Ed L. Schrader says he began his presidency of Shorter College in the summer of 2000 with the sincere hope of strengthening the small Southern Baptist institution’s 41-year relationship with the Georgia Baptist Convention, the state’s most powerful religious organization. Less than two years later, however, Shorter filed for divorce.
The executive director of the convention accuses Mr. Schrader of “stealing” Shorter. And the college and the convention have sued one another.
The convention has frozen more than $9-million that had been set aside for the institution. Baptist pastors have denounced Shorter from their Sunday pulpits, and about 40 students have withdrawn from the college in anger over the split. The convention, scarred by its battle with Shorter, has convened a task force to examine its relationship with other Baptist organizations that it helps support, including three colleges in Georgia.
Shorter’s split with the state convention is noteworthy for its rancor, but hardly unique. It is just the most visible example of the continuing tensions within the denomination between moderates and conservatives -- or liberals and fundamentalists, as they often label each other.
Ever since 1979, when conservatives took control of the Southern Baptist Convention -- the largest Protestant denomination in the United States, with more than 16 million members -- and began purging moderate voices from the six seminaries under its control, Southern Baptist colleges have feared that something similar could happen between them and the state conventions with which they are affiliated. In many states, those conventions often must approve the colleges’ trustees.
To fend off the conservatives, more than a dozen colleges have either split entirely with their state conventions, by creating self-perpetuating boards of trustees, or significantly limited the convention’s power over the trustee-election process. Conservatives have continued to make inroads on the state-convention level, however, ensuring that more battles within higher education are likely.
Both money and reputations are at stake. A college that severs its legal ties to a state convention usually loses most or all of the funds it had received from the organization, which can amount to several million dollars a year. For smaller colleges, that can make up 10 percent of their budget. Some colleges have also seen their enrollments drop after convention officials -- many of whom are pastors -- steer families away from those institutions, saying they are no longer truly Baptist.
Georgia isn’t the only state where tensions have led to lawsuits. The Missouri Baptist Convention has taken Missouri Baptist College to court, along with several other Baptist agencies, including a foundation and a newspaper, that recently created self-perpetuating boards following a conservative takeover of the convention. The Missouri convention has also begun an investigation into whether William Jewell College has a “homosexual agenda” and supports “Christ-dishonoring plays” like The Vagina Monologues, which was performed on the campus this year.
Sometimes the battle between conservatives and moderates is waged on a campus itself. The chairman of the Board of Trustees at Mars Hill College resigned from his post in May to protest the college’s treatment of a conservative candidate for its presidency. He complained to officials within the state Baptist convention that the college was “ashamed of Jesus Christ,” and urged them to develop standards on “what it means to be a Christian school.”
While there is considerable variation of thought within the denomination, the issues that typically separate conservatives from moderates are belief in a literal interpretation of the Bible, including a suspicion of the theory of evolution; deep concern about society’s growing acceptance of homosexuals; a prohibition of female pastors; loyalty to the Southern Baptist Convention; and adherence to the Baptist Faith and Message statement, a controversial document that, among other things, holds that wives must submit to their husbands.
A commitment to those beliefs has turned the six Southern Baptist seminaries into model institutions, says the Rev. Owen Bozeman, a member of the Georgia Baptist Convention’s executive committee. “The Southern Baptist Convention is the only convention or denomination in Protestant history to make a conscientious effort to reclaim its institutions,” he says. “We have done that on the doctoral level with our seminaries. And it has trickled down to the states.” All six seminaries require faculty members to sign the Baptist Faith and Message statement as a condition of their employment. The institutions are “better, and they’re more widely respected than they were before,” Mr. Bozeman says. “The biggest change in our seminaries is that we have gotten back to training ministers instead of academics.”
While they’re not happy about losing their state conventions’ financial support, and sometimes the conventions’ good will as well, administrators and trustees at many of the colleges that have distanced themselves from these Baptist organizations say that if they did not build such firewalls, they risked becoming little more than mouthpieces of the conservatives.
“The convention really wants Bible schools,” says Gary Eubanks, chairman of Shorter’s Board of Trustees. “They don’t want liberal-arts colleges.”
Lists of Questions
Many of the attempted takeovers have played out in private, observers say. Shorter’s fight, however, quickly become public.
The Georgia convention and the college dispute virtually every aspect of the conflict. But they agree that the battle began with a meeting in August 2001 between the Rev. Mike Everson, a pastor and key figure in convention politics, and Mr. Schrader, Shorter’s president.
Shorter’s campus, on a hill here in Rome, a city of 35,000 residents about 65 miles northeast of Atlanta, is an idyllic collection of red-brick buildings and magnolia trees. Mr. Schrader, a compact man with a direct way of speaking, says that when he came here as president, he knew nothing about Georgia’s Baptist politics or Mr. Everson, who was on the committee that handles nominations to the boards of the convention’s affiliated agencies.
J. Robert White, executive director of the Georgia Baptist Convention, says Mr. Everson wanted to make some suggestions for who should sit on Shorter’s Board of Trustees. Since 1959, the convention has elected the college’s trustees at its annual meeting. Mr. White encouraged the pastor to call Mr. Schrader directly. He did, and the two men met at a Cracker Barrel restaurant.
According to Mr. Schrader, Mr. Everson asked him a series of questions: How did he feel about homosexuals? Could he guarantee that the next person hired in the religion department would be someone who interprets the Bible literally? Would faculty members be willing to sign the Baptist Faith and Message statement?
Mr. Schrader says it quickly became clear that he wasn’t giving the answers the pastor had hoped for: “He didn’t say much and scowled a lot.” Mr. Everson also handed the president a list of five people he’d like to see on the board. “I said great,” Mr. Schrader recalls. “I’m always looking for names.”
Sitting in his church office in Douglasville, just west of Atlanta, Mr. Everson smiles broadly as he calmly disputes Mr. Schrader’s version of the meeting.
“The president has no character,” he says. “He’s just a habitual liar. The things he said about me are absolutely not so.”
Mr. Everson, a big man with a deep voice and a confident manner, says he wanted to meet Mr. Schrader as a pastor, not a convention official, because he is often asked by congregants for advice on where to send their children to college.
The minister says he posed four questions to Mr. Schrader: Did he see Shorter as a Christian college or a liberal-arts college? What church did he belong to? What were his feelings about the Baptist Faith and Message statement? Had he known practicing homosexuals teaching at Shorter who promoted homosexuality?
“I went away from the meeting feeling like Dr. Schrader was not conservative in his values, and that the school would not be,” Mr. Everson says. “But the school has not been conservative for quite some time.”
A few months after their meeting, Mr. Schrader forwarded several names to the convention’s committee on nominations as replacements for board members whose terms were ending. The committee notified Shorter that the convention planned, at its annual meeting in November 2001, to elect seven people to the board, three of whom were not on Mr. Schrader’s list. They were, however, on Mr. Everson’s list.
Although the convention casts the final vote, Shorter officials say it has never unilaterally appointed anyone without consulting the college first. Convention officials say there have been instances when trustees not nominated by the college have been placed on the board.
‘I Felt Betrayed’
Mr. White, executive director of the convention, says that it has never had any desire to control Shorter’s board, and that the three men were selected solely because they were considered solid choices. But Mr. Schrader found the action alarming, especially because the college was in the midst of a 10-year accreditation review with the Southern Association of Colleges and Universities. How could he tell the association that the college was free from “external political and religious influence,” as the accreditor’s standards demanded?
After the election, Shorter came up with a way to appease the accreditor: a legal maneuver that essentially leased the college to its fund-raising arm, the Shorter College Foundation. The board of the foundation is independent of the convention, giving it a level of autonomy.
Mr. White says that when Mr. Schrader informed him of the maneuver, he was flabbergasted. “I felt betrayed,” he says. “I felt like you would feel if someone sneaked into your home and stole one of your prize treasures.”
To Mr. White and the rest of the convention’s leadership, Shorter College is not an independent entity, but an integral part of the convention’s extensive web of agencies, which cover nearly every aspect of Baptist life, from youth ministries to elder care. “This convention has invested $26-million in Shorter College over the last 40 years, in addition to a lot of good will,” he says. “I love Shorter. I cherish the relationship. Yet I find out this new president has come in and worked with the [trustees”] executive committee to remove Shorter from the Georgia Baptist Convention.”
The convention quickly placed in escrow about $9-million that it had set aside for Shorter. The college counts the bulk of that as part of its $29-million endowment.
Showdown Time
Surprised by the convention’s strong reaction and unsure about the legality of the lease itself, Shorter’s trustees rescinded the autonomy maneuver in early 2002. In March, the visiting accreditation team issued a report stating that “undue pressure” was being placed on the trustees by the Georgia Baptist Convention. It recommended that the college “demonstrate that its bylaws and legal documents ensure the independence of the board.”
In May, the board changed its bylaws to require that all future trustees be approved by the college. Mr. White says Shorter’s claim that it had to change its bylaws or risk losing accreditation is “bogus,” noting that many Southern Baptist institutions -- including Brewton-Parker and Truett-McConnell Colleges, in Georgia -- allow their trustees to be selected by the state convention. He and other convention officials believe that Mr. Schrader planned the split, and was using accreditation as an excuse to separate the college from the convention.
“That’s just fantasy,” says Mr. Schrader. “I think they were surprised that our accreditation standing would be taken so seriously and the academic integrity of the school would generate such a need.”
James T. Rogers, executive director of the Southern association’s Commission on Colleges, explains that institutions themselves determine whether there is a problem. If Shorter had not complained about the trustee appointments, and the accreditor had not discovered any evidence of interference, then it would not have investigated further.
“It’s a narrow line that we walk. We’re not trying to take on the world, nor are we trying to interfere with the internal management of the institutions,” Mr. Rogers says.
College and convention officials met dozens of times to try to hammer out an arrangement satisfactory to both sides, without success. The next fall, in 2002, when Mr. Schrader submitted to the convention a roster of 16 names from which to choose replacements for the eight trustees whose terms were expiring that year, the stage was set for a showdown.
At the convention’s annual meeting, before announcing the names that the nominating committee had selected, Mr. Everson delivered a speech. He had looked into all 16 names submitted by Mr. Schrader. On average, he said, they came from churches that donated below-average amounts to the convention. He noted that one nominee had been to church only once in two years.
“I wouldn’t want to put somebody in there, no matter how competent, if they weren’t trustworthy,” he explains. He defines untrustworthiness as “if they do everything they can to hurt the Georgia Baptist Convention” by giving their money to other organizations instead.
None of the 16 people recommended by Mr. Schrader made the nominating committee’s list, even though he included several former trustees of the college. The convention voted to approve the list put forward by its own committee.
Shorter’s board then moved to dissolve the college’s charter, transfer its assets to the Shorter College Foundation, and reorganize under a new charter with a self-perpetuating board. The convention sued the college, saying it had no right to reorganize itself without the convention’s approval. The college sued the convention to retrieve the more than $9-million it said it was owed.
In April, a county judge ruled that the college’s charter gave the convention the right to appoint the college’s trustees. But that quickly became a moot point, because the judge also said that the college had the right to dissolve the charter and reincorporate as an independent entity with a self-perpetuating board. The ruling was a victory for Shorter, but the convention has promised to appeal.
Meanwhile, the convention has begun studying its relationship with other Baptist organizations to which it contributes money, including Mercer University, Brewton-Parker, and Truett-McConnell. The result may be a requirement that those institutions pledge their fidelity to the convention or risk losing financial support.
Independence Day
If Shorter prevails, it will be one of the smallest of Southern Baptist colleges to make the transition to independence. The Rome campus has about 1,000 students. An additional 1,300 are enrolled in an adult degree program.
Shorter’s action has rippled through Southern Baptist circles and caused some Baptists to wonder if it signals a new wave of separations. “If Shorter can handle it in these tough times, other colleges can handle it as well,” says David W. Key, director of Baptist studies at Emory University’s Candler School of Theology.
The first colleges to remove themselves from the direct control of their state conventions were among the largest and best-known Southern Baptist institutions: Baylor University, Furman University, Stetson University, and the University of Richmond. While they all vowed to retain their Baptist character, these institutions have, since their separations, also attempted to broaden their appeal to students beyond state borders.
David Shi, president of Furman, says it is better off financially since the 1992 split. Although Furman lost its $1.6-million annual donation from the South Carolina state convention, alumni giving has more than made up the difference. “We believe this is the result of alumni feeling ownership of their alma mater, and no longer thinking Furman is taken care of by the Baptist convention,” he says.
Independence is no guarantee that colleges will be free from scrutiny by the denomination, however. William Jewell College, which is affiliated with the Missouri Baptist Convention but elects its own trustees, came under intense pressure last year following a proposal by the student government to include sexual orientation in its antidiscrimination statement. Even though the policy would have had no legal weight, the college’s president, David Sallee, was criticized by Baptists for not condemning the proposal.
“College students, particularly at a Christian liberal-arts college, should debate difficult issues, and this is a difficult issue in our society,” he responds.
Kenny Qualls, associate executive director of the Missouri convention, disagrees. “Students are always going to debate issues, that’s just common sense,” he says. “But I believe to be a distinctive Christian college, the leadership realizes the students have to debate, but the leadership then stands up and says, ‘Thus sayeth the Lord.’ I believe secular schools let students come to their own conclusions because they don’t believe in absolute truth.”
The convention began an investigation, asking, among other things, where trustees and faculty members go to church, and what organizations they belong to.
What ‘Christian’ Means
At Mars Hill College, in North Carolina, two trustees, including the chairman, resigned in protest over the way in which faculty members and administrators had objected to a conservative candidate for president. Faculty members unanimously opposed the candidate, Richard B. Brewer, who worked at Charleston Southern University. The Board of Trustees ultimately chose Mars Hill’s interim president to lead the college.
The former chairman, Fred W. Pitillo, complained to the State Baptist Convention of North Carolina that Mars Hill had weakened its Christian character, and asked the convention to develop criteria for measuring the Christian identity of Mars Hill and the state’s other Southern Baptist colleges: Campbell University, Chowan College, Gardner-Webb University, and Wingate University. A convention official says he doubts that the proposal will garner much support. But Mr. Pitillo, who has stopped giving money to Mars Hill, believes that donors have a right to know what exactly they are supporting.
“I think some things need to be determined if you’re going to get money from the Baptists,” he says, “such as what it means to be a Christian school.”
The legal fight in Georgia may not be over, but Shorter is already looking forward to a future beyond the reach of the convention. The provost, Harold Newman, is glad that the split happened. Now, he says, “you attract faculty members who would normally be afraid to enter an environment where there’s an implied threat, whether true or not. The public and foundations see you as a more legitimate member of the higher-education community.”
Mr. White paints a more pessimistic picture of the college’s future. “Shorter has hurt itself badly among Baptists in Georgia and Baptists across the country,” he says.
SOUTHERN BAPTIST COLLEGES THAT HAVE LOOSENED TIES WITH THEIR CONVENTIONS
Baylor University changed its charter in 1990 so that one-quarter of its board is now elected by the Baptist General Convention of Texas. Before that, the convention elected all of the trustees.
Carson-Newman College in 1998 changed its charter to become self-perpetuating. In 2000, the institution and the Tennessee Baptist Convention agreed to choose trustees jointly.
Furman University’s board became independent of the South Carolina Baptist Convention in 1992.
Grand Canyon University severed its ties with the Arizona Southern Baptist Convention in 2000.
Houston Baptist University chooses three-quarters of its board members, while the Baptist General Convention of Texas elects the rest, under a 2001 agreement.
Meredith College first broke from the Baptist State Convention of North Carolina in 1991. It later allowed the convention to elect nominees approved by the college, but in 1997 it became independent again.
Mississippi College came to an agreement with the state Baptist convention in 1994 that the convention would select trustees of the college only from a list compiled by the college.
Missouri Baptist College in 2001 changed its charter to make its board self-perpetuating -- a decision that has been challenged in court by the state convention.
Ouachita Baptist University’s board became self-perpetuating in 1996. The Arkansas Baptist State Convention still ceremonially approves trustees.
Samford University’s board became self-perpetuating in 1994. As a courtesy, Samford permits the Alabama Baptist State Convention to approve the nominees, but the approval has no legal standing.
Stetson University became independent of the Florida Baptist Convention in 1993.
University of Richmond began naming non-Baptists to its Board of Trustees in 1969. As of 1999, the university stopped receiving money from the Virginia state convention.
Wake Forest University’s board became self-perpetuating in 1986.
-- MEGAN ROONEY
http://chronicle.com Section: Money & Management Volume 49, Issue 43, Page A20
