Timsings,
What is it about the Reputation have you heard about SWBTS that makes it "in the toilet?" WHile it is not going the direction I would like it to go, in some segments in academia I am hearing good things about the school. I don't like some of the militancy against Reformed Theology, but I also would recommend the school over many others because of some good things happening. What specifics about their reputation do you have?
The reason I ask is because this is what people said about SBTS when Mohler took over and SEBTS when Patterson first took over. Today, no one doubts the rigor of the SBTS, some saying it is by far the best Academic institution of the SBC Seminaries and has received some great recognition around the world. SEBTS is respected for its scholarship far beyond the years before Patterson, but not by people who denied the innerancy of Scripture... they hated what happened and they bashed the seminary for their new stands. Is SWBTS in transition? Yes! Yet, I do not think it is going in the toilet. From my experience, when I heard such comments in the past it was because the Seminaries actually believed the Bible and taught it as true... some people don't think that is as academic. I think it is more Christian and more academic.
Call Patterson's actions antics... I will call it a fight for the very Word of God... a fight for the Gospel of Jesus Christ itself. I know that Luther was bashed for his actions.
First, let me say that I do not view the takeover of the SBC as a doctrinal struggle. It was a power grab cloaked in a doctrinal dispute that could not be resolved because there were no means for resolution. I have said that before on this forum, and I stand by that assessment.
When Russell Dilday was fired from the presidency of Southwestern, the seminary was on sound financial footing, had a top-notch faculty, of which my father was a prominent member, and students eager to attend. But, in the last few years of Dr. Dilday's tenure, the seeds of the decline were sown. Almost immediately upon the announcement of Paige Patterson's appointment as president, students began leaving or choosing to attend other seminaries. Faculty began leaving, and the financial stability of the seminary began to suffer. There have been questions as to whether Southwestern's accreditation is in jeopardy, something that had never happened before. The latest business about dropping the health insurance for retirees is abominable. Now the attempt to grab the association building that the seminary did not build. I call that putting the reputation of the seminary in the toilet.
It is very easy to sit back and claim that doctrinal issues were driving the takeover of the whole SBC. People were fired, and lives ruined because people would not come over to the side of the fundamentalists. It is easy to try to take the high road by claiming that some sacrifices had to be made. But when the people involved are members of your church (this was true for me as well as my parents), your colleagues, or in Dr. Dilday's case, not just my father's president, but his friend whom he had done revivals with, it is hard not to take it personally.
Tim Reynolds