Posted on 07/15/2005 5:22:32 AM PDT by rhema
On his first day as interim president at Baylor University, William Underwood fired the Texas Baptist school's highly visible symbol of Vision 2012: provost David Jeffrey.
Jeffrey recruited many Christian faculty as part of Vision 2012, two goals of which are a deeper integration of Christian faith and scholarship, and that Baylor become a top-tier research university. After Jeffrey refused to resign, Underwood on June 1 ended his role as provost. The move further polarized the campus, already divided over Vision 2012 and the actions of Robert Sloan, the previous president who is now chancellor.
The next day at an all-campus event, Randall O'Brien, the incoming interim provost, observed, "We're an army shooting at each other. When will this madness end?" Underwood, in emphasizing the "proper" integration of faith and learning, said at the meeting, "We largely agree that the Christian character of this university is its greatest asset."
Recently, other pro-Sloan officials have stepped down, including three vice presidents: Eileen Hulme (student life), Marilyn Crone (enrollment), and Rick Creel (facilities).
Rodney Stark, the prominent sociologist who joined Baylor's faculty in 2004, told CT, "We've made incredible progress. [But] it's hanging in the balance right now." . . . < snip >
The prospect of Underwood remaining as president has many pro-Sloan faculty looking elsewhere for jobs. Theology and literature professor Ralph Wood wrote in The Dallas Morning News, "Why should they want to remain at a university whose president has dismissed the man who embodied the Christian scholarly excellence that brought them to Baylor?"
"Make no mistake," Wood continued. "We will soon see a talent exodus from Baylor's faculty unless real wholeness can be restored to Baylor's broken community."
(Excerpt) Read more at christianitytoday.com ...
This was coming.....and needed to. Prayers that the university will return to its First Love.
As a former Baylor student, this infighting is no surprise.
All one needs to do is look at the turmoil at Louisville's Southern Seminary over the last ten years. Baptists might in fact split in the coming years.
Am I interpreting your comment correctly if I deduce that Jeffrey had a better vision for what needs to be done at Baylor than Underwood does?
all Baylor faculty just received $1,000 bonus...
I'd say the new President is at least heading in the right direction :)
Would some of the departing Baylor staff liken the largesse to a payoff involving 30 pieces of silver?
FYI
Your assignment: Diagram this sentence!
Dr. O'Brien was an interim pastor at our church several years ago. His promotion is a step in the right direction.
I'm running errands with my wife in a few minutes, but I'll try to tackle it later today. There are about three adjective clauses at initial glance.
The best vision for Baylor is only that from the LORD.
I see one of the faculty who is considering leaving Baylor is sociologist Rodney Stark. His work on early Christian history is well respected in scholarly circles while at the same time it has strengthened the case for important evangelical goals. If Baylor was trying for that kind of excellence, it's hard to see where it was failing.
Now try to get any three Baptists to agree on what his vision is.
So9
Baylor can probably be counted on to be on the liberal side of the split. They started a new theology school because Southwestern was too conservative for the BGCT.
OK, I'm back from my errands to take a shot at it.
As far as I can tell, there's a main clause (Why should they want to remain at a university), an adjective clause modifying "university" (whose president has dismissed the man), another adjective clause modifying "man" (who embodied the Christian scholarly excellence), and a final adjective clause modifying "excellence" (that brought them to Baylor). In grammar terms, it's a complex sentence, whose definition is one main clause plus two or more subordinate clauses.
If you like, I can break individual clauses down further (subjects, verbs, direct objects, adverb and adjective prepositional phrases, etc.), but we might both be in danger of suffering grammar overload at that point.
Very taxing on the working memory.
Actually, they started a new theology school because a bunch of power-hungry politicos disguised as conservatives took over Southwestern. I was squarely in the middle of the meltdown in the 1980s and early 1990s and had many good, conservative, Bible-believing friends lose their jobs at Southwestern. It wasn't because they had liberal theological leanings but rather because they refused to sign on politically with the thugs (there's no other word to describe them) who had hijacked the Southern Baptist Convention.
Unfortunately, many people who didn't have a ringide seat thought that the issue was conservative theology versus liberal theology. It wasn't over theology at all -- it was a lust for power.
We've exchanged opposing views on this subject before, in greater detail, so rather than re-hash, let's just say that we disagree.
That's fine. But remember, I was there and I saw what happened.
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