The Contrast between Southwestern Seminary and Baylor is Striking

"He who covers his sins will not prosper,
But whoever confesses and forsakes them will have mercy."
Proverbs 28:13

[Disclosure: This author's Pastor is a Southwestern alum.]

We've been keeping an eye on the situation at Southwestern seminary.  Because of the above disclosure, combined with bandwidth limitations, we've been taking a wait and see approach.  But last Thursday's statement speaks for itself:

Statement by Kevin Ueckert, Chairman of the Board of Trustees

By Kevin Ueckert on Jun 1, 2018

Based on a number of follow-up questions I have received this week, I am providing this additional statement related to our May 30, 2018 statement. The unanimous decision by the Executive Committee to immediately terminate Dr. Paige Patterson was prayerfully considered and warranted.  

We confirmed this week through a student record, made available to me with permission, that an allegation of rape was indeed made by a female student at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in 2003. This information contradicts a statement previously provided by Dr. Patterson in response to a direct question by a Board member regarding the incident referenced in our May 30 statement. The 2003 rape allegation was never reported to local law enforcement. SWBTS will not release the student record to the public without additional appropriate permissions. 

In addition, as previously disclosed, a female student at SWBTS reported to Dr. Patterson that she had been raped in 2015.  Police were notified of that report. But in connection with that allegation of rape, Dr. Patterson sent an email (the contents of which were shared with the Board on May 22) to the Chief of Campus Security in which Dr. Patterson discussed meeting with the student alone so that he could “break her down” and that he preferred no officials be present. The attitude expressed by Dr. Patterson in that email is antithetical to the core values of our faith and to SWBTS. Moreover, the correlation between what has been reported and also revealed in the student record regarding the 2003 allegation at Southeastern and the contents of this email are undeniable.

Further, SWBTS received a request from Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary requesting the return of any documents taken by Dr. Patterson upon his departure from Southeastern. Counsel for SWBTS, Michael Anderson, immediately reached out to counsel for Dr. Patterson, Shelby Sharpe, on May 25 and made inquiry regarding the documents. Mr. Sharpe advised Mr. Anderson that Dr. Patterson only took documents from Southeastern that belonged to him. Yet, independent of that request, following the May 30 Executive Committee meeting, SWBTS located Southeastern documents on the SWBTS campus and began taking steps to preserve them.  Mr. Anderson is in contact with George Harvey, counsel for Southeastern, and is working with Mr. Harvey regarding Southeastern’s request for the return of its documents. 

The morning after the May 30 Executive Committee meeting, Mr. Sharp provided a few documents he reportedly obtained from Dr. Patterson. The documents clearly dealt with Dr. Patterson’s tenure at Southeastern and should have been previously provided in response to Mr. Anderson’s May 25 request. Shortly after these documents were provided, the wife of Dr. Patterson’s Chief of Staff published a blog and attached these documents without the permission of the students referenced in the documents or appropriate leadership from SEBTS or SWBTS. I believe this was inappropriate and unethical. Regardless, the additional documents do not alter the decision of the Executive Committee.

Ultimately, the decision of the Executive Committee to immediately terminate Dr. Patterson was clear and unanimous. 

I also want to reiterate what SWBTS Interim President Dr. Jeffrey Bingham said earlier this week.  SWBTS denounces all abusive behavior, any behavior that enables abuse, any failure to protect the abused, and any failure to safeguard those who are vulnerable to abuse. 

In this difficult situation, the Executive Committee based its decision on the current performance of the president and did not allow the legacy of Dr. Patterson or the #MeToo pressure to steer the outcome. We did not react; rather, we decisively exercised our responsibility based on the Seminary’s biblically informed core values and integrity.

I join Dr. Bingham in his call for the SWBTS community to join the Body of Christ in praying for healing for all individuals affected by abuse.

In other words, having discovered an awful situation, they seem to be handling it as well as you can.

Consider the following:

• Promptness -- The first sign that something might be seriously wrong came in early May.  The situation was resolved within a month.  Furthermore, once the really damning stuff came to light on May 22, decisive action happened quickly.
  
  Taking the time to fairly determine facts does not need to drag out for months or years.

• Openness -- The statement above is a concise statement of what the senior leadership of the institution knew and when they knew it.
  
  Moving forward, in the event other bad information comes to light, we hope to see this type of transparency continue.
  
  But, so far at least, no stonewalling.

• Professionalism -- Say what you will about the awfulness of the original situation, but they're facing it head on.

• Lack of Denial -- This line from a Washington Post story stands out:
  

  "Patterson was [Danny] Akin’s preaching professor, and they worked together for nine years, Akin said, adding that he had admired Patterson for decades.
  
  “This is a man I love. Do I think he gave horrible, horrible counsel? I absolutely do,” Akin said, referring to Patterson’s 2000 comments.
  
  [Disclosure: Danny Akin has preached at this author's Church.]

   Again, once the evidence started to pile up, they faced it.
  

Meanwhile, at another Baptist institution 100 miles south, the festering sore continues to ooze:

Parrish Cobb was once one of the highest-rated defensive recruits to ever sign with Baylor, only Cobb's family wanted nothing to do with the football program once Art Briles was fired in Waco.

Everybody wanted the four-star recruit, who, in 2015, was named the Super Centex Defensive Player of the Year by the Waco Tribune-Herald after he led Waco La Vega to its first state title.

He was going to a big-time college program with his eyes on the league.

On Monday, Cobb was sentenced to 18 years in prison in Waco for aggravated robbery in the holdup of a Baylor student at gunpoint. Prosecutors dropped two other robbery charges against Cobb, who also has another armed robbery charge in Norman last year.

But here's the kicker:

Cobb signed his National Letter of Intent to play for Briles at Baylor. When Baylor fired Briles in May of that year, Cobb's parents passionately pleaded with Baylor officials and coaches to let their son out of his NLI.

Cobb's father would wait outside McLane Stadium to talk to Baylor administrators to press the issue.

The process lasted several weeks before Baylor released Cobb, who then signed with Oklahoma.

So, Cobb signed with Baylor (even though we knew by February 2016 that there was really bad stuff going on) as long as Briles was coach.  When Briles was gone, Cobb was out.  It makes one wonder what Briles and his staff told Cobb during recruiting.  Especially considering this.

On the bright side, at least he didn't rape anyone.

But what stands out is that, six years later, the bad news continues to drip out.

Bottom Line: Same denomination.  Similar situations.  The responses could not be more different.

-------

UPDATE: When it rains, it pours:

AUSTIN, Texas — Texas' highest criminal appeals court has reinstated the 2015 sexual assault conviction of a former Baylor University football player whose case ignited a scandal that engulfed the nation's largest Baptist school.

The Texas Court of Criminal Appeals said Wednesday that a lower court erred by overturning the conviction of Sam Ukwuachu based on text messages between the victim and a friend that had not been allowed in trial.