I just read from dallasnews.com that Dwight McKissic has resigned from the Board of Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological seminary.
“It has taken a tremendous toll on my family and ministry, and my wife believes it has negatively impacted my health,” he said in a resignation letter to Van McClain, chairman of the Fort Worth seminary’s trustee board. “I simply want to return to the place I was prior to being a trustee.”
What a terrible shame that becoming a trustee of a conservative seminary would be a stumbling block for one of our brothers. In a place where open discussion and challenging believes should be welcomed they had been silenced and hidden away. And for what? To protect churches from these challenging beliefs.
I often wonder why Jesus sent us a helper, when we clearly already have people in offices willing to do the job for him.
This article ends with this quote from Dr. Patterson:
“My personal relationship with Pastor McKissic has been a long one and overwhelmingly a happy one,” Dr. Patterson said. “I anticipate that that relationship will continue and that Brother McKissic will continue as a faithful supporter of the seminary. It is well known that we have not always agreed, but we are brothers in Christ, and I love this pastor.”
I sincerely hope that Patterson and McKissic do sustain a relationship. But I found myself wondering what, if anything, does this have to do with McKissic being a “faithful supporter” of the seminary?
As ABBA (the group, not the father) once said, “money, money, money…”
P.S. I made up a new word – Batholic. I really like it, it is a combination of Baptist and Catholic. What really endears me to the word is the fact that “Bath” can be found in it – like a baptism! This is hilarious on so many levels! Looks like we can have our cake and eat it too!
(HT: Ben Cole for linking to this article)
Lew,
It seems that the leadership at Southwestern Seminary is determined to define “Southern Baptist” as only those who believe exactly what they believe. I honestly do not understand it. People within the convention are no longer questioning things like the truth of scripture, the divinity of Christ, and the virgin birth. The issues of today should be considered tertiary (such as speaking in tongues). Some diversity of belief is needed within the SBC, or pretty soon there won’t be too many people left within the convention.