Fort Worth, Texas -- Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is one of the last places one would expect to find angry students shouting and chanting outside the president’s home.
But more than 1,000 students on the seminary’s quiet, conservative campus here crowded onto the lawn in front of the house this month, not to criticize the president but to offer an emotional outpouring of support after trustees abruptly fired him.
The president, Russell H. Dilday, is the latest in a succession of chiefs of Baptist seminaries to either resign or be fired after battles with conservative trustees. The rally here was a sign of how the sudden dismissal is expected to change Southwestern. Already, students and faculty members worry about its implications for academic freedom. And donors, also concerned and angered over the conservative board’s assertion of control, have been withholding their gifts.
David M. Saul, a third-year student, was so angered by the firing that he has decided to transfer to another seminary this summer.
“I’d rather have a degree from an institution that academically I can be proud of,” Mr. Saul said bitterly. “I was proud of Southwestern. I grew up as a Southern Baptist and my parents were missionaries. This is all I’ve ever known. But no longer will I call myself a Southern Baptist. I’m a Baptist.”
Mr. Saul, like several other students interviewed, worried that as conservative Baptists continue to tighten their control over the seminary, they would dictate more stringently what is taught in the classroom and what kinds of faculty members are hired.
Faculty members were concerned, too. “There’s always been a certain freedom to interpret texts in a responsible way,” said W. David Kirkpatrick, a professor of theology at the seminary. “There was always a community of trust. Whether that will change remains to be seen.”
The trustees, who voted 26 to 7 to fire Mr. Dilday, said they had no plans to interfere in curricular matters. They said they had simply reached an impasse with Mr. Dilday and found him uncooperative and difficult. They changed the locks on his office and gave him until June 7 to vacate his home on the seminary grounds.
O. Damon Shook, a member and past chairman of the board of trustees, described Mr. Dilday as “confrontational and critical” and said “the conflict seemed to accelerate in recent years with frequent attacks on trustees for lack of cooperation.”
Mr. Dilday’s supporters weren’t satisfied with such explanations. They described his firing as part of a larger effort by conservatives to purge Southern Baptist seminaries of moderate leaders.
“There’s a tremendous sense of grief among both faculty and students,” said Jimmie Nelson, a professor of preaching and an associate dean at Southwestern. “We’ve lost an outstanding administrator. Dr. Dilday has always been honest and open, and he’s always been inclusive.”
At a campus meeting at which Mr. Dilday’s firing was announced, students and faculty members prayed, wept, and sang hymns. Trustees, who initially gave no explanation for their action, were jeered, and some students shouted that it was the board members who should be fired. When the trustees returned to campus later, they were accompanied by guards.
The trustees, who announced their decision just as the campus was about to close for the spring break, said they expected some people to be upset, but they predicted that the matter would soon blow over. When students returned last week from their break, the campus was peaceful. But although there were no posters or angry demonstrations, students and faculty members gathered in clusters in the library and conference rooms to share their feelings.
After the firing, a national accrediting agency wrote a letter admonishing the board at Southwestern for what it called “a clear violation of accepted governance practices” that “places in jeopardy the vitality and basic integrity of the institution.” The agency, the Association of Theological Schools, specifically criticized the board for firing the president on short notice and without due process, and it asked trustees to reconsider their decision.
Meanwhile, a number of irate alumni have canceled gifts that they had promised to the seminary. Kenneth H. Cooper, a Dallas businessman who headed the seminary’s fund-raising campaign, resigned in protest and withdrew his $30,000 pledge. Seminary officials declined to comment on the amount of revoked pledges, but sources who asked to remain anonymous said the seminary had lost millions of dollars since the firing.
Mary-anna Buntain, a second-year student at Southwestern, said students were worried that a drop in donations might mean higher tuition and fewer scholarships.
The controversy could help a growing number of independent Baptist seminaries that have been founded by moderates in recent years, such as Baylor University’s George W. Truett Seminary, scheduled to open in the fall.
“We take no delight in what happened at Southwestern, but there’s no question that interest in Truett has picked up in recent weeks,” said Brad Creed, associate dean of the Baylor seminary. The seminary is considering whether to increase its enrollment in the fall.
In a recent interview at his seminary-owned home, the man at the center of the controversy spoke calmly about his sudden, but not entirely unexpected, dismissal.
“I think this incident has widened the rift rather than bringing about healing,” Mr. Dilday said. “If anything, it has stirred people up who might have thought these problems were over.”
Since his firing, Mr. Dilday has been overwhelmed by expressions of support, including a call from former President Jimmy Carter, a fellow Baptist.
Unlike other seminary presidents, who were ousted for their moderate views, Mr. Dilday is considered a theological conservative. He was viewed as a mediator who, despite his conservative stance, was willing to work with Baptists who held more-moderate opinions than his. Ultra-conservative Baptists, who are often referred to as fundamentalists, differ from their more moderate colleagues in several respects, including how to interpret the Bible. Fundamentalists believe the Bible is inerrant, or literal in every detail, while moderate Baptists believe there is room for personal interpretation.
Mr. Dilday has angered the leaders of the fundamentalist movement with his blunt criticism of strategies they have used to gain control of Baptist institutions.
Since 1979, conservatives have been elected to the top posts of the Southern Baptist Convention and have appointed a majority of conservatives to the boards of the six seminaries the convention owns. Since then, the presidents of three of those seminaries have been replaced by more conservative leaders. Mr. Dilday’s firing opens up a fourth presidency for conservatives to fill. An interim president is expected to be named this week while a search committee seeks a permanent replacement.
Mr. Dilday’s firing brought an immediate reaction from Herbert H. Reynolds, president of nearby Baylor University.
“I am not at all surprised by this action on the part of the fundamentalists who have ravaged so many of our Southern Baptist institutions and agencies over the past 15 years,” said Mr. Reynolds, who himself has been the target of fundamentalist ire for years because of his relatively moderate views.
The action also brought a sharp rebuke from a former dean at another institution -- Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary -- who along with the president and several top administrators resigned in 1987 to protest what they called threats to academic freedom.
Conservative trustees at Southeastern replaced moderate officers on the board with a full slate of conservatives and announced that they would only hire professors who adhere to a belief that the Bible is literally and historically true.
“I wasn’t surprised by what happened at Southwestern,” said Morris Ashcraft, a former dean who is now retired. “I’ve seen how the fundamentalists work, and I knew they’d try to get President Dilday out as fast as they could so they could put in one of their own.”
The trustees who voted to fire Mr. Dilday defended their move in a news release that criticized his performance and attitude. They said the president and the board had reached gridlock over doctrinal and policy differences.
“Dr. Dilday’s refusal to retire under extremely generous and justifiable circumstances has brought embarrassment and potential permanent injury to the seminary,” Lee Weaver, the board’s vice-chairman, said in the release.
Wayne Allen, one of the seven trustees who voted to keep Mr. Dilday, called such explanations “a cover-up” and predicted that the decision “would cost the seminary millions of dollars.”
Mr. Dilday said he was concerned that if the trustees tighten their control over Southwestern, “I think we’ll see more intrusion into the curriculum that could threaten our accreditation.”
Nancy T. Ammerman, a professor of religion at Emory University who has written a book about the Baptist conflict, said the latest firing had professors at other seminaries worried about their futures.
“This particular incident said it’s not about theology, it’s not about orthodoxy, it’s not about what you’re doing in the classroom,” she said. “It’s pure and simple denominational politics.”