Barely two years after being unanimously chosen by trustees, Eric Turner resigned Tuesday (Oct. 20) as president of Southwest Baptist University. His resignation, made during an executive session of a contentious Board meeting, comes amid a two-year conflict over theology and control at the school.
An accreditation body recently opened an inquiry into recent events at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, after an alumnus filed a complaint. The Higher Learning Commission decided the complaint warranted review of the institution that finds itself embroiled in a two-year controversy.
Conflicts about professors at Baptist schools raise many important questions. What is the purpose of education? How much academic freedom should professors have in their scholarship and lectures? And who gets to decide what is “acceptable” for a professor to say?
Amid a two-year controversy over theology and power, leaders at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, decided to terminate its philosophy program and not renew the contract of its tenured philosophy professors — a move some other faculty feel didn’t follow the school’s own rules.
Editor Brian Kaylor looks at the recent litigation filed by LifeWay Christian Resources and asks how they could have decided to take such an action. The sad case is yet another example of Christians hurting our witness with lawsuits.
Two trustees at Southwest Baptist University took to the internet airwaves recently to attack Word&Way for covering the decision by SBU trustees to require religion professors at the school in Bolivar, Missouri, to affirm additional creedal documents.
Last year’s annual meeting of the Missouri Baptist Convention featured controversy over how the MBC treated Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, during the process of nominating trustees. So, the MBC this year changed its nominating rules ahead of its annual meeting.
Professors in the Redford College of Theology and Ministry at Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, will be required to sign three additional statements — beyond the Baptist Faith & Message of 2000 — if they wish to keep their jobs.
Baptist disaster relief volunteers are responding in Iowa after a powerful derecho storm hit last week, leaving hundreds of thousands without power, hundreds homeless, and a mess of trees and debris.
A Southern Baptist congregation in Lee’s Summit, Missouri, sued county officials Thursday (May 7) for restrictions on church services amid the ongoing coronavirus pandemic. The lead attorney in the case, a member of the congregation, also serves as legal counsel for the Missouri Baptist Convention.