Should OBU Be OBU? Or Try to Out-Union Union?

In our last post, we noted that OBU recently honored Union University (TN) President David Dockery with the Herschel Hobbs Denominational Service Award.  We can't help but notice that Union has become the darling of the post-Takeover SBC.  Many SBC elites send their own children to Union.  In contrast, OBU fails to attract the children of the SBC's leading men.

As far as I'm concerned, this is great news.

All indications are that Union is a solid Baptist liberal arts university that has absolutely thrived under David Dockery's leadership.  It has more than doubled in size, scope, enrollment, and budget.  My perception is that Union may be somewhat more intentionally conservative than OBU.  Even so, we haven't heard rumblings about unethical firings or unilateral redirection of entire academic divisions based on fundamentalist ideology, as we have seen at OBU and other Baptist universities.  So maybe Union already went through that change.  Or maybe it's just more uniformly conservative and no one protests very loudly.  I don't know enough about Union's history to know whether it was always a happier home for fundamentalists, or whether Dockery has deliberately ushered it in that direction.  Folks who know him praise him and tell me that, while not as extremely right wing as today's SBC, Dockery is a traditional conservative who saw which way the wind was blowing.  Hopefully, for his sake, he didn't have to compromise too many of his own beliefs and principles to win the adulation of post-Takeover SBC leaders.

Somehow, Union has managed to communicate two things.  First, it is a growing, thriving, nationally recognized Christian liberal arts university with a good academic reputation, good professors, and good students.  (Unlike OBU, Union didn't need to add a football program to boost male enrollment.)  And second, Union enjoys a reputation for being a safe place for fundamentalists to send their children to college.

Union's success with this delicate dance must be vexing to OBU's new leadership.  For some reason, the dance has been more difficult at OBU.  When David Whitlock and Stan Norman arrived on Bison Hill, each pointed to Union as a model.  OBU, though smaller, had at least as good a reputation.  But OBU is not as widely considered to be a safe place for fundy kids.  Of course, OBU produces tons of graduates who are fundamentalist, home-schooling culture warriors.  But not as many as certain other Baptist colleges.  At OBU, the chances seem higher that students will end up taking the Bible seriously, not literally.  It has been much more likely that OBU religion and ministry graduates will attend non-SBC seminaries.  As Whitlock and Norman discovered, OBU's relatively moderate reputation has been hard to kill.  At this moment, I do not know of a single SBC seminary professor or high-level agency staffer who has a son or daughter enrolled in OBU.

That's unlikely to change. And frankly, we don't need more once-reputable Baptist colleges descending into fundamentalism.  The SBC elites with children inclined toward religious colleges will continue to send their kids to Union, or, if they don't care at all about academic respectability, to an undergraduate program at one of the seminaries.

It's fine that OBU honored David Dockery.  I intend no offense toward Union.  As I said yesterday, Dockery has done the impossible: kept hardliners happy while also maintaining some mainstream legitimacy.  It's not an easy feat.  Usually you squander much of your institution's legitimacy when you pander to the hardliners.  Just ask Emir Caner (Truett-McConnell), Joe Aguillard (Louisiana College), Don Dowless (Shorter), and Thomas White (Cedarville).  Thankfully, David Whitlock seems less eager to take OBU over that cliff.  I have always believed that Whitlock has it in him to be a great university president, but I doubt any Baptist college president can do what Dockery has done: Pleased the SBC without turning his institution into a joke.

So you have to choose.

While past OBU presidents courageously risked alienating the increasingly fundamentalist SBC as they were building OBU into a top-rated Christian liberal arts university, today's leaders seem too eager to advertise that the Fundamentalist Takeover is, at long last, coming to Bison Hill.  This seems to be the intent of the Hobbs Award.

But the field of schools trying to out-Union Union is already very crowded.  And it's not going well for any of them.  So we will say what we've said all along. OBU should be what it has been for decades: A hospitable home for moderate and conservative faculty and students characterized by academic rigor, academic freedom, and academic integrity.

OBU Honors Union University's David Dockery

We've wondered before about parallels between OBU and Union University, a Baptist college in Jackson, TN.  Longtime OBU President Bob Agee came to OBU from Union and retired to Jackson.  Union's president, the Reverend Dr. David Dockery, is widely considered to be the dean of Baptist college presidents.

At the 2013 SBC Annual Meeting in June, OBU honored Dockery for his contributions to Southern Baptist life over the past 20+ years:

OBU presented the Herschel H. Hobbs Award for Distinguished Denominational Service, named in honor of a legendary Southern Baptist pastor and denominational statesman, to Dr. David S. Dockery on Tuesday, June 11, at a reception in the George R. Brown Convention Center in Houston, Texas. 

The reception was part of the 2013 Southern Baptist Convention annual meeting. 

Dockery, who serves as president of Union University in Jackson, Tenn., received the award from Dr. David W. Whitlock, president of OBU. 

“David Dockery has had a profound impact on Christian higher education, generally, and OBU, specifically,” Whitlock said. “In the providence of God, the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities paired me with Dr. Dockery in their first-year mentorship program when I became president of OBU. His wisdom and influence was so important to me in that first year, and I count it a blessing to consider him a friend.”

Forgetting, for the moment, how revisionist (and maybe even offensive?) it is to honor post-Takeover SBC elites in the name of Herschel Hobbs (who fundamentalists booed at the 1980 SBC meeting), now seems as good a time as ever to compare how OBU and Union relate to the SBC and its post-Takeover leadership.  We'll take up that topic in a series of blog posts this week.

Among the few dozen state convention-affiliated Baptist colleges, Union is clearly the darling of the SBC.  I can't even keep track of how many SBC seminary professors and high-level agency staffers have sent their own children to Union in recent years.  Whenever one of them gets married, graduates, or gets a job, the elite SBC Twitterverse becomes a virtual Union Alumni Association meeting.  We have to ask why so many post-Takeover SBC elites send their kids to Union.  Is Union objectively and uniquely better than all other Baptist colleges?  Or that good for these guys' careers?  Or is proximity to Nashville decisive?

Dockery has mastered one of the most delicate dances in evangelical life: keeping hardline constituents happy while also maintaining some mainstream legitimacy.  In addition to his prolific writing, Dockery has served on advisory boards for evangelical institutions, including Christianity Today and the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities.

His involvement with the CCCU is noteworthy as we try to get a sense for where the CCCU stands on the recent spate of fundamentalist encroachments at Baptist-affiliated CCCU institutions.  I'm sure Dockery wants to stay above the fray, and at this point in his career perhaps he's earned the right.  But I can't help but wonder if he smiled or frowned when he heard about the firings at OBU in 2010 and 2011, the wholesale faculty exodus at Shorter in 2012, or the takeover of Cedarville in 2013.

In a future post, we'll look more deeply at how OBU and Union each relate to SBC leadership.  We'll look for answers to the question of why so many SBC elites send their kids to Union while so few (if any) send their kids to OBU.  And we'll consider OBU's prospects for success if it abandons its rich heritage just to try to win over a few dozen guys who are always going to prefer Union anyway.

Dr. Dockery, who will retire next summer after 19 years on the job, will continue to be relevant to SBC life, especially in his role as chair of the Calvinism Advisory Committee.  I, for one, will always eagerly listen to anything Dr. Dockery has to say about Christian higher education.  And I wish him and Union success in this transition period.

Summer Update & FAQ

Greetings to longtime readers and a warm welcome to the many new people who have stumbled upon this site!

I mentioned in early June that the blog would be quiet this summer.  After a tumultuous 2010 & 2011, OBU's fundamentalist encroachment has subsided somewhat.  Top administrators have made their true intentions known, however.  This means OBU still needs a watchdog. OBU administrators currently lack the political cover necessary to complete their desired transformation.  But as soon as they believe they can get away with it, they will complete the fundamentalist re-orientation of the religion department and move on to other areas of the university.

These days, I'm spending less of my "Save OBU" time and effort on OBU.  Sure, I'm getting emails about various staff and faculty personnel changes.  I hear from a number of prospective students weighing their hopes for a great experience at OBU against the realities of what the administrators' actions have wrought.

Increasingly, however, I'm hearing from constituents of other Christian colleges.  Some are asking why I'm complaining about relatively minor goings-on at OBU when several other Baptist schools are in the throes of full-on fundamentalist takeovers that may result in harm to their reputations, financial ruin, and loss of accreditation.  Others, mostly from evangelical colleges that are not Baptist affiliated, are wondering how the problems at OBU, Cedarville, Shorter, Truett-McConnell, Brewton-Parker, Louisiana College, etc. could even happen at all.

I'll continue to monitor the OBU situation as best I can.  But in a future post, I'll lay out a vision for a collective effort wherein constituents of a variety of Christian colleges will appeal to the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) for guidance about how to prevent fundamentalist-inspired trustee takeovers, presidential selections, administrative reorganizations, firings, and incursions against institutional norms and academic freedom.  The CCCU needs to strengthen and enforce standards for its member institutions.  Non-Baptist evangelicals need to understand what fundamentalists are doing to a significant swath of Christian higher education.  And Southern Baptist leaders need to get a clue and stop turning our colleges into their ideological playgrounds, presumably with the CCCU's blessing.  We need to find out: Does the CCCU even care?

Since the site has received hundreds of new visitors this summer and since many of you have written to ask about what's going on, I have responded to some frequently asked questions.

Click here to view our FAQ page.

Cedarville (OH) Purge Intensifies

It's likely that few people noticed, but I've taken the past six weeks off from blogging.  As I explained last month, I feel that we have raised enough awareness and that the situation at OBU has stabilized significantly since this blog began in December 2011.  OBU's fundamentalist encroachment, though disappointing, has actually been quite minor in comparison to other colleges affiliated with Baptist state conventions.

To cite just one example, our worst fears about Cedarville University have been confirmed.  This spring, I invited a Cedarville alumna to discuss how fundamentalist trustees and administrators were transforming the Ohio liberal arts college.  In the wake of national press coverage of the Cedarville situation, Sarah Jones's four-part series reached many thousands of readers in a matter of a few days.

After a popular administrator was forced out and the entire philosophy major was gutted, we figured Cedarville would soon experience a fundamentalist takeover similar to the one we saw at Shorter University (GA) in 2012, when dozens of faculty were forced out for declining to affirm Shorter's new, fundamentalist direction.

To oversee the purge at Cedarville, trustees unanimously elected the Reverend Dr. Thomas White as president.  White has spent his graduate student and professional careers at post-Takeover SBC seminaries, serving most recently as vice president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, TX.

How quickly will President White move to purge Cedarville of moderates and complete the fundamentalist transformation of Cedarville?  Only time will tell.  For the moment, faculty are obviously very anxious and students are uncertain of what is to come.  Will White merely bring in a few of his own (male) friends and colleagues for important administrative positions?  Or will he lead a Shorter-style implosion?

In the tradition of Save OBU, Save Our Shorter, and Louisiana College student Joshua Breland's very fine blog, a blog called Let There Be Light (@fiatlux125) is monitoring the situation.

I welcome Cedarville constituents to the Save OBU blog.  Next week, I'll have more to say specifically about OBU and where we should go from here.  But now, while students, faculty, and alumni/ae of several Baptist colleges are paying attention, I want to say this:

Many evangelical colleges are flourishing without a hint of fundamentalist encroachment.  Wheaton, Calvin, and Gordon would not tolerate unethical administrative actions or violations of academic freedom.  But Southern Baptist colleges are falling apart before our eyes.  OBU (my alma mater) is actually in much better shape than many Baptist colleges, as administrators there dare not do any more damage than they have already done to OBU's faculty morale and academic reputation.  We need to stand together.  We are all fighting slightly different versions of the same battle.  We must stand for integrity and rigor in Christian higher education.  The reputations, faithfulness to fearless scholarly inquiry, financial health, and even accreditation of our schools will soon be in jeopardy if present trends continue.

Blessings to all of you,

Jacob Lupfer
OBU Class of 2002
Silver Spring, Maryland
Founder and Contributing Editor, Save OBU Blog

Finding Parallels In Cedarville's Story

I've mentioned lately that one of our tasks moving forward is to build solidarity with constituents of Baptist and other evangelical colleges that are experiencing fundamentalist incursions.  OBU is not alone.  Some schools are in much worse shape, in fact.  Once-proud institutions have been taken over and are being remade from the inside out in ways that threaten their reputations, their academic freedom and rigor, and even their accreditation.

If you are an OBU alum saddened by recent changes, a faculty member who knows that academic freedom and respectability were more secure before the current administration arrived, or a student who perceives that things at OBU are not as they should be, I hope you know you are not alone.  In 2011, "The Norm" and the alumni petition showed how widespread the concern is.  In 2012, Save OBU explored many of the problems.  We examined the histories of a few Baptist colleges that managed to leave their state conventions rather than succumb to fundamentalism.  We watched Georgia Baptist fundamentalists ruin Shorter University.  But we're just beginning to make common cause with the students, faculty, and alumni of the dozens of other Baptist and evangelical colleges that are facing different versions of the same fight.

Next week, we'll closely analyze the case of Cedarville University in Ohio.  Cedarville's plight has been widely discussed in the evangelical blogosphere.  Today, the New York Times has a story on the school's recent changes:

Even by evangelical standards, nearly everyone at Cedarville is theologically conservative. But some conservatives have a greater willingness to hear dissident views. The departures of William Brown, the president, whose resignation is effective June 30, and of Dr. [Carl] Ruby, who left suddenly last month, are widely viewed as strengthening the hands of the most conservative trustees, fearful of a more open Cedarville.

Cedarville alumna Sarah Jones, a freelance journalists who recently completed a graduate degree in the U.K., accepted my invitation to write a series of blog posts.  Cedarville has a different history than OBU and a different relationship with Baptists.  As we hear of the administrative blunders, trustee politics, and attacks on academic freedom, we can hopefully learn from our friends' experience.

In the coming months, we'll examine the goings-on at Louisiana College, Union University, and other institutions.  But for now, please join me in welcoming Sarah Jones to Save OBU!

Save OBU One Year Later

Last December 6, I took to the Web to raise awareness about fundamentalist encroachment at OBU.

Funny how much can happen in a year.

Thankfully, things seem mostly stable at OBU right now.  No more firings seem imminent, though you can't blame professors who still fear for their jobs.  2009-2011 saw significant deterioration in trust between administrators and other OBU constituencies.  2012 has been calmer.  If the Lord tarries, we'll make it through this calendar year without any unethical dismissals or overruled faculty committees.

As I look back on that inaugural blog post, I have to confess that some of my perceptions have changed, too.  I was so angry about how absolutely shamefully two well-loved professors were treated that I went looking for any and every reason to be upset, saying "There may be dozens of reasons to be upset about OBU's direction."  That was hyperbolic.  Really, it all boils down to two key issues:

• Academic freedom -- Are professors free to teach and students free to learn?  Do ideology and dogma threaten the pursuit of truth in the classroom?
• Ethical administration -- Are decisions about hiring, curriculum, and program direction collaborative or unilateral?  Is faculty experience, expertise, and judgment sought or ignored?

I'll add a third, only because some at OBU seem to have followed the post-Takeover SBC in gleefully holding reactionary attitudes:

• Gender -- Are women fully free to hold all administrative, religious, and faculty positions for which they are qualified?  Are female students actively encouraged to listen for and heed God's call on their lives?  Or does the institution implicitly hold out an image from a sexist era and say, "This is what a Christian woman looks like. Be like her."

There have been serious violations in all three of these areas.  Let's not kid ourselves.  When professors are installed and removed over adherence to fundamentalist dogma, academic freedom is grossly infringed upon.  Administrators are behaving unethically when they violate the Faculty Handbook and unilaterally redirect vital academic programs and regularly overrule faculty committees that unanimously recommend highly qualified, devoutly faithful candidates in order to hire less qualified yes-men.  Gender discrimination occurs when a college president refuses to even consider hiring a woman to teach certain subjects.  And suspicions arise when a well-loved and long-serving female administrator is essentially demoted to make way for the new guard.

Our message is simple:  When these things happen, administrators will be called out.  Publicly.  Every single time.  This isn't the OBU we know and love.

During the past year, we've reached thousands and thousands of people.  New friendships have formed, even across generations.  Old friendships have been rekindled.  We've connected with hundreds of moderate Baptists all over the U.S. and the world.  Friends at other post-Takeover Baptist institutions have sought our counsel and friends at schools that rejected the Takeover have offered their support.  Significantly, our sister blog at Shorter University in Rome, GA became a national news story after administrators there launched an unprecedented attack against faculty.

We'll do a more in-depth year-in-review piece closer to Dec. 31.  And we'll continue to provide innovative (though probably not daily) content, including an upcoming guest post about a student protest in the early 2000s and a Fine Arts Fiasco series on bizarre happenings in the College of Fine Arts.  We continue to see growing student awareness about the 2009-2011 issues.  Students and alumni alike are delighted to learn that OBU has a long and distinguished history of academic excellence and collaborative governance that has only recently begun to suffer.

In the year to come, we look to formalize a leadership structure, continue raising awareness, and be vigilant in our watchdog function.  If things get worse, we'll move from awareness to actual activism.

On a personal note, thank you for your kind words and encouragement.  I am certainly an unlikely leader for this effort.  But in addition to leading an effort I believe we can all be proud of, I have rediscovered my own wellspring of affection for OBU.  For me this has been an enriching personal, professional, and spiritual experience.  Though I wish things could have been otherwise at OBU in key ways during the Whitlock era, I am most grateful for the opportunity to engage with you in this effort.

As always, our prayers are with all with all who work and study on Bison Hill.

New Hires at OBU and Elsewhere

Happy new academic year!  You might have come expecting analysis of the Princeton Review report that noted a "glaring complaint" from students: "Lack of communication" from administration.  (Looks like students are unhappy with administrators' answers to questions like "Why are our favorite religion professors disappearing?")  You might also be expecting a continuation of our series on the 2012 Forbes rankings (in which OBU has declined from #109 to #390 during Rev. Dr. David Whitlock's tenure as president).  These posts will be coming soon.

Today we're looking at some items related to new faculty and the search/hire process at Baptist universities.

OBU Announces New Faculty

One of our initial concerns was widespread faculty anger that search committee recommendations based on achievement and promise for future success were being overruled by administrators who prefer to hire based on adherence to fundamentalist dogma.  We received encouraging news in April from sources who predicted that the English department would be able to fill its vacancies without undue pressure from administrators who would impose doctrinal/social/political litmus tests (link to MS Word document) in hiring, which past OBU job candidates faced.

Credit where credit is due: We have received no reports that any of these searches (three in languages, two in teacher education) were tainted by fundamentalist meddling.  Given the outsized impact OBU faculty have on their students, and especially considering the fact that the two English hires are replacing retiring legends, these new Humanities and Social Sciences colleagues have large shoes to fill.  We wish them the best.

Likewise, we were pleased to see three new hires in the Hurley College of Science and Mathematics.  As a person who studied religion, I'm particularly sensitive to the kinds of litmus tests new Bible, theology, and ministry faculty face with Mark McClellan as dean and Stan Norman as provost.  But let's not forget that science faculty could be the next targets.

There was an announcement about new faculty in nursing and fine arts as well.

In the coming weeks, we'll have more to say on the new Hobbs College hire and the process (or lack thereof) used to select him.

Shorter Begins Filling a Bazillion Vacancies

At Shorter University in Rome, GA (about which we've blogged here before), the situation could not be more different.  Shorter is filling dozens of vacancies due to the mass exodus of faculty this year in protest of the university's "lifestyle statement."  The devastation there is the work of Dr. Don Dowless, the puppet president installed to appease the increasingly fundamentalist Georgia Baptist Convention.  I'll let our friends at Save Our Shorter explain the new hires.  Short version: A lot of adjuncts and part-timers got promoted, at least one lesser fundamentalist college faculty got raided, and several handfuls of desperate and/or fundamentalist junior professors signed on.  The accrediting body will let the lifestyle statement slide.  But it might not smile on such an amateurish faculty.

Looking at Shorter and other Baptist schools helps us remember two sobering and related facts:

1. Things could get worse.
2. They probably will.

Yet as some Baptist schools begin their year with elaborate ceremonies where new faculty are forced to sign creedal statements, we can take comfort in the fact that OBU is still a place where students are free to learn and teachers are free to teach.  But we are mindful of the recent problems and the threat of future encroachments.

Best wishes to everyone on Bison Hill for a great 2012-13 academic year!

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.

Why Save OBU is for Conservatives

Time to clear up a few misconceptions.  Apparently, the idea is out there that Save OBU is a movement for theological moderates and liberals.  Nothing could be farther from the truth!  Most of our supporters would describe themselves as moderates as opposed to fundamentalists, but the overwhelming majority are theologically conservative.  Save OBU does not have an ideological agenda and, as I hope you have noticed and appreciated, is stridently apolitical.

Labels and Terminology
Something is always lost when you use convenient labels to describe and generalize about a large group of people.  Nonetheless, labels and generalizations are inevitable.  There was a definitive shift in the leadership, administration, and direction of the SBC in the 1980s.  Those who favored that campaign and its tactics refer to the shift as the Conservative Resurgence.  Those who opposed it speak of a Fundamentalist Takeover.  The new leaders who swept to power referred to their opponents as liberals.  Those who opposed the takeover/resurgence and its tactics say the shift was brought on by fundamentalists.  These labels generate no small amount of confusion, distortion, and hurt feelings.

Many of the "fundamentalists" think of themselves as conservatives.  And virtually all of the "liberals" are actually moderates and conservatives.  Dr. James Shoopman's, in his introduction to the book The Fundamentalist Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention, adds needed clarity.  During the Takeover/Resurgence years, ascendant fundamentalists/conservatives "often implied a meaning for the term 'liberal' that far exceeded the truth about seminary professors and denominational executives."  If a "liberal" is someone who does not believe in the divine inspiration of the Bible, denies the divinity of Jesus, and does not believe in salvation by grace through faith, then there were never more than a handful of liberals in the SBC.

Shoopman goes on to provide a good rationale for how to use terms like conservative, moderate, and liberal.  The issue is how much change there should be in traditional church teachings on topics such as

• The nature of God, the person of Christ, and the work of the Holy Spirit;
• The nature of the Bible -- its authorship, styles of study, and interpretation;
• Marriage, divorce, sexuality, abortion, prayer in public schools, and separation of church and state; and
• The place of women in the workplace and the church.

Conservatives, Liberals, and Moderates
Shoopman defines conservatives as people who maintain that there should be "little or no change in how the church teaches on these subjects, unless it is to make that teaching even more strict."  Liberals, on the other hand, "maintain there should be a great deal of flexibility in how the church teaches on these subjects, usually in the direction of greater liberty."  Moderates, he says, prefer a middle way:

They take a more liberal approach to some things and a more conservative approach to others.  Some teachings should change and some teachings should stay the same.  Moderates assume that newness or oldness does not make an idea good or bad.  Instead, an idea is good or bad depending on whether it is consistent with the Bible, our conscience, and sound study.  If an idea is truthful and useful, it may lead to change, but not all "modern" ideas are sound, and not all "traditional" ideas are sound, either.

Fundamentalists
Shoopman defines fundamentalists as people who angered by changes in the world or in church teaching: "A fundamentalist is a person of very strict belief and behavior who requires absolute certainty about his or her beliefs and is willing to fight for that certainty."  Moreover, "fundamentalists cannot abide any challenge to their beliefs through either the behavior or the beliefs of others.  They tend to regard any deviation from their norm as dangerous.  There are fundamentalists in all of the major world religions that have been affected by modernity, and they are characterized by anger at modernity, strict legalism, and a desire to fight for more control of their environment.

Based on these descriptions, I believe that President Whitlock and Provost Norman are enacting fundamentalist ethos and agenda OBU.  But few will claim the label "fundamentalist" for themselves because, though accurate, it has a negative connotation.  You can judge for yourself whether those negative connotations are justified.  In Southern Baptist life, the term "liberal" as defined above is virtually meaningless.  No one claims the term because it has an even more pejorative connotation than "fundamentalist."  There were never more than a handful, if any, liberals teaching in SBC seminaries or leading SBC agencies.  And there were certainly never any liberals teaching at OBU.  Now let me be clear:  There are, of course, professors who are to the left of the fundamentalists, and there may even be a few who have voted Democratic.  But speaking strictly theologically, there are no liberals.

Opinions and Facts
Just as it's important to be precise in terminology, it's vital that we distinguish between opinions and facts.

SBC Resurgence/Takeover
Though we are mostly concerned with OBU, the broader context is the Conservative Resurgence/Fundamentalist Takeover.  You can call it what you like, and you can think it was a good thing or a bad thing.  You may think it was a needed corrective to align the denomination with its fundamentalist membership or you may think it was a dirty, disingenuous campaign about power, ideology, and worldly politics. You cannot, however, deny that the convention and its institutions and agencies experienced a definitive, qualitative change in leadership, emphases, and ethos that reflected fundamentalists' values and was hostile to moderates.

The Resurgence/Takeover in the BGCO
A similar dynamic transpired at the state convention level.  Again, you're free to call it what you want and judge it to be a good change or a bad change.  Our sense is that the partnership between BGCO Executive Director-Treasurer Bill Tanner and OBU President Bob Agee was the last time the OBU/BGCO relationship worked even reasonably well for both entities.  Since Anthony Jordan became head of of the BGCO, pressure on OBU (which had long existed, flaring up occasionally) ratcheted up big time.  Also not up for discussion is the fact that the convention's annual subsidy to OBU represents an ever shrinking share of the university's operating budget, falling from 25% to less than 5% since the early 1980s.  During that time, the convention has continued to elect all 32 of OBU's trustees and exercises more power over trustee nominations.  You can decide whether you think that is fair or just.  But you can't deny it.

The BGCO is, in many ways, a black box between the post-Takeover/Resurgence SBC and OBU.  It's hard to prove definitively that convention elites are behind the changes at OBU.  Relevant meetings are not public, relevant personnel will not speak on the record, and neither the convention's "newspaper," the Baptist Messenger, nor OBU's student-produced newspaper, The Bison, have the latitude to ask tough questions or editorialize about the BGCO/OBU relationship except to cheerlead for the status quo.

The Resurgence/Takeover at OBU
During the Agee presidency (1982-1997), a deliberate attempt was made to insulate OBU from the effects of the resurgence/takeover.  As an institution, OBU seemed not to take a side, focusing instead on striving for excellence in its core mission.  Since Agee's departure, OBU is much more blatantly aligned with the "new" SBC.  Fundamentalists assumed President Mark Brister (1998-2007) would be "their man" at OBU.  Neither "side" was fully satisfied with Brister.  Ultimately, Brister's commitment to OBU's mission outweighed his desire to stay in Anthony Jordan's good graces.

The kinds of administrative interference and wholesale disregard for institutional norms and contractually-mandated processes President Whitlock and Provost Norman have undertaken with impunity are altogether new at OBU.  These kinds of moves were unheard of at OBU during the decades when it gained a national reputation for excellence in Christian higher education.  Indeed, they would not have been tolerated.  But since the president of OBU ultimately serves at the pleasure of the BGCO executive director-treasurer (who can control trustee nominations), faculty have virtually no recourse.  The Faculty Council came close to taking a no-confidence vote last fall.  But one wonders who would have lost that fight, now that we've seen Baptist schools get rid of faculty by the dozens.

Some people view the changes at OBU as positive.  They say that OBU is within its right to use administrative authority to bring the ethos of the institution more in line with the convention that pays an ever shrinking share of its operating budget, even if norms are disregarded and ethically troubling procedures are employed.  We happen to disagree.  We believe the changes are negative and pose grave threats to academic freedom, OBU's reputation, its quality and rigor, and its proud tradition of excellence in distinctively Baptist Christian liberal arts education.

Like it or hate it, however, you cannot deny that OBU's direction is qualitatively different and has experienced a marked departure with long-established norms.

Worldview: How Big is the Tent?
So how does all this related to the claim that Save OBU is for conservatives?  Unlike the new OBU, which is slowly on the path to becoming more monolithic, more insular, and more constrained at the far right end of the ideological/theological/political spectrum, Save OBU is a big tent.  A big tent full of conservatives and moderates, with a handful of liberals thrown in.  It's actually been hard to attract liberals.  Quite a few of them have emailed me and said things like, "You're wasting your time," "This battle was lost 30 years ago and there's nothing we can do to change it now," "OBU is a lost cause," etc.

Clarifying a Point about Christian Worldview
I take part of the responsibility for the misperception that Save OBU is for theological moderates and liberals.  For instance, in our worldview series, I'm afraid that questioning the usefulness of the term "the Christian worldview" may have been off-putting.  As I tried to point out in one of my reviews, I was much more bothered by the use of the definite article than by the concept in general, which of course can still be useful.  A friend recently pointed out to me that my reluctance to talk about the Christian worldview might have made some conservatives think I am reluctant to affirm that the Christian faith has any specifiable cognitive content whatsoever.  Conservatives might be uncomfortable with that message, and justifiably so!  I have long believed texts like Job 19:25 (I know that my Redeemer liveth) and the Christ hymn in Philippians 2:5-11 constituted the framework of a Christian worldview.  Just because someone is reluctant to define the requirements of Christian worldview in ever narrower term does not mean they think "anything goes."  The main point is that the Christian worldview is in fact much broader in scope than the one being currently enforced (and apparently taught) at OBU.

Why Conservatives Should Support Save OBU
It's pretty simple.

1. Most of the people who already support Save OBU are conservatives.  Most of them were saved and baptized in Southern Baptist churches; they affirm the divinity of Jesus, the divine inspiration of the Scriptures, the fatherhood of God, and the brotherhood of man.  Save OBU is not a movement of liberals -- theological or otherwise.  Sure, there are a few people who left the SBC sometime after the Takeover/Resurgence.  And I bet we even have a few folks who are disaffected with the whole enterprise, angry at God and/or the church, and just hope that OBU can still be a true liberal arts university.  But judging from our Facebook fans' likes and comments, almost everyone who supports Save OBU reads their Bibles, prays regularly, and goes to church on Sundays.  They are mostly white, mostly suburban, and mostly Republican.  The common theme among all of them, however, is their deep affection for OBU and sincerely held concerns about its future.
2. If OBU goes down the tubes, it hurts us all -- faculty, students, staff, and alumni without regard to who is liberal, moderate, or conservative.
3. We are not advocating that OBU become more liberal.  Rather, we are pleading that it not become fundamentalist.  Higher education in Baptist life is in a precarious position today.  At the denominational level, the SBC seminaries are shells of their former selves.  They were once among the most rigorous and well-regarded institutions of theological education in the world.  Rigor and quality took a backseat to ideological conformity.  Academic freedom no longer exists.  The guardians of authentic Baptist theological education were fired long ago.  Now that the seminaries have been transformed, the colleges are being targeted.
4. Some state convention-run colleges have already been taken over.  Administrators at schools like Louisiana College, Truett-McConnell College, Brewton-Parker College, and Shorter University have sold these schools down the river for thirty pieces of silver.  The changes being enacted at these and other Baptist schools are so radical that they will almost certainly lose their accreditation in the next decade.  We all have an interest in preventing that fate at OBU.
5. As for Save OBU's core argument -- that our problems begin and end with the BGCO -- we see dozens of evangelical colleges that are flourishing without denominational ownership and control.  All we see with convention-controlled colleges is politics and strife.

We welcome all who love OBU and who are passionate about Christian higher education to join our movement (we're on Facebook and Twitter), support our aims, and invite your friends, classmates, and colleagues to take part!  If you think of yourself as a conservative and you love OBU, let me be the first to welcome you home.

From the Archives: Downward Spiral Series

In mid-April, just days before my daughter was born, we did a series of posts on the Georgia Baptist Convention's successful effort at engaging its three colleges in a race toward Bible-academy status and academic irrelevance.  We began and ended with arguments for how Save OBU will have a vital role in preventing the same pathetic fate in Oklahoma Baptist life.

First, we examined the case of Truett-McConnell College in Cleveland, GA.  Though never as prominent as Mercer or even Shorter, TMC is newly invigorated with fundamentalist leadership.  Its new president, Emir Caner, was the founding dean of the College at Southwestern, an undergraduate program at the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Ft. Worth.  Caner's book Unveiling Islam (coauthored with his brother) was the source of former SBC President and Pastor Emeritus of FBC Jacksonville, FL Jerry Vines's 2002 assertion that the Prophet Mohammed was a "demon-possessed pedophile."  Caner, an adult convert from Islam, is considered a rising star in what remains of Southern Baptist academia.  Caner happily obliged the GBC's desire to institutionalize fundamentalism at TMC, instituting a policy that all faculty sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message.  TMC even staged a huge celebration of their descent into creedalism during which Rev. Dr. Paige Patterson, architect of the Fundamentalist Takeover, was the keynote speaker.  Somehow we ran afoul of Caner, though, as evidenced by the fact that he blocked Save OBU from his Twitter feed.  Oh well.  I guess the truth hurts.

Next, we looked at Brewton-Parker College in Mount Vernon, GA.  If TMC was willing to accede to fundamentalist designs for the school, BPC has been willing to one-up TMC in every way.  Whereas TMC still has designs of being a legitimate, accredited college, BPC has pretty much given up and become a fundamentalist Bible academy.  There seems to be little evidence that anyone in the GBC or in BPC leadership even cares if the college loses its accreditation, which seems a near certainty at this point.

Our Downward Spiral post on Shorter University in Rome, GA was one of the most widely-read in the Save OBU blog's history.  We've discussed Shorter's situation at length elsewhere, but in this series we discussed the notion that the GBC's direction and the other two schools' willingness to abandon academic freedom and all semblances of legitimacy has made it even more difficult for Shorter.  In the fight for finite GBC funds, these colleges seem to be locked in a race to the bottom.

Moving on from Georgia, we have elsewhere suggested that the race-to-the-bottom dynamic is now at work in Tennessee.  Tennessee Temple University, an Independent Baptist college affiliated with Highland Park Baptist Church in Chattanooga now wants back into the Tennessee Baptist Convention. But the TBC already subsidizes two Baptist colleges, Union University in Jackson and Carson-Newman College in Jefferson City.  TTU's president, Rev. Dr. Steve Echols, has even suggested that by forcing all faculty to sign the Baptist Faith and Message, TTU is "theologically safe," implying that Tennessee's other Baptist schools are not.  We'll keep you posted as this situation develops.

Shorter Univ. Debacle Goes National

Aside from OBU, Shorter University in Rome, GA is the school we've discussed the most extensively here.  Though Shorter has a history of conflict with the Georgia Baptist Convention foreign to the OBU/BGCO relationship and, unlike Oklahoma, Georgia has two marginal Baptist colleges, OBU and Shorter do share some important things in common.  Shorter is in the lower tier in the U.S. News rankings, but this is because it is now categorized among "National Liberal Arts Colleges."  In previous regional rankings, Shorter has ranked commensurately with its very solid reputation.  Like OBU, Shorter has strong roots in its community, it excels in liberal arts undergraduate education, and it has recently seen leadership changes that have led to fundamentalist-inspired changes.

For now, Shorter exemplifies the worst-case scenario for OBU.  Just this month, news spread that more than 50 employees are leaving Shorter because they did not sign up to teach at a fundamentalist Bible academy.  I encourage you to look at the Rome (GA) News-Tribune's coverage of the situation, as well as the Save Our Shorter website.  It's all quite heartbreaking.

People in Baptist higher education have been watching Shorter ever since President Don Dowless announced last fall that all employees (regardless of tenure) must either sign its belief/lifestyle statements or face termination.  As the deadline to decide came in April and the staggering number of departing faculty became known, a few religion reporters picked up the story.  Now, a number of national mainstream media outlets are reporting on the faculty exodus at Shorter.

My own local paper, The Washington Post, printed a Religion News Service report on the issue.  Shorter President Don Dowless's reaction to losing a huge chunk of his faculty was essentially, "Eh:"

Dowless said Friday that some of those who resigned did not state the reason for leaving.

In a Wednesday statement, Dowless said he and the university board recognized there are “strong feelings on both sides” about the new employment rules but the board decided to “reclaim our Christian roots” even if the consequence was a loss of faculty and staff.

“Our University was at a crossroads to either take steps to regain an authentic Christian identity in policy and practice or we would become a Christian University in name only,” he said.

This guy comes off as arrogant and clueless.  Some who resigned did not state a reason?  Are we supposed to believe that they just don't like the weather in North Georgia anymore?  The implication that without these new faith and lifestyle statements, Shorter is abandoning its Christian roots is demonstrably false and highly insulting.  Shorter was in no danger of becoming a Christian university "in name only," especially since the GBC won lawsuits affirming their control and now elects all of Shorter's trustees.  The truth is, in light of this disaster, Shorter is going to become a university in name only.

I can't wait to find out what kind of people Shorter brings in to replace the several dozen lost faculty and staff.  To aid in the task, Dowless has brought in a new administrator to pick up the pieces and help built the fundamentalist Bible academy Shorter is now destined to become.

Thankfully, OBU's president and current trustees will not be persuaded to allow -- let alone foment -- OBU's destruction.  Here again, there are important differences between OBU and Shorter.  Dowless came to Shorter after the GBC had already stacked the board with fundamentalists.  It was the understanding from the beginning of his tenure that he would shepherd along the institution's transformation.  In OBU's case, it's not 100% clear if the dynamic is a difference in degree or kind.

GBC Executive Director Bob White is fully on board with the fundamentalist transformation of the state's Baptist colleges.  It's unclear whether he shares their vision or is simply powerless to stop them.  In any case, OBU President David Whitlock has every opportunity to guard against fundamentalist encroachment at OBU and he has a Board of Trustees (for now) that would back him up.  Many people have suggested to us that the BGCO's own Anthony Jordan would be delighted to see OBU go in a more fundamentalist direction.  But my impression is that he is sensible enough to know that OBU's reputation is important and that losing accreditation is unacceptable.  We'll know more about where the convention stands after the next slate of trustees is elected in November.

Until then, we'll remain ever vigilant.  This month, a national audience is seeing firsthand that fundamentalist control inevitably leads academic institutions toward irrelevance if not destruction.  Hopefully everyone involved will realize that this is NOT what anyone actually wants for our beloved OBU.

Of course, if OBU was not owned and controlled by the post-Takeover BGCO, we wouldn't even be having this conversation.

50+ Staff to Leave Shorter Over Belief/Lifestyle Statement

Yesterday, we sounded the alarm for Baptists in Tennessee, who are likely to see pressure on Union University and Carson-Newman College to acede to fundamentalism as the unaccredited Tennessee Temple University seeks to secure funding from the Tennessee Baptist Convention.  It's president, Rev. Dr. Steve Echols, has already implied that the other schools are not "theologically safe."  Today, let's return briefly to Georgia, where fundamentalists engineered an all-out race to the bottom among its three convention-run colleges.

Shorter Summary

Shorter University in Rome, GA, a very fine Christian liberal arts college, recently came under fundamentalist control after an unfavorable court decision and a full-on assault from elements within the Georgia Baptist Convention.  Its new trustee and administrative leadership wasted no time in telling faculty and staff that the usual Baptist college norms of academic freedom, tenure, and liberty of the conscience no longer apply.  Last fall, Shorter President Don Dowless sent a letter informing that all staff who choose not to sign various fundamentalist-inspired statements would be fired at the end of this academic year.

We've known for some time that Shorter would suffer massive casualties.  The philosophy department was decimated and all moderate religion professors have already been purged.  (Shorter's Christian Studies department is what OBU's College of Theology and Ministry will look like in 10 years if BGCO Executive Director-Treasurer Anthony Jordan and Provost Norman have their way.)  As the year has progressed, faculty and staff across Shorter University have grappled with the decision before them.  Fully two-thirds said they would leave at the end of this year, or as soon as they found another job.

Dozens to Leave

Now, we are learning the extent of the carnage.  At least fifty-six employees are leaving Shorter this summer.  The status of those who seek to stay but refuse to succumb to the university's imposition of creedalism, fundamentalism, and authoritarianism is in some doubt -- but does not look hopeful.  These are not secular liberals.  They are born-again believers who have committed significant parts of their professional lives -- in some cases decades -- to the ideal of Christian liberal arts education.  They simply refuse to subject themselves to distinctly un-Baptist policies.  Former Baptist General Convention of Texas Executive Director Charles Wade famously said he would sign every page of the Bible, but not any manmade creed.  Thankfully, dozens of devoted Christian servants apparently think likewise.

Lessons for OBU

The Shorter debacle has received significant press coverage.  People are watching.  I just hope OBU stakeholders are paying attention.  This could absolutely happen here.  Shorter, along with a few Baptist colleges including Union University in Tennessee, is one of the closest parallels to OBU that we can find.

Since the takeover at Shorter was so swift and the consequences have been so dire, it may be a good idea to seek assurances from various OBU leaders that they do not desire the same thing for OBU.  We are certain that no deans and only a few trustees have the appetite for this kind of destruction to visit OBU.  President Whitlock knows where his bread is buttered, but there is only limited evidence that would stand for it, let alone cheerlead and shepherd the process as Dowless did at Shorter.  Remember, Whitlock thankfully was not educated in a post-Takeover SBC seminary and does not seem to be a SBC political climber.  He already has his dream job.

It would be reassuring if Drs. Jordan and Norman would go on record against a Shorter-style purge.  But even if they did, actions speak louder than words and neither has inspired any confidence, to put it mildly.  Norman clearly enjoys using the personnel process to make OBU more fundamentalist, though he is somewhat reigned in now.  And many people have attested to Jordan's desire to remove moderate professors from OBU (particularly in the religion area).  Former President Mark Brister ran afoul of Jordan for not taking out Jordan's targets.

--

As we celebrate the courage of the five dozen departing Shorter faculty and wish them well in the next stages of their journeys, I want to repeat some lyrics posted by a commenter on the Save Our Shorter blog.  It's a verse from the hymn "God of Grace and God of Glory" by the legendary Protestant minister Harry Emerson Fosdick of New York City's Riverside Church.

Lo, the hosts of evil 'round us
Scorn thy Christ, assail his ways.
Fears and doubts too long have bound us
Free our hearts for work and praise!
Grant us wisdom, grant us courage
For the living of these days.

This hymn was sung each year at Shorter's commencement.  I'm sure the fundamentalists abandoned that tradition quickly because Fosdick was such an eloquent advocate of a brand of Protestantism that fundamentalists detest (see the sermon "Shall the Fundamentalists Win?")  As the commenter said, the ex-Shorter employees "are no longer bound by the hosts of evil.  I pray their hearts are now free to work and praise!"  Amen, amen.

Vigilance is Necessary.

Yesterday, I explained a bit of my personal reasoning for blogging: it is currently for me the best way that I can see to do the right thing.

Today, I want to continue in explanation of my own motivation. We have said it many times on this blog, but I really don't think it goes without saying. I cannot emphasize enough the importance of our keeping vigilance over our dear school.

Something that has struck me in almost all of the stories we have seen/heard about schools and other institutions suffering fallout from the fundamentalist takeover is the swiftness with which the changes occur.

I never thought about it until I started reading about it in other schools, but the downward spiral is truly just that. Devastation can come to a great university seemingly overnight. And it does not take long for that devastation to spiral out of control.

If you have not read the account given by former Shorter University trustee Larry Burgess, I suggest you do. Jacob highlighted some of the main points, but the tale is truly awe-inspiring... in the worst way. Several times when reading it my jaw just dropped. Literally.

Here's what is still so surprising to me: a small number of people who are only mildly affiliated with a school can lie and threaten their way into driving that school past unaccreditation straight into the ground.

Larry Burgess was continually surprised at the dirty-handed tactics used by the convention, but frankly, I was too. It shouldn't be surprising. I have seen and heard of it too many times. It is the same story told in different places and voices about those looking to guard "orthodoxy" and the incredible means they will pursue in order to find it.

It happens so fast.

And if no one is watching, it will happen right before our eyes.

Changes already happened quickly at OBU! In my short time there I saw one president leave, the approximately one year interim presidency, and the beginning of the current administration-- but before I left, one person had already been fired. It took less than two years. The current BGCO-friendly administration has been there for only 3 and a half years and already we have had enough things to fill nearly six months of blog. AND, that is with extreme faculty and student resistance.

That has not been the only swift change. In 2009, OBU ranked #109 in Forbes best colleges. Now, we have dropped to #299. In those two years, OBU has been surpassed by nearly 200 schools. That is an almost 200% drop.

When students and faculty are no longer respected in favor of catering to the fundamentalist Baptist elites, the good ones start figuring out that it's time to leave.

That could happen soon. And then we would have nothing. And when you read someone's testimony about how it happened so quickly, it would surprise you. But it shouldn't.

But if we can keep up vigilance, hopefully, we can stop the cycle.

OBU's Peers: Union University?

OBU's Peers Series:
Intro: Who's In the Same Boat?
OBU's Peers: Nondenominational Colleges?
OBU's Peers: Nearby Baptist Colleges (Ouachita and Southwest Baptist)?
OBU's Peers: Texas Baptist Colleges

If you've been following the series, you know what we're trying to accomplish.  We're looking around the world of Christian higher education to see how well or how poorly peer institutions are doing with respect to academic freedom issues.  Shorter University in Rome, GA has a lot in common with OBU but, unfortunately, its administration, trustees, and state convention are actively running it into the ground.  I'm open to suggests for schools that are genuinely similar to OBU, but upon reflection, one of the closest parallels I see is Union University in Jackson, TN.

The Agee/Union Connection
While in recent years there's been an administrative pipeline between OBU and Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, MO (SBU's president came from OBU and OBU's president and provost did stints at SBU), OBU also shares an administrative connection to Union University in Jackson, TN.  Longtime OBU President Bob Agee came to OBU from Union in 1982 and retired to Jackson.

In his day, Agee was known as one of the most prominent Baptist college presidents (and is still an elder statesman in that distinguished fraternity).  In addition to working hard to earn and keep the trust of faculty as a defender of faculty rights and academic freedom, President Agee worked even harder to maintain good relations with local churches and the state convention.  He regularly preached in as many as 40-50 Oklahoma Baptist churches a year.  Agee had a knack for defending academic freedom and OBU's true liberal arts tradition without offending a sometimes skeptical, even hostile, Oklahoma Baptist constituency.  Of course, when the legendary Joe Ingram and former OBU President Bill Tanner headed the BGCO, relating to the state convention was not as difficult as it is in today's post-Takeover reality.  But Agee did a very difficult job and he did it well.

Any Baptist liberal arts college president should like to model his (I doubt they're ready for a "her") career after Agee's.  Union University President David Dockery certainly seems to have done so in his 17 year tenure.  Like Agee, Dockery has spoken fluently and published widely on the subject of Christian higher education.  I have not read Dockery's books yet, but I know some of our readers have.  For now I'll trust that he advocates an authentically open, fearless, and searching brand of Christian scholarship, and not just fundamentalism dressed up in academic/intellectual-sounding language.  Also like Agee, Dockery has managed the difficult task of upholding academic freedom and maintaining the trust of faculty while also staying in the fundamentalists' good graces.  (I admit this may be more perception than fact, but I trust readers will correct me where I'm wrong about the situation at Union.)

This is not to make figures like Agee and Dockery into heroes.  Their jobs are difficult and have becoming increasingly so, especially in light of how dramatically the state conventions have swung toward the fundamentalist end of the spectrum.  But make no mistake: they are compensated handsomely for their efforts.  Standing up for academic freedom might make them feel good about themselves, but at the end of the day, pleasing convention power brokers is how they stayed in their jobs year after year.  Both men care deeply about the ideal of Christian liberal arts education and have devoted their careers to that end.  Agee, for his part, seems to have regressed somewhat in his later years, as we'll discuss below.  Perhaps Dockery has done likewise in order to survive as long as he has.  We are piecing together Pat Taylor's and Agee's roles in David Whitlock's journey to the OBU presidency.  But for now, let's focus on the most successful and prominent Baptist liberal arts college president in the U.S. right now, Union's Dockery.

Save OBU's Questions about Union University
Even when I was a student at OBU, Dockery had already made a name for himself in Baptist higher education.  He spoke in Raley Chapel in the early 2000s, and I'm sure he's returned since.  Union and OBU have a lot in common, although there are some differences.  Union is almost twice as large as OBU (by enrollment).  Union is ranked lower according to Forbes, but does somewhat better in U.S. News, though it still ranks below Stetson, Samford, Belmont, and Mercer.  Union is less selective in admissions, but its draws students with markedly higher SAT scores than OBU.  Union's (all male) theology faculty is highly qualified, and while it's hard to place a department on the ideological/theological spectrum by the professors' CVs, Union's faculty seems to be mostly evangelical but not fundamentalist.  Many of the religion professors who graduated from Baptist seminaries did so before the Takeover, which is reassuring.

While we know a lot about the problems OBU has had as administrators have sought to turn from our heritage, we won't know if Union is truly a good parallel to OBU until we know more about the school and how it relates to its moderate constituents (most faculty, many students) and its fundamentalists (more students, most of the Tennessee Baptist Convention).  If you have inside information, comment below or email SaveOBU@gmail.com.

1. Is academic freedom protected at Union? Do professors or students have to sign creedal statements?
2. Does Union have latitude to select its own trustees, or does the TBC have absolute control?
3. What conflicts involving academic freedom have arisen at Union during Rev. Dr. Dockery's tenure?  How have they been resolved?
4. If it came down to it, would Dockery stand for the school (like William Jewell's President David Sallee [OBU '73]) or the convention (like Shorter's President Don Dowless)?

Can OBU Administrators Learn Anything from Union/David Dockery?
We don't know if OBU administrators have learned anything, but we know they've tried.  David Whitlock looked to Dockery (and Agee) as models when he began his tenure at OBU.  In the Fall of 2010, Whitlock dispatched his struggling provost to Jackson in the midst of the fallout from the first forced dismissal debacle.  Stan Norman shadowed Union's provost and got some on-the-job training, presumably on how not to alienate the faculty.  Unfortunately, when Norman returned, OBU faculty were not impressed.  He immediately delivered what became known as his "On Mission" speech.  Everyone at Union, he said, was unified in adhering to the university's mission.  The reaction of the OBU faculty was, of course, "You mean to say we're not 'on mission?'"  No, he didn't mean it that way, he said, but his tone and phraseology indicated his desire for lockstep.

How presidents relate to students and churches are fairly public, while relationships with trustees and faculty are less so.  Their relationships with state convention elites, however, are almost completely private and usually quite a bit less inspiring.  We can't help but wonder if Whitlock's relationship to the BGCO comes from the Dockery/Agee model.  Consider that before David Whitlock's hiring, OBU's School of Christian Service professors had to endure an hourlong meeting with Agee in which he did not ask a single question nor did he dialogue.  He spoke for the entire hour telling them what they were doing wrong and how they needed to change to satisfy the BGCO.  The entire department was completely dejected after the meeting because they could see what was coming: The new president was to take the university in a fundamentalist direction as the BGCO cheered him on all the way.  Whitlock and Norman even told some members of a local church in a meeting that there were some professors in the religion department they needed to dismiss somehow but Whitlock told the group, "We must do it in a winsome way." This story can be corroborated by a number of individuals.

By now, President Whitlock has learned that it's hard to appease fundamentalists and that there is no "winsome way" to supervise the reversal of a tradition that students, faculty, and alumni hold dear.  But like Dockery (and Agee), he does have a winsome personality and many of the tools needed to have a similarly long tenure and lasting impact.  The question is, does Union retain the support of fundamentalists and moderates because Dockery can effectively and authentically relate to both constituencies?  Could the same be done in Oklahoma, or has the convention moved so far that no president can bridge the gap?  Or have we misread the Union parallel completely?

I trust we'll hear from people with inside knowledge.  And I'll report back soon.

To All Who Say "It Can't Happen Here"

As regular readers know, earlier this month we profiled three Baptist colleges in Georgia in various stages of collapse at the hands of emboldened fundamentalists.  The case of Shorter University is the most tragic because, until the past decade, Shorter was, like OBU, a shining example of how to offer a distinctively Baptist, authentically Christian liberal arts education to bright and eager students.

We are concerned because Shorter is being absolutely destroyed in the most sudden and dramatic way possible.  Whereas at OBU, we have "only" seen two professors forced out since fundamentalists flexed their muscles, Shorter is actually going to lose at least two dozen professors and hundreds of students.  The precipitating event is a "Lifestyle Statement" that all Shorter staff must either sign or face termination.  While Georgia Baptist Convention fundamentalists are salivating at the prospect of remaking Shorter in their own narrow image, the fact is that entire departments are being decimated and Shorter's accreditation is in perilous danger.

We'll continue to study the long history of Shorter's takeover and demise, alert to any parallels with OBU's own unfortunate position vis-a-vis the BGCO.  But today, I want to focus on a single vignette that illustrates how easy it is for even one fundamentalist pastor to dramatically reshape a Baptist college's Board of Trustees.  The story comes from a former Shorter trustee, the Rev. Dr. Larry Burgess.  Save Our Shorter has printed his recollection in its entirety, so I encourage you to read it there.

The story is absolutely chilling, and I can't comment on every part of it in a single blog post.  A single Georgia Baptist minister, concerned that Shorter was too "moderate," requested a meeting with Shorter President Edward Schrader.

They shared a meal at a Cracker Barrel on I-75 on the north side of Atlanta. The pastor, quite prominent in the Georgia Baptist Convention, was very critical of Shorter. He said the whole religion faculty should be replaced. He criticized Shorter for being too liberal, too “Moderate.” He was quite confrontational and it was clear he intended to see radical changes made at Shorter.

If you don't believe there are BGCO pastors who would have said the same thing about OBU two years ago, you are badly mistaken.  Anyway, at the next Georgia Baptist Convention meeting, the norms for electing Shorter trustees were completely discarded.  Previously, the university had sent a list of suitable nominees to the convention, usually with about double the number of names as trustees to be elected.  The convention's Nominating Committee would whittle down the list and the convention would elect a group of trustees. This time, the Nominating Committee rejected all the names that Shorter provided, and forwarded to the convention a slate of replacement trustees, which the GBC subsequently elected.

Before long, the same pastor who ambushed Schrader was named Chairman of the GBC Nominations Committee.  Eventually, the GBC packed more fundamentalists and GBC loyalists onto the Shorter board.  The nasty battles that ensued wound up in the Georgia Supreme Court, where the convention won by one vote.  And now, as a consequence, the GBC is claiming its spoils.

What's most important to note about Larry Burgess's story is how naive he was.  I don't intend this as an insult or attack -- he admitted as much several times in his account.  But that very naivete -- that the convention has the university's best interests at heart -- ultimately allowed the fundamentalists to take over a once-proud institution.

In Oklahoma Baptist life, a lot of people like to say that moderates and fundamentalists have coexisted relatively peacefully.  But it's just not true.  From the early 1990s onward, there has been a deliberate, calculated attempt to marginalize moderates and reward the most strident Takeover henchmen and cheerleaders.  Sure, there have been a few prominent, popular BGCO pastors who are strong OBU supporters and who are relatively less fundamentalist.  But the writing is on the wall and has been for more than a decade.

Once President Whitlock (whether unwittingly or not, it's hard to say) turned his friend Stan Norman loose on Bison Hill, the BGCO fundamentalists began to see their dreams for OBU realized.  Unfortunately for them, Dr. Norman is being reigned in somewhat (for now).  If we remain vigilant, perhaps we can hold off the onslaught.  So far, he seems to be the only administrator with the appetite to force this battle.  Soon, he will have to undergo a performance evaluation that includes faculty input. Even if he survives in his position after that, every indication is that he will be sufficiently chastened.

But on the BGCO end, it's difficult to predict what will happen.  Of course, if OBU wasn't beholden to the BGCO, we wouldn't have to worry.  But if the Georgia experience is any indication, unethical and unprecedented actions by university administrators are just a small part of our concern.  Convention fundamentalists will use any means necessary to achieve their ends.  If even a small faction BGCO power brokers turned their sights on OBU, things could unravel quickly.

And if you actually believe that this scenario is unlikely, please take time to learn about any of the Baptist institutions (colleges and seminaries) that the fundamentalists have taken over in the past 20 years.  We are doing our best to tell their stories here at the Save OBU blog.  God bless people like Larry Burgess, who served because he was asked and because he loved Shorter.  But we need to get our heads out of the sand.  If OBU is taken over, it won't be because we were caught off guard.  And the opposition the takeover faction will face here will be the best-informed, loudest, and most passionate in history.  I have to say, I like our odds.  But to believe that OBU is not a takeover target is not only wishful thinking, it's flat-out ignorant.

Read former Shorter Trustee Larry Burgess's story.  And pray to God it doesn't repeat itself here.

What Does it Mean to be Baptist?

This week we have looked at some of the other Baptist universities who have stayed with their conventions after the fundamentalist takeover. Some of these colleges are not much like OBU. Some of them are a little bit closer. And some of them may as well be OBU if a few things had gone differently.

But each gives us an interesting look at the same question. What does it mean to be a Baptist-- specifically with regards to higher ed?

For our friends at Shorter, they will be waiting until December to find out if their addition of a lifestyle statement to the requirements for continued employment there will ruin their accreditation visit from SACS. Because although it is their prerogative as a private institution to institute such a statement, it is a big no no in the world of higher ed accreditation to do anything which denies the value of tenure-- i.e. firing professors for refusing to sign even if they are tenured. It's estimated that one third of their faculty will leave before they sign.

Is that what it means to be a Baptist? Making sure that all of the people we associate with act a certain way, hold certain political views, and above all, not to take seriously the requirements of an institution for higher learning?

We have seen this week that that is certainly what it can mean to be a Baptist.

But something we here at Save OBU have said from the beginning is that the recently fundamentalist state conventions do not have the last word on what it means to be Baptist. And perhaps, in 1910, when our forerunners decided to build a co-ed, liberal arts university for their newly incorporated state instead of a seminary, it was because they knew that to be Baptist could mean a celebration of learning and truth seeking in all disciplines.

So this week, we say Baptists should be known for what they are for, not for what they are against.

I look forward to exploring each of the historic Baptist freedoms in turn and their implications on higher education. Perhaps we will see that the future is not so bleak after all.

There is another possibility for the future-- one for which Save OBU will continue to advocate before it is too late.



For those who are curious, I take number and outline of the four Baptist freedoms from Walter Shurden's book, The Baptist Identity. Shurden, Walter B. The Baptist Identity: Four Fragile Freedoms. Macon, Ga.: Smyth & Helwys Pub, 1993.

The Downward Spiral: Fundamentalists Go Nuclear at Shorter University

In this Downward Spiral series, we're looking closely at other state convention-controlled Baptist colleges that are abandoning their historic legacies as liberal arts colleges and bowing to fundamentalist demands that they prize rigid doctrinal purity above academic freedom, integrity, and respectability.

We began by claiming a victory of sorts, noting that OBU's recent slide may have abated somewhat due to the widespread concern students, faculty, alumni, retired faculty, and the Save OBU movement have expressed over the past 10-12 months.  Then, we looked at Truett-McConnell and Brewton-Parker, both in Georgia, which seem to be in a race to the bottom and a competition to see who can convince the fundamentalists who control the Georgia Baptist Convention that their school has the most ridiculous obsession with total doctrinal conformity and the greatest disdain for actually providing a decent, let alone rigorous, education.  A little closer to home, Louisiana College provides a clear warning about what can happen when Baptist schools unsuccessfully resist fundamentalist takeovers.  Having suffered from financial disasters, divisive battles, horrible leadership, LC is in perilous danger of losing its accreditation. Any OBU constituent who thinks "it could never happen here" needs to take a close look at how convention power brokers interfered in LC trusteeship and administration and ran a once-fine institution into the ground.  LC is not an extreme case.  Rather, it's an ugly picture of what would almost certainly happen to OBU if Provost Norman and Dr Jordan continue to get their way in OBU's governance and affairs.

But let us now turn our attention to a top Baptist college whose supporters have been most gracious and sympathetic to Save OBU -- a favor I would now like for us to return.

Shorter University (Rome, GA)

Whereas Brewton-Parker and Truett-McConnell were never among the top Southern Baptist-affiliated colleges, Shorter University has been a shining example of Christian higher education in the evangelical tradition.  Once the GBC and Mercer University parted ways (a huge boon to both entities and a brilliant idea that I hope will continue to spread throughout post-Takeover Baptist life), Shorter became the GBC's flagship institution.  Like OBU, Shorter specialized in the liberal arts experience.  Graduates went on to success in business, ministry, and other fields.  The school had excellent placement in law, medicine, and other graduate degree programs.  Shorter had first-rate nursing and teacher education programs.  The fine arts department improved not only worship arts in the churches, but also the cultural life of Northwest Georgia.  Of the schools we've studied in this series, Shorter has the most obvious parallels to OBU.  For what its worth, Shorter receives about $2 million per year from the GBC.

What Happened?

We've reported on goings-on at Shorter before.  In fact, I wrote about Shorter in the very first week of Save OBU's existence.  Like some of the other schools we've profiled, Shorter's president started on the authoritarian/fundamentalist warpath almost from the first moment of his election.  I can't speak to the GBC's meddling in Shorter's affairs over the years, though I'm absolutely certain that the fundamentalist takeover of Shorter University has been brewing for years at the GBC and trustee levels.  We'll fill in some of those gaps over time.  President Donald V. Dowless announced soon after taking office that all employees (not just faculty) would have to sign a "lifestyle statement" or be fired.

Whereas such tactics are not really news at already-fundamentalist institutions like Brewton-Parker and Truett-McConnell, this dramatic and unprecedented affront against Baptist freedoms was a big deal at Shorter, which, though thoroughly conservative by any objective measure, has generally respected basic norms of academic and administrative responsibility.

Our friends at Save Our Shorter have kindly answered some questions we asked about the situation:

a) Did this directive from from the GBC or Dowless himself? 

We're not clear on that. We suspect that he had been in contact with Nelson Price, then-chair of the Board of Trustees, who is taking his marching orders from Bob White at the GBC. Bob White’s seeming silence on the current issues stems from the fact that he had written and discussed with pro-GBC trustees, directing them on their responses to the GBC/Shorter lawsuit in 2002. That was brought out in court, however White denied it, and when trustees were questioned, they also denied it.  That incident seems to have shaken White enough to teach him to be more surreptitious in his manipulations. 

b) What has the opposition been like? 

Great outcry in the community. Faculty are incensed but scared. Alumni have tried to have a discussion with Dowless, but he first took an intransigent position, then refused to talk to alumni or community clergy. Of course, there is also the creation of SOS (Save Our Shorter) and the building support of that group. 

c) How many professors are leaving? 

[SOS has what it believes is an accurate count, but asked us not to publish the exact number.]  Suffice it to say that no area of the university is unscathed by this disaster: professors, administrators, IT staff, library staff, coaches... Nursing department is gone, with the exception of one professor who agreed to stay and teach out those students whom the department had recruited. 

d) How does this radical policy affect Shorter today and in the future? 

This is not just an issue about faculty. The lifestyle statement affects virtually every department on campus. Short term, Shorter is facing two challenges, administratively – re-staffing and finding faculty.  They have also had to extend open registration to the end of semester because so many students have not enrolled for classes next fall. Alumni are advising family members and friends not to send their children to Shorter. The Fine Arts department has been decimated. The Shorter Chorale has always been one of the crown jewels of Shorter. Only a handful of students and faculty are remaining. The theatre department, too, has lost the vast majority of its faculty and students.  One of the cultural centers for Rome will have virtually disappeared.

Clearly, Shorter has an unmitigated disaster on its hands.  To make matters worse, Shorter is hosting a visit from SACS (accrediting body) this week.  It's going to be very difficult to convince the SACS delegation that all is well at Shorter.  Thankfully, pro-Shorter advocates are planning a massive demonstration tomorrow morning.  The pro-GBC faction will have to answer tough questions about their bizarre new vision for the college.

IF ANY OF OUR SAVE OBU SUPPORTERS LIVE IN NORTHWEST GEORGIA, ATLANTA, OR CHATTANOOGA, PLEASE JOIN THE PRO-SHORTER PROTESTERS ON BEHALF OF SAVE OBU!

What Can We Learn?

The Shorter debacle is obviously a worst-case, nightmare scenario.  But let's not forget that there are very influential people in OBU life who would love to see this disaster visited upon OBU.  Why fire moderates once every year or two when you can induce a few dozen of them to quit all at once?!

The convention's involvement is crucial, yet deliberately kept out of the public eye.  We don't know for sure if Bob White at the GBC is pushing this issue (though he is obviously cheerleading it from the sidelines).  In the same way, we don't yet know definitively what marching orders the BGCO has given  President Whitlock.  Like all Baptist college presidents trapped in the impossible, irreconcilable gap between an increasingly fundamentalist state convention (with its dwindling financial subsidy) and a university community that depends on academic freedom, liberty of the conscience, and open inquiry as core principles.

One difference between OBU and Shorter is that our current Board of Trustees would never go along with forcing OBU staff to choose between their jobs and their consciences.  (I say this with confidence,  but please correct me if my confidence is misplaced.)  That's why we will be formally reaching out to OBU trustees in the coming months.  They have been asked to believe blatant falsehoods about the forced dismissals (that they were merely "contractual disputes") and have not been provided with adequate context for the series of missteps that amount to an unprecedented change in direction on Bison Hill.  But even if, as we suspect, a year's worth of protests have temporarily slowed OBU's slow yet deliberate transformation away from a relatively moderate liberal arts college in the best of the Baptist tradition, it will only be a matter of time until the Takeover proceeds apace.  For now, we have a number of pro-OBU trustees.  But the convention will be much more careful about who it lets onto the Board in the future.  In a matter of a few years, all but a handful could be handpicked pro-BGCO Anthony Jordan loyalists.  At that point, they could wreak untold havoc.

As we've stated all along, the ultimate resolution is for the colleges and the conventions to go their separate ways.  Short of that, we are going to keep fighting these tired, old battles.  At Shorter, the fundamentalists have gone nuclear.  No collateral damage -- including dozens of employees' careers and hundreds of students' college experiences -- is too great for these people.  They have no place in the field of higher education, Christian or otherwise.  But they hold all the power.  For us little people who do not control the flow of funds and the election of trustees, it will take all the unity, solidarity, effort, and protest we can muster just to keep our hallowed traditions and values alive.

God help us all.