of Herschel Hobbs, Grady Cothen, and Joe Ingram with us as we protest.  They have cast these visionaries aside or, worse, misappropriated their great names.

Brooks concludes:

Most professors would like their students to be more rebellious and argumentative. But rebellion without a rigorous alternative vision is just a feeble spasm. 

If I could offer advice to a young rebel, it would be to rummage the past for a body of thought that helps you understand and address the shortcomings you see. Give yourself a label. If your college hasn’t provided you with a good knowledge of countercultural viewpoints — ranging from Thoreau to Maritain — then your college has failed you and you should try to remedy that ignorance. 

Effective rebellion isn’t just expressing your personal feelings. It means replacing one set of authorities and institutions with a better set of authorities and institutions. Authorities and institutions don’t repress the passions of the heart, the way some young people now suppose. They give them focus and a means to turn passion into change.

The institution we seek to replace is, ultimately, the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma.  For decades, it gave OBU a firm grounding, a significant financial leg up, and countless opportunities for reciprocal service, mission, and ministry.  It didn't merely tolerate leaders like Porter Routh, Herschel Hobbs, and Joe Ingram -- it gave us these heroes.  It didn't just allow academic freedom at OBU -- it expected and demanded it.

Sadly, those days are over.  A new generation of leaders controls the BGCO.  This generation may talk about mutuality, but ultimately it seeks control.  It has moved so dramatically away from the values that created and sustained OBU's vibrant academic community that it is really no longer an honest partner in our mission.  We don't need the BGCO's rapidly dwindling financial commitment just so we can be its theological playground where they tinker with personnel and policies until OBU becomes an unrecognizable shell of its former self.

We are not a groundless, directionless movement.  We don't have to grasp in the dark for something to replace BGCO control.  We simply stand by the cherished values and ideals they abandoned.  While it may surprise those who believe all progress is future-oriented, our grounding is actually in the past.  Our critics naively ask, "Why should OBU change to accomodate your preferences?"  Our answer must be unwavering: OUR preferences have not changed.  Our alternative institutions and authorities are rooted in the past.  THEY are the ones who changed.  And in changing with the ever more fundamentalist direction of the SBC, they have stolen something very dear to us.  We will not let it go without a fight.

In fact, we will win.  Not today or tomorrow.  But eventually.  People who have something stolen from them are formidable.  They don't just give up one day and stop seeking that which was taken from them by force and by guile.  We will not withdraw our protest -- we will not rest -- until our cherished values are restored.  We are not asking for change at all.  But we are insisting that the fact that they changed does not mean they can rob us of what we cherish.  We're just demanding the return of something that was stolen from us -- something near and dear to our hearts.

Brooks advises the young (and the young at heart) on "how to fight the man."  His advice is wise, and we are already heeding it.  Like so many reform movements grounded in faith and with the truth on their side, all we really need to do is remain faithful and vigilant.  As Archbishop Tutu used to say to those who oppressed him unrighteously, "You may have all this power, but you have already lost.  Come join the winning side!"  We extend that same invitation to OBU administrators, trustees, and anyone caught between the BGCO power brokers and our vast community.  Come, join the winning side!

A Reply to Our (Sometimes Insulting) Critics

Since Save OBU appeared on the scene late last year, some people have taken to defending OBU's descent into fundamentalism.  For many, it is a matter of conviction -- the more fundamentalist the better, they say.  For others, it is simply their job (an unenviable one if you ask me) to assure people that the recent devastating changes are nothing to worry about -- Keep sending us your children and your money.  Never mind that we use hiring and tenure decisions to keep moderates out and fundamentalists in, never mind that we turned our bookstore into a Christian kitch emporium, never mind that we routinely ignore faculty norms and policies, never mind that the provost has seemingly unchecked authority to intervene in curriculum matters and does not have to undergo any job evaluations, etc.

The criticism typically takes one or more of these forms:

"The new profs are great."
I'm sure they are, literally each and every one of them.  That doesn't mean there aren't serious problems with the hiring process.  The fact remains that recent hires emerged from an unfair and unethical selection process.  They were, in most cases, not the search committee's first (or even second or third) choice.  And the recent changes sent a clear signal to future prospective professors: Unless you're a fundamentalist, don't bother.  You're not going to fit in here.  There is also a troubling dynamic emerging between the senior faculty (who are appalled at the recent changes) and some junior faculty who have to support the administration because they are not tenured yet (not that it matters anymore, apparently) and who owe their positions at least as much to their ideology as to their qualifications.

The kinds of professors who made OBU great are not only not being hired today, they are not even applying.  Sadly, I have heard from several Christian academics who could not recommend OBU to friends and colleagues seeking faculty positions.  Many fine candidates were aghast at how awful the fundamentalist litmus test interview with the provost was.  Unless we repair the damage to our reputation these awful H.R. problems have caused, our faculty will look less and less like a balanced, moderate liberal arts college and more and more like a marginally-accredited fundamentalist Bible academy.  Turnover matters.

Also, just because "the new profs are great," please remember: the old profs were great, too.  Time will tell, but I wouldn't just flippantly assume that the new people will be as great as the legendary teachers who influenced generations of OBU students.  We find it absolutely tragic -- I cannot think of a better word -- that most of the now-retired faculty and a majority of the senior faculty would never even be considered for positions at OBU under the current regime.  That speaks volumes.  And the implication that these devoted and outstanding educators are not Christian, or are not Christian enough, or are not the right kind of Christian is beyond insulting.

The university is committed to "the gospel" and "biblical standards."
OBU has always been committed to these things.  The problem with raising these issues in response to Save OBU's concerns is twofold.  First, it implies that previous generations of administrators, faculty, and students were not committed, or were insufficiently committed, to the gospel and biblical standards.  These changes (which Presidents Raley, Scales, Cothen, Tanner, Hall, Agee, and probably even Brister would have abhorred) are truly unprecedented.  If administrators are undertaking them because the gospel requires it, then I guess that means all our great past presidents failed to meet biblical standards.  OBU must have been a liberal haven for secularists.  Do you really want to say that?  Of course not, because it's a ridiculous thing to say.  OBU faculty nurtured a faith in students that could withstand the most rigorous intellectual scrutiny.  We didn't need "apologetics" classes.  The whole academic experience was both an act of faith and a vigorous defense of it.  The second problem with bringing up "the gospel" and "biblical standards" in the context of defending the recent changes at OBU is that it implies that, somehow, fidelity to Scripture demands that we violate personnel policies and disrupt extremely capable and well-loved professors' careers because we disagree with them.  I'm sorry, but I'm offended that people would try to cloak these changes in righteousness.  They are about ideology and power -- pure and simple.  Some of the bad changes, like the bookstore, might be described as unfortunate mistakes.  But not sins or crimes.  With respect to the faculty dismissals, though, our position is clear and indisputable: those two men were treated absolutely shamefully.  At a minimum, they are owed an apology.  To imply that the treatment they received was somehow derived from adherence to biblical standards is frankly appalling.

OBU was neither unrighteous nor devoid of concern for the gospel before the fundamentalists came in and started ruining things.

A Concern about Facts/Opinions/Speculation
We do a lot of speculating about what is behind the recent changes and what further disasters may await us if no one intervenes.  Naturally, our commentary is filled with opinions.  But with regard to facts, our record is solid.  No one has accused of us of saying anything that is not true.  I hope our opinions are correct and our speculation is well-informed and prescient.  But we are not peddling falsehoods.  And we certainly have no ill will.  Toward anyone.  Again, an example will suffice: I was a little surprised when I began delving into OBU's affairs and realized that President Whitlock is not the villan here.  I hadn't paid a lot of attention to OBU in the late 2000s.  I thought maybe Dr. Whitlock came in with an extremist agenda.  I quickly learned that is not the case.  In fact, I am quite sympathetic to him because I feel the BGCO-OBU relationship has put him in an impossible position where he receiving intense pressure from both sides.  A lot of Save OBU supporters are very angry at him for the fundamentalist-inspired changes and for letting Dr. Norman be the hatchet man, but I have cautioned many people not to blame the leader when the institutional arrangement is the real culprit.  The same goes for Dr. Norman.  There's a perfect position for him somewhere in fundamentalist academia.  It's just obviously not at OBU.


And, of course, those of us within the Save OBU movement have engaged in thoughtful and deliberative discussions with one another about where the problems lie, what solutions may exist, and how to best support the university we all love so dearly.  I'll share a personal example.  I came to this movement very distressed about the unprecedented personnel and policy changes at my alma mater.  I simply could not believe that OBU would cave on so many important issues without outside influence.  In my mind, the only explanation was that the Baptist Building was calling the shots now.  But as I have learned more facts and heard from dozens of faculty, students, etc., I have had to temper my view.  It turns out that not everyone who laments these horrible changes believes they were Baptist Building directives.  In fact, most faculty and concerned students believe the problem begins and ends in the provost's office.  So rather than regarding the BGCO-elected trustees as puppets, we are looking to them as allies and fellow defenders of OBU's great liberal arts tradition.

While most people understand the gravity of these issues, some have asked why we're so upset.  To them I would just submit that the changes we've documented are truly without precedent in OBU's proud history.  We believe they are not only detrimental to OBU's long-term success, but also indicative of a strong and (possibly) coordinated effort to remake OBU into something it has never been and we never want to see.