Originally posted by FearNot:
I think it is so funny some of y'all paint Dr. Patterson to be mean to anyone that he doesn't agree with. We hosted a debate between him and another schools theologian. This other man had a very stroong reputation. Dr. Patterson not only was very respectful of the man, but earlier in the day he instructed the entire school to be respectful and curtious.
That may well be true. But he has a long history of crossing the country during the 1970s and 1980s. meeting/campaigning with small groups and churches, spreading lies and half-truths about alleged "liberals" in the seminaries.
In other words, y'all don't know what you are talking about.
Don't be so quick to dismiss us. Check it out for yourself.
When people say that the seminaries are so bad off and don't represent the majority of SBC believers now. Well if that were true, we would not have more students here than were ever enrolled before.
Is that true? Southwestern Seminary's enrollment declined after Russell Dilday was fired and while it has grown back toward the former levels, I don't think it has grown. Also it is my understanding that the method of counting students changed in the early 1990s to included many more students than previously counted.
We have more women enrolled here than ever before. The school is growing.
That may well be true for Southeastern. But what about Southwestern and the troubles of Midwestern? (If you didn't know, Midwestern Seminary has been fairly unstable for the past few years.)
It is obvious that the liberals no longer have control of the SBC because THEY WERE VOTED OUT BY THE MAJORITY.
1.) "Liberals" did not have control of the seminaries. There were moderates and conservatives in control of the seminaries, with a broad spectrum of Baptist viewpoints working together.
2.) The majority you speak of is the majority of messengers who voted at the convention each year -- a group that was heavily lobbied and supplied with bad information. For instance, in 1988 -- the year Richard Jackson ran against Jerry Vines -- all messengers received very negative information at the doors about the so-called "liberal" frontman "Richard Jackson". The flyers tried to distort the truth about him and the moderate side as much as possible. It still continues against Texas Baptists in Baptist Press.
The majority of the SBC was conservative and when they were informed of the goings on at the seminaries and SBC offices, they were outraged enough to vote them out.
When they were told truth out-of-context and outright lies about things "liberals" were allegedly doing, yes they voted them out.
That my fellow believers is the facts, like it or not.
It is certainly one way to look at things. For the record, I used to be one your side. I was a fundamentalist and fully supported people like Paige Patterson, Jerry Vines, Ronnie Floyd (a former pastor), Adrian Rogers, etc. But after seeing things from the inside, being inadvertantly involved in a closed-door meeting to get rid of a college professor I knew (for trumped up reasons) and seeing people I knew slandered and falsely accused, I changed. Those are the facts.
Remember, if you don't know the man, personally witnessed these things you are accuseing him of, then you are just gossiping.
I don't know the man but he has not denied being the leader of the takeover movement. He has been fairly public about his campaign and there are probably numerous examples of his campaign for the so-called "conservative resurgence" in book form and on the internet.
It's not gossip.
He's preaching at my church. And I had lucnh with him and 5 other members of my youth group talking about South Eastern Seminary and College(where I will be going next August!
