Carson Newman trustees adopt BFM 2000

[Stephen Fox]

As Doctrinal statement.

Jeff Lovingood of Cleveland Tenn is Trustee in charge of denominational relations

Likely chaos like Nelson Price brought to Shorter to Follow

Aaron Big Daddy Weaver Facebook comments on fire

Google Tn Baptist News and Reflector article

Here are your trustees

http://www.cn.edu/administration/board- ... f-trustees

[Stephen Fox]

http://archive.knoxnews.com/news/local/ ... 8341.html/

[Stephen Fox]

http://www.bpnews.net/22057

[William Thornton]

No one cares what you put on some FB wall. You raised a decent issue. Don't waste it by linking your extraneous junk located elsewhere.

[Dave Roberts]

As a Carson-Newman alumnus, I am quite disappointed in this. By all appearances, the trustees seem to have done this without any consultation with faculty or administration. Again, adding a flawed statement to the incorporation and bylaws to the university seems a problem. Has the Tennessee Baptist Convention made this its own statement or insisted on the adoption of such documents?

[Sandy]

http://baptistandreflector.org/tbmb-rec ... on-newman/

The article is sketchy, but it looks like the conventions Partner Ministries Committee had received some concerns about the university and that the adoption of the BFM 2000, and implementation of policy related to it was a means of at least partial resolution of the issues.

I haven't read much about issues at Carson Newman. I know there was quite a battle over Belmont, eventually winding up in court, and that the financial value of the investment of the Tennessee Baptist Convention's investment in the university was the price they paid for ending their relationship with the convention, $50 million over a five year period, I believe. It looks like something may have raised that kind of concern about Carson-Newman, and the Partner Missions Committee of the convention met with the trustees to prevent something like that happening again.

My understanding of the way Baptist polity works when it comes to relating to institutions like colleges and universities depends on how the trustee board is set up. Carson Newman's board is elected by the Tennessee Baptist Convention. The convention relates to the trustees through its Partner Ministries Committee, and the trustees apparently decided that adopting the BFM 2000, and putting it in their policy, would be part of the resolution of the problems that have been addressed. The trustees employ and supervise the administration, and according to the article, the President has agreed to communicate their wishes to the faculty and staff, and ensure their compliance. That's how it works. Apparently the school's administration agreed to this.

[Jon Estes]

This is great. I hope they have the teaching and administrative staff sign it in agreement or write caveat as to where and why.

There are plenty of liberal, social liberal, social colleges and universities to choose from. Having another conservative, Bible believing School won't hurt the left, unless they are some of those easily bruised snowflake type.

[Sandy]

I would disagree with requiring faculty and staff at any Baptist university or educational institution to sign the BFM 2000, for several reasons. One, the BFM is not a comprehensive doctrinal statement, it is a framework of essentials upon which denominational cooperation is based. It is intended to define the doctrinal parameters in which institutions relate to convention bodies, not to be a comprehensive statement of faith. In this case, the school's trustees have reported to the convention's Partner Ministries Committee that the school has adopted the BFM 2000 as one of several guidelines of this sort, and that the school's administration has agreed to ensure that it is implemented.

The school is an independent, autonomous institution under Baptist polity, and it already has a comprehensive statement of faith, and curriculum guides which cover every objective in every course it teaches. The administration is responsible for ensuring that there is agreement and unity between the school's statement of faith and its curriculum objectives, and since the faculty is largely responsible for developing the curriculum, and for utilizing it in classroom instruction, signing off on yet another doctrinal statement would be redundant and superfluous. If there are places in the curriculum that are not in agreement with the BFM 2000, then those adjustments will be made by the administration, changed in the curriculum objectives that professors are required to teach. There are as many ways to interpret the words in a general statement like the BFM as there are to interpret passages of scripture, signatures and caveats from professors are meaningless and ineffective.

"Conservative" and "Bible believing" are catch phrases that are used to describe personally defined beliefs, in other words, "you must believe it the way I believe it to be entitled to call yourself by those words."

[Jon Estes]

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

More like Belmont than Shorter College according to sources in the vicinity of Jefferson City. Jeff Loving Good of FBC Cleveland Tn hasn't responded. Haven't checked to see if my facebook comment is still up there. I expect he is in deep collusion with the Alt Right Resolutions Steve Gaines of Adrian Rogers Bellevue Baptists, but saner folks on CN board are playing the chess match so I guess will see. Will be interesting to see if Aaron Weaver's alarms of last Thursday were appropriate. Looks like nobody knows at this point.

[Stephen Fox]

Tell us Willie, Has Dave Miller gotten word yet and what's he sayin.

Two Molly Worthen is not Extraneous, She id Central, Kerygma

Third. Do you know Jeff Loving Good and do you and Jerry Vines think this is gonna play out like Belmont or Shorter?

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

Lee Saunders, Thank you. I posted your findings on CN Prez Randall Obrien facebook wall and will keep you posted.

[Dave Roberts]

I can see how trustees could enforce the BFM2K on the Religion Department, but I really wonder about how such a document has much relationship to a number of departments like Business Accounting, Nursing, Pre-Med, ROTC, English, Foreign Languages, Computer Science, Chemistry, Physics, History and Political Science, and a number of others. In a college like Carson-Newman, many of the faculty members in those departments are not Baptists while many others are. I don't recall when I was there that being a Baptist was required anywhere but in the Religion Department.

[Sandy]

http://www.cn.edu/about-c-n/vision-miss ... statements

I don't really see what the BFM 2000 would add to what the university has already stated. If they're following this mission and purpose, and statement of faith, the BFM 2000 wouldn't change a thing, that I can see.

[Stephen Fox]

What is the latest.

Ive been whispering in the ear of CN trustee SBC liaison Jeff Loving good of FBC Cleveland Tn but I'm not sure he is listening.

I tried to get word to him about the religion dispatches . org piece me too with the picture of Steve Gaines and Ronnie Floyd.

[Stephen Fox]

https://baptistnews.com/article/baptist ... gttLUqnGUl

So much for Steve Gaines not embracing the Alt Right!!!

I'm calling Jeff Lovingood of FBC Cleveland the CN Trustee in charge of denominational relations

[Sandy]

[Stephen Fox]

And was keynote speaker to the Bama SBC Tuesday night.

Sandy Lee Saunders you are too bright not to concede SBC is now just one big mush pit.

Call Jeff Loving good and give us a report. He aint no Carlyle Marney.

You know the history of Beeson Dean. Rumor is he is a member of Briarwood (Timothy George) PCA in Bham.

Rick Burgess was hilarious this morning on his syndicated radio show about Roy Moore. Says they are gonna put a statue up at Gadsden Mall--see Roy at the Mall, New Yorker. His Babbdissed Sidekick Big Bill Bubba Bussey said the succession for Bama is Sessions, Strange, Saban.

I bet Steve Gaines thought that was funny as Hades. I laughed too.