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.
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.
Editor Brian Kaylor considers a common thread between two recent controversies at Baptist schools, and what this can teach us about how we read and interpret the Bible today.
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.
No one ever wants to talk about abuse — as it exposes the darkest parts of the human heart — let alone abuse that happened decades ago. Forgetting, though, ensures that the voices of survivors will be papered over by the louder, more consistent voices
Groups that advocate for the survivors of clergy sexual abuse called on Missouri Attorney General Eric Schmitt to investigate clergy in the Missouri Baptist Convention for sexual abuse or misconduct — as he already has done with the Catholic Church.
Leaders of the Missouri Baptist Convention defended a pastor accused by police of not properly handling a case of a staff member sexually abusing boys. However, they did not address the key allegation, and they misrepresented the nature of the claims.
Southwest Baptist University in Bolivar, Missouri, announced Feb. 22 that it would hold a special-called meeting of its Board of Trustees on Monday (Feb. 24) to consider actions regarding a new trustee accused of mishandling the sexual misconduct case of another church staffer. The trustee