All Eyes on the Trustees of Southwestern Seminary

On Tuesday, May 22, 2018, the trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary will convene behind closed doors to determine the future of President Paige Patterson. Discussions will include his living arrangements after his impending resignation, retirement, or forced termination.

Over 3,200 Southern Baptist women have signed an open letter stating,  "The Southern Baptist Convention cannot allow the biblical view of leadership to be misused in such a way that a leader with an unbiblical view of authority, womanhood and sexuality be allowed to continue in leadership."

The Christian Post lists 5 Things to Know about the Paige Patterson Controversy.   I have listed on my blog ten reasons why It's Time for Paige Patterson to Step Down.

All eyes are now on the 40 trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.  There are just two women on the trustee board and thirty-eight men.

For the past 40 years, the direction of the Southern Baptist Convention has been tightly controlled through trustee appointments. The President of the Southern Baptist Convention directly appoints the members of the Nominating Committee (ed. "through the Committee on Committees"). The Nominating Committee then recommends institutional trustees to the Southern Baptist Convention, including all six seminaries, the International Mission Board, the North American Mission Board, Guidestone Financial Services, the Ethics and Religious Liberty Commission, and the Executive Committee of the SBC.

From the 1979 Southern Baptist Convention in Houston, Texas, until the 2007 Southern Baptist Convention in Greensboro, North Carolina, every President of the Southern Baptist Convention was chosen for nomination by the tandem of Paige Patterson and Judge Paul Pressler. There was a pecking order of who would be "the next President of the SBC."

The Southern Baptist Convention President holds an important office because, according to Judge Paul Pressler, "it takes several consecutive Presidential election victories to dominate the boards and agencies of the Southern Baptist Convention."

Most Southern Baptists have little clue that the real power of the Convention lies in the hands of trustees.

Former Presidents of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary were terminated because Paige Patterson and Judge Paul Pressler vetted and appointed SBC Presidents. Then, their loyal followers (e.g. the Committee on Committees)  vetted and gave names to the Nominating Committee of other loyal Patterson/Presslerites who would serve as SBC trustees. This tight Patterson/Pressler control of SBC trustees occurred at every Southern Baptist agency since the 1980's.

Over two decades, the boards and agencies have reflected the trustees that controlled them.

I was elected to serve as a trustee of the International Mission Board in 2005. I was "vetted' by a group of trustees sympathetic to the Patterson/Pressler coalition before the Nominating Committee ever contacted me. When I began serving as a trustee of the IMB, I was shocked at how legalistic, authoritarian, anti-women, and Fundamentalist our Southern Convention missions agency had become. I refer not so much to the field missionaries as I do the sitting trustees.

Trustees were running things into the ground. Trustees considered their assignment a "privilege" instead of a "responsibility." Exotic hotels, fancy meals, multiple meetings, and all expense trips became the norm. Further, anyone who didn't agree with the very narrow doctrinal views of those in charge was targeted for removal.

As an example, trustees on the International Mission Board passed a new doctrinal policy - in direct violation of our SBC Constitution and By-Laws - that narrowed the scope of missionary participation in the Southern Baptist Convention. The doctrinal change was a direct attempt to remove Dr. Jerry Rankin. This effort was led by a coalition of trustees controlled by Paige Patterson and Paul Pressler.

As a trustee of the IMB, I discovered the agenda of Paige Patterson and his loyal IMB trustees to remove Dr. Rankin and sought to protect President Rankin from a forced termination. Jimmy Draper recently wondered aloud to Barry McCarty "what motivated Wade Burleson” to write his blog. I think I need to send both men a copy of Hardball Religion.

Hardball Religion details the process of how the trustee board was packed with men who would remove Jerry Rankin, honoring Paige Patterson’s wishes. Ultimately, in my successful attempt to protect Dr. Jerry Rankin, I became the issue.

Soon after I began speaking out about the problems in our Southern Baptist Convention, people began writing to me. I soon realized that Southern Baptist women throughout our Convention were being denigrated and removed from leadership. I heard some horrific stories, and the more I heard, the more I sought to expose. Those Southern Baptists who "didn't toe the line and give allegiance to Patterson and/or Pressler" - which simply meant not seeing "eye to eye" on every little doctrinal point -  would never be placed in positions of leadership and service.

I began receiving letters and phone calls from seminary faculty, agency administrators, and a host of men and women in leadership positions who asked for my help. From 2005 to 2018, I became the Southern Baptist unafraid to speak out because those in power had taken a swing at me and missed, but in the process, they had opened my eyes that others in the SBC were not as fortunate as I.

Then, I began to hear of alleged corruption.

Maids and slaves; slush funds and retirement homes; abuse and cover-ups; CP dollars and taxidermy; and a host of other crazy goings-on.

The day of reckoning has come.

“The trouble they cause recoils on them; their violence comes down on their own heads.” (Psalm 7:16).

Southern Baptists should “trust” that “trustees” will always do what is best for the Southern Baptist Convention and abstain from cronyism, quid-pro-quo agreements, and hidden agendas. However, in my experience, many trustees place self-promotion above Kingdom devotion. It's time for the Southern Baptist Convention to hold institutional trustees accountable.

In the June 2009 Southern Baptist Convention, I opposed from the floor the nomination of Bart Barber as a trustee for Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Bart was an adjunct professor of SWBTS in the spring of that very year (Spring 2009), and I believed then - and still do - that any employee of a Southern Baptist institution should not be a trustee from that same institution.

You can read what I wrote about Bart Barber’s nomination as a conflict of interest in this blog post I wrote during the 2009 Southern Baptist Convention. Bart Barber's nomination was approved by the Convention, and he has served as a trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary for the past nine years (2009-2018). He will be in the SWBTS closed-door meeting this coming Tuesday as the trustees determine what to do about Paige Patterson.

This week, a blog site called SBC Voices published a guest post by SWBTS Bart Barber. Bart wrote that "good trustees don't (and shouldn't) blog about their business." Bart and I have disagreed over the issue of trustees. I am of the opinion that the "trust" in trustee is between the Southern Baptist Convention and the trustee. The trustee must hold the institution's administration accountable for the performance of the agency in question. Trustees should have "the trust" of the Southern Baptist Convention.

Bart Barber was an adjunct professor at SWBTS when he was nominated to serve as a trustee at SWBTS. In the comment section of SBC Voices, I questioned Bart Barber about this “conflict of interest." Here was my question:

Bart, I admire any man who lives by principle. Just a quick question, Bart. Do you believe, on the basis of principle, it is wise to have current students, paid employees, or family members of the administration and/or faculty serving as trustees of the institution in question

I think we disagree on this issue. And, with respect, I point out that via bylaws of our Convention, institutional trustees of the SBC work for the Southern Baptist Convention, not the institution itself. That’s why only messengers to the SBC can appoint or remove trustees, not the board itself. Trustees are held “in trust” by members of the SBC, not administrators of the SBC institution or even their fellow trustees.

If at any time the problems within the institution rise to violations of the SBC constitution, trustees are obligated to make the Convention aware or violate their inviolable responsibilities as trustees to the Southern Baptist Convention.

Thanks for your service to the SBC.

After another commenter chimed in and said he too felt it was a conflict of interest for an adjunct professor to serve as a trustee of SWBTS, Bart Barber responded to that commenter (without addressing me or my question):

When the very first mention was made of my serving as a trustee, long before it was a “done deal,” I resigned the very part-time adjunct teaching position and notified Dr. Biles, my supervisor, that I would no longer be available to serve as an adjunct. I still have the emails.

Also, I notified Wade Burleson of this when he first made mention of his objection back a decade ago. He has long known that at no time have I simultaneously been an employee and a trustee of SWBTS. I’ll not speculate about his motives for ignoring these facts. I’ll leave you to draw your own conclusions

I enjoyed teaching. I miss it. But I, too, think it would be a conflict of interest for anyone to be an employee of an entity upon which he sits as a trustee, and therefore I have foregone this pleasure for ten years.

SWBTS publishes the class schedule every semester. Before attacking me online, did you check those records to see whether I had ever taught while serving as a trustee? Did you perform any research at all? Or do you just believe everything you read on the Internet?

The commenter came back and said to Bart Barber, "I didn't know that you had resigned from SWBTS, and had never seen that fact stated elsewhere" Bart Barber responded:

"Well, you’re right, and that’s my fault, I suppose. You haven’t seen it stated elsewhere because it has been years and years since I bothered to state it. A lot of us who were involved in all of this blogging back when Wade first got started—a lot of us managed to move on and find a real life with good, healthy, face-to-face relationships with real people...

Wade’s still stuck back in the way things were in 2006, it appears. And that’s his choice and his life. But I prefer a life of building people up rather than tearing them down. I prefer working to make peace in our convention rather than measuring my success by the people I can take down. I prefer having friends over having enemies. There is no part of me that wants to go back to 2006.

For this reason, I try to avoid reading Wade’s blog, conversing with Wade, or clarifying Wade’s false statements. I’ve moved on and I don’t want to go back. As a result, you’ve read things about me that aren’t true, and you haven’t had any opportunity to read corrections, since I haven’t offered them. That’s a whole lot more MY fault than it is yours, because as you have rightly noted, you haven’t seen these statements anywhere else, and I never gave you the opportunity to know better."

I had not seen Bart's answer on SBC Voices, but after someone pointed out that he never directly answered my question, I went back to the site and read Bart's comment for myself. There's an axiom that in dysfunctional systems, the person asking the question becomes the problem. I wrote my second comment to Bart and asked two additional short questions.

Bart,

I have a couple of short questions. A “Yes” or “No” would be sufficient to save time, but freel free to elaborate if you desire. PRIOR to my opposing your nomination as a trustee of SWBTS from the floor of the Southern Baptist Convention:

1. Had you resigned from your adjunct position at SWBTS?

2. Did you notify me that you had resigned?

If your answer is “Yes” to both questions, I’d like for you to provide me with the written documentation. If produced, I will apologize for assuming that you were teaching at SWBTS at the time of your nomination. Contrary to your comment above, I had no knowledge of your resignation. Is it is possible I could have forgotten? Of course, but my memory is usually excellent and rarely fails me. I trust you that you would never intentionally mislead anyone in stating I was aware you resigned before I opposed your nomination.

Obviously, you could have resigned and not informed me. If you can’t produce an email where you notified me, then possibly your resignation was due to the appearance of a “conflict of interest” and your resignation might have occurred after the Southern Baptist Convention where I opposed your nomination? I’m just asking for clarity.

Hope you have a great weekend.

Bart never answered my question, but the moderator of SBC Voices, one who's been called out on Yelp for being "condescending...and answering genuine questions about topics included in his blogs with sarcasm and snarky comments...by being belittling and downright rude" wrote a few choice comments directed toward me, and then shut down all comments.

In my experience, those who turn off the mic and shut down debate know that their arguments or positions will not stand up under scrutiny.

I’m sure Bart Barber is a fine pastor. I use his appointment as trustee of SWBTS as an example of how trusteeship at SWBTS historically has been a “reward for loyalty to Paige Patterson” more than it is a responsibility to the Southern Baptist Convention. Can Bart Barber and others who are friends of Dr. Patterson, or previous employees of SWBTS or hopeful future professors and administrators of SWBTS, or loyalists to a person more than an institution or Convention actually make an unbiased, fair, and good decision about Paige Patterson for the benefit and welfare of SWBTS and Southern Baptist Convention?

I think so. Particularly if SBC eyes stay on this particular trustee meeting.

I close with why I believe the trustee meeting at SWBTS this Tuesday is a very important one, and why all eyes of the Southern Baptist Convention should be on the SWBTS trustee meeting this Tuesday, May 22, 2018.

1. SWBTS administration has a history of hiring trustees who make favorable decisions for administration. Denny Autrey, the pastor who served as Chairman of the Trustee Presidential Search Committee who hired Paige Patterson, was in turn hired by Paige Patterson at SWBTS. Other trustee search committee members and family members of search committee members were hired by Paige Patterson to work for SWBTS.

2. Trustees of SWBTS are given plum preaching assignments in chapel services at SWBTS, and are often recommended for positions of service at large SBC churches throughout the nation by Paige Patterson - when loyal to President Paige Patterson.

3. SWBTS trustees should be accountable to the Southern Baptist Convention for the precipitous decline in enrollment at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. The IMB trustees never asked questions about the adminstration selling off assets to pay for missionary salaries in the annual general budget. In 2015, all the IMB assets available to sell were gone, and the only thing left to do was reduce the missionary force. IMB trustees were more concerned in 2006 with a blogging trustee than they were with being responsible for doing their job of financial and institutional oversight. I would encourage SWBTS not to make the same mistake as their IMB brothers. 

4. Whatever decision the SWBTS trustees reach on Tuesday, ultimate accountablity for the trustees will occur June 12, 2018 at the Southern Baptist Convention. 

I genuinely wish the best for Paige and Dorothy Patterson during their retirement years. I hope they enjoy them in comfort and enjoyment. I wish for them prosperity and blessing.

But it's time for accountability.

Years of closely orchestrating who serves as trustees of SBC institutions have provided insulation and shelter from the consequences of poor decisions.

The Southern Baptist Convention is going to say "enough is enough." Those who demand conformity on every secondary and tertiary doctrinal issue while refusing to cooperate - and removing from service - all who disagree on these secondary and tertiary doctrinal matters are called Fundamentalists. Fundamentalism is known for its legalism, authoritarianism, and sectarianism.

The SBC is filled with all three characteristics of Fundamentalism.

Nero may have fiddled while Rome burned, but Southern Baptists are now reaching for the water buckets to douse the fires consuming our Convention.