The Myth of the Conservative Resurgence

 

Why I am Protesting the Fundamentalist

Takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention

by Lee Edward Enochs 

“But examine everything carefully, hold fast to the truth”

1 Thessalonians 5:21

 

Very quickly after enrolling as a student at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I learned about this legendary, so- called, “Conservative Resurgence” that transpired in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC). It was launched by an ambitious disciple of the famous Baptist Pastor W.A Criswell named Paige Patterson and a Princeton grad (cum laude, class of 1952) turned Houston Judge Paul Pressler. During the 1970’s. Patterson and Pressler led the fundamentalist charge with the goal of taking control of the SBC’s denominational resources under the premise that the SBC Seminaries and denominational agencies had increasingly been taken over by theologians and administrators from a “liberal” perspective.

Patterson and Pressler galvanized a massive movement in the SBC to move the entire denomination away from this perceived liberalism. One of the rallying points that Patterson and Pressler used with great effectiveness was over the issue of Biblical inerrancy. Patterson and Pressler claimed that many of the perceived “liberals” in the SBC seminaries and denominational agencies denied that the Bible was the inerrant Word of God.

 The movement’s main objective was to remove these perceived liberals from their positions of authority in the SBC and it was achieved by the systematic election, beginning in 1979, of conservative individuals to positions of leadership. Perceived liberal and moderate SBC leaders were voted out of office and replaced by men approved by Patterson, Pressler and the other leaders of this fundamentalist takeover of the SBC.

The perceived liberal and moderate leaders in the SBC were systematically voted out of office and many seminary professors and other employees were systematically and often ruthlessly fired and replaced with conservatives that were approved by Patterson and the other architects of this fundamentalist takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention.

As the months and years went by while I was attempting to earn my degree at Southwestern, I gradually began to see that Paige Patterson, though years away from leading the charge in this systematic takeover of the SBC, still retains a position of almost absolute autocratic control and power in the convention. I began to see that it is Paige Patterson who actually calls many of the shots throughout the convention. I began to see first-hand, the enormous political authority that Patterson retains in the SBC and how he attempts to hire and fire theologians and other SBC administrators according to his personal whims.

Recently Patterson has been involved in a movement within the SBC that greatly disapproves of Calvinism and has systematically removed most of the Calvinist professors at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I have witnessed things first hand as a student at SWBTS that have caused me to have grave concerns about how Dr. Patterson controls things. I have seen professors fired for very minor things and it greatly sickens me.

Over the process of several years I have come to have grave reservations about the enormous power that Paige Patterson yields in the Southern Baptist Convention and do not approve of many of his methods of hiring and firing SBC employees. I do not approve of his autocratic power in the SBC and I am now an opponent of much of what this hostile takeover the SBC stands for. While I am personally generally conservative in my theological and political views, I do not agree with the ruthlessness of how much of this hostile takeover of the SBC has taken place.

It is time for new leadership to arise in the SBC. After my very bad experiences at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, I have begun to rethink my entire methodology of how I interact with those who I happen to disagree with. I am definitely not a fundamentalist and do not approve of much of what Paige Patterson and his good old boy network stands for. If that makes me a “liberal,” then so be it.

I want to go down on record as a conservative opponent of the hostile takeover of the Southern Baptist Convention. I am a conservative who does not approve of how this was done, nor do I see authentic Christianity in much of what this fundamentalist power grab in the SBC is all about. It appears to be a shameful power grab and I do not care for it one bit.

I am starting a movement in the Southern Baptist Convention, away from fundamentalism and ruthless power ploys. I and many other younger Baptists are personally burned out and turned off by this fundamentalist nonsense that is ruining the SBC.

I am taking a stand and will use this blog and other means to begin to speak out against this bizarre fundamentalism I have observed first hand at SWBTS and other SBC schools and agencies.

Here I stand, I can do no other, so help me God. 

Lee Edward Enochs

B.A. (Humanities), the College at Southwestern

Class of 2014