By Carrie Brown McWhorter
The Alabama Baptist
Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary’s (SWBTS) new interim president is requesting prayer from all Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) churches.
“Faithfully pray for Dr. and Mrs. Patterson, Southwestern’s administration, the trustee transition committee and me in the months ahead as we collectively work together in unity and love during this transition period,” Jeffrey Bingham, dean of the School of Theology, wrote in a May 23 news release from the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary. “Jesus remains on His throne, and Southwestern Seminary remains faithful to its commitment to Preach the Word and Reach the World.”
Ensuring ‘best position’
Bingham was appointed to the interim president position after a long day of discussion and deliberation by SWBTS trustees. That decision came after they voted to appoint Paige Patterson president emeritus of the seminary and to relieve him immediately of his duties as president of the institution.
The SWBTS board of trustees met for 13 hours May 22 “to discuss our seminary, its future and our responsibility as trustees to ensure SWBTS is in the best position possible to fulfill our mission to biblically educate God-called men and women,” according to a statement released at 3 a.m. May 23.
SWBTS graduate Bill Wilks, who serves as pastor of NorthPark Baptist Church, Trussville, and is co-author of D-Life disciple-making resource, said the incident has been difficult but he agrees that it is time for a change.
“It’s painful to see fracture at your institution of higher learning for ministers, but I do think the trustees made the right decision to look for new leadership,” Wilks said. “We, as men of God, we’ve always got to be first and foremost, loving and respectful of all people. And we are to always have the best interest of women in our minds and hearts.”
Frank Jones, a SWBTS alumnus who leads Frank Jones Ministries and serves as assistant adult choir director at Hunter Street Baptist Church, Hoover, agreed.
“I trust the work of the trustees that they made the decision that was right for the seminary,” Jones said. “They didn’t cast him (Patterson) out to the curb.”
As president emeritus, Patterson will receive compensation and fulfillment of an offer granted in September 2017 for him and his wife Dorothy to live on campus as the first theologians-in-residence at the Baptist Heritage Center, a facility set to open at the seminary later this year. The Baptist Heritage Center will house and curate the libraries of several prominent Southern Baptist leaders, including Patterson, as well as extensive archives from the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) Conservative Resurgence, according to a March 14 press release from SWBTS. The center also includes an apartment for the theologian-in-residence.
Patterson’s removal as SWBTS president comes after comments made by Patterson in 2000 regarding spousal abuse and divorce were brought to light once again in an article in The Washington Post. Patterson told the story of a woman in his church who had been beaten by her husband. Patterson urged her not to seek a divorce but instead to pray for her husband.
The article was not the first to discuss the comments, but it sparked three weeks of examination and criticism of the denomination’s stance on issues of abuse and the treatment of women.
In response to the article, nearly 3,300 people, most of them Southern Baptist women, signed an open letter asking SBC leaders not to 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.”
‘Please forgive’
On May 10, Patterson issued “An Apology to God’s People,” in which he said his comments had “obviously been hurtful to women in several possible ways.”
“I wish to apologize to every woman who has been wounded by anything I have said that was inappropriate or that lacked clarity. We live in a world of hurt and sorrow, and the last thing that I need to do is add to anyone’s heartache. Please forgive the failure to be as thoughtful and careful in my extemporaneous expression as I should have been,” Patterson wrote.
While the trustees were meeting on May 22, The Washington Post released another article, this one recounting the story of a female student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary (SEBTS) in Wake Forest, North Carolina, who said she was raped by a male SEBTS student in 2003 while Patterson was president of that seminary.
When the woman went to administration, she said she was advised by Patterson not to report the incident to police.
‘They shamed … me’
“‘They shamed the crap out of me, asking me question after question,’” the woman told the Post. “‘He didn’t necessarily say it was my fault, but [the sense from him was] I let him into my home.’”
In a statement by SWBTS trustees that broadly addressed Patterson’s handling of comments and events, they affirmed a motion stating Patterson had complied with reporting laws regarding sexual assault and abuse and that the seminary stands against all forms of abuse.
The board also sided with SWBTS seminary Ph.D. student Nathan Montgomery — whose tuition break was revoked and who was fired from his campus job by SWBTS for tweeting an April 30 blog post written by Ed Stetzer, executive director of the Billy Graham Center at Wheaton College in Illinois, calling for Patterson’s retirement. The board said there was no evidence of misconduct in his employment file.
In that post Stetzer also said that if Patterson preached the convention sermon as planned on Wednesday, June 13, at the SBC annual meeting in Dallas, it would send a negative message to the world about Southern Baptists.
“If Patterson preaches at the SBC, he will, because of his past work, get a standing ovation. Every news story will point to that moment … and say that Southern Baptists don’t take abuse seriously. And it’s not just a public relations crisis. It’s a message to women that we must not send,” Stetzer wrote.
In a May 23 blog post, Stetzer reiterated those comments.
“Dr. Patterson should not (and must not) preach the SBC annual meeting sermon,” he wrote.
Frank Jones said he agrees with Stetzer. “I think it would be very awkward for him to speak,” Jones said. “We would probably get the wrong kind of media coverage from outside media, and it would not help our cause as Southern Baptists.”
Whether or not Patterson will deliver the convention sermon remains to be seen.
In a May 11 statement, SBC President Steve Gaines said he “does not have the authority to make that decision,” nor does the SBC Committee on Order of Business.
“It was the messengers of the 2017 SBC meeting that selected Dr. Patterson to preach the 2018 Convention Sermon,” Gaines wrote. “There are only two scenarios in which Dr. Patterson will not preach the Convention Sermon: 1) the messengers of the SBC vote at the annual meeting in Dallas for him not to do so, or 2) Dr. Patterson personally withdraws from that responsibility. In either case, the alternate preacher, Dr. Kie Bowman, would preach the Convention Sermon.”
Charles Patrick, vice president for strategic initiatives and communications at SWBTS, told The Alabama Baptist in an email May 24 that no decision had been made on whether Patterson would preach at the convention.
“He’s presently out of town at his granddaughter’s wedding,” Patrick said.
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