Southwestern Relocates the Windows

[Sandy]

http://mbcpathway.com/2019/04/30/remova ... om-donors/

The new administration of Southwestern Seminary has not wasted any time in "relocating" the egocentric window collection that was ostensibly to honor the leaders of the conservative resurgence. The criteria for being honored on a window was support for the conservative resurgence but apparently, according to at least one pastor, you could also get a window to honor someone if you gave enough money to the school, as he did. I don't see in the article where the windows are being "relocated," but personally, I think that is an extravagance that doesn't represent either the seminary, nor the individuals who are depicted in the windows, in a way consistent with Christian servant leadership and humility. I'm glad to see they've been removed.

[Dave Roberts]

I think the Catholics have something right in requiring you be dead a certain period before canonization can begin. Stained glass is the Baptist canonization.

[Haruo]

That at least used to be the rule for being honored with a (US) postage stamp. Have to specify US because UK is diametrically opposite; a silhouette of the regnant is de rigueur.

[Sandy]

But even in a "Baptist canonization," you let someone else do the honoring. This whole thing was a bad idea from the start and now is a symbol of the extravagant wastefulness of the Patterson years at SWBTS.

[William Thornton]

The honorees were uneven. It was a bad idea from the start.

[Rvaughn]

If I understand this article correctly, two of the windows have been retrieved by and moved to Liberty University:

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

HIs analysis of it may be correct, though it was promoted that way when the chapel was being built and the money was being raised. Patterson's position in the resurgence movement and his connections to people who had money to give ran deep. I'm sure he was willing to give up a few window panes in exchange for big checks.

As a Southwestern alum, I am glad to see the windows gone. Genesis 20:4-6 can be interpreted in various ways, but it seems inconsistent for someone who claims to be an inerrantist, literalist, verbal, plenary inspiration theorist to place windows in a building dedicated to Christian worship honoring human achievements. And while you might scratch your head over the actual involvement of some of the people who were included in the windows, in the provincial backwardness of the SBC there are the highly visible elites and prominents and there are a lot of wannabees (like David Brumbelow) who no one knows and whose names have never been heard but have money to buy a window and get to put a graven image in it of anyone they admire. There are a lot of Southern Baptists who think Jerry Falwell was one of the main characters in the conservative resurgence and facts won't convince them otherwise. Rick Warren's success means that his name has to be included as well, since the conservative resurgence is a synonym for success in ministry and since he made himself a rich man by writing the best-selling Christian book ever, that the people in the pew absolutely love, someone had to claim him as one of the resurgence leaders as well. Frank Page the peacemaker was, perhaps, the most popular individual to serve as SBC President since 1979, he was the "guy they got from the other side", his personal career ambitions within the SBC notwithstanding, and since he succeeded the ubiquitous Morris Chapman, also had to be numbered among the resurgence brethren. Barber, himself an insider who, like most every other trustee of Southwestern Seminary currently on the board, knows all of this because he wouldn't have been on the trustee board had he not been hand-picked and approved in advance by Patterson himself. He was one of many sycophants on that board. As the old saying goes, "Methinks thou dost protest too much."

Where was he when Southwestern's enrollment was tanking, the bills were mounting and the incompetence ruining the school?

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

What happened at Southwestern, appropriately represented by the windows, is the result of giving a seminary presidency as a reward for denominational political activity. The use of "honoring the leaders of the conservative resurgence" as a money-raising ploy and then inventing stories about how they really actually were in some way contributors to the conservative resurgence is characteristic of the whole mess at Southwestern. Southern Baptists have paid a high price for the stacked board of trustees and the blank check given to Paige Patterson at Southwestern as the spoils of a denominational controversy The school is still teetering on the brink of survivability. They finally have a president with academic credentials and leadership experience in theological education but it may be too late.

The best thing that Southwestern's trustees can do for the school at this point is step down. Bart Barber should lead the way. Get out. Let J.D. Greear's committee select trustees who have no connections to Patterson, Pressler or anyone in the resurgence group. Give them a fresh start.

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]

[Rvaughn]

[Tim Bonney]

I do feel sorry for the artists. You’d think there could be redesign and put other people in stained glass. Maybe Jesus? The Apostles? Founders of the Baptist faith?

[Haruo]

[Tim Bonney]

[Haruo]

Yeah, he only remained a Baptist church member for less than a year, I think, but then proceeded to give them pulpit supply for years thereafter, leastwise that's what I was taught as a Northern Baptist.

[Sandy]

[Rvaughn]

[Sandy]

[William Thornton]

Sandy always offers a clear-eyed, astringent view of SBC stuff.

The new administration at SWBTS acted decisively in regard to the windows but have yet to be forthcoming on the extent of the financial problems of the school and the role of former admin in that.

The SBCs pattern in entity meltdowns is to get a new leader that everyone likes and ignore the past and hope it just gets forgotten.

[Tim Bonney]

[Tim Bonney]