An Attempt to Punish SWBTS Executive Committee

On May 22, 2018, the Board of Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary met for 13 hours considering the future of SWBTS President Paige Patterson.

After a vote to terminate narrowly failed, the seminary trustees adopted measures that would give Paige Patterson the title of President Emeritus, the opportunity to live his retirement years on campus, and a salary. These actions were portrayed by the media as "the removal of Paige Patterson as President of SWBTS," but in many Southern Baptist eyes, it was more of a promotion than a termination. 

A few days later, the Executive Committee of the Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary met and unanimously rescinded the board's actions of May 22, 2018. This time, the trustees who compose the Executive Committee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary completely terminated Paige Patterson's association with SWBTS, removing the title of President Emeritus, rescinding the offer to live out his retirement years on campus, and retracting the decision to pay him a salary.

Today, Tuesday, June 12, 2018,  a pastor from Arkansas named Tom Hatley made a motion at the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas, Texas. Tom wants the Southern Baptist Convention messengers to "remove the trustees of the Executive Committee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary" for their actions in terminating Paige Patterson.

In other words, Tom Hatley believes the trustees who voted unanimously to remove Paige Patterson should themselves be removed as trustees of the seminary.

The messengers at this year's Convention will discuss, debate, and vote on Hatley's recommendation at 2:45 pm, Wednesday, June 13, 2018.

Tom Hatley was the Chairman of the Trustees at the International Mission Board in 2005/2006 when the Executive Committee of the IMB sought to remove me as a trustee of the IMB. I won't rehash all that happened in 2005/2006 (you can go back and read on my blog), but in essence, the IMB Executive Committee sought to remove me because I stood up to those who were seeking the removal of President Jerry Rankin and women from leadership positions at the IMB. I had been told by several of my fellow trustees, most of whom were friends and loyalists of Paige Patterson and led by Chairman Thomas Hatley, that President Rankin's tenure needed to come to an end. They had in mind someone else to be President of the IMB.

Two guesses as to who that person was to be the next President of the IMB.

Because I was a rookie trustee and dared oppose IMB trustee leadership, I became the person Chairman Tom Hatley and the Executive Committee of the IMB sought to remove. To this day, I am the only trustee of an SBC institution who faced the prospect of removal by the Southern Baptist Convention at large. Prior to the 2006 Southern Baptist Convention, Tom Hatley and the IMB Executive Committee rescinded their recommendation to remove me as an IMB trustee - mostly because they realized they'd have to give me an opportunity to speak to the entire Convention before the vote.

This year, the members of the Executive Commitee of SWBTS, including Chairman Kevin Ueckert, will be given the opportunity to speak to the SBC Convention this Wednesday at 2:45 pm, before the Convention votes on Hatley's recommendation to remove them. I predict that the Southern Baptist Convention will overwhelmingly reject Thomas Hatley's motion to remove the Executive Committee.

The Executive Committee of SWBTS had their reasons for termination of Paige Patterson. Very few people know the full story. The Executive Committee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has facts. They voted unanimously to terminate.

But the point I'd like to make about Thomas Hatley's motion revolves around integrity.

When Thomas Hatley, Chairman of the International Mission Board, led the Executive Committee to recommend my removal as a trustee in 2006, they received a huge amount of backlash from the Southern Baptist Convention. In fact, Frank Page was elected at the very Convention they had intended to remove me, a shock to the Patterson loyalists who had never lost a Convention presidential election since 1979.

I find it interesting that Chairman Tom Hatley responded to the criticsm against him and his Executive Committee in 2006 with these words:

"The Southern Baptist Convention should trust the Executive Committee of the International Mission Board. This difficult measure was not taken without due deliberation.... and was completely necessary for the IMB to move forward. The Southern Baptist Convention should trust their trustees."

Hmmm.

Today, Ken Whitten nominated J.D. Greaer for President of the Southern Baptist Convention. In the speech, Ken gave the following definition for integrity:

"Integrity is when the tongue of one's shoes follows the tongue of one's mouth."

The number one reason Thomas Hatley's motion should be defeated is because the motion - at its core - lacks integrity. It's offered by a man who said one thing when he was Chairman of the IMB Executive Committee, but now that same man walks a different path when it comes to his treatment of Chairman Kevin Ueckert and the SWBTS Executive Committee.

The Southern Baptist Convention has suffered enough with a lack of integrity.

Convention messengers will see through the smoke and mirrors of a motion that is long on politics and short on integrity.