A couple of years ago during the national gathering of "The Society of Biblical Literature," my friends and I were having dinner when I mused: "Southwestern doesn't have a reception for us. Have you ever wondered why? Duke, Harvard, Princeton, Fuller--they all have receptions for their alumni, wanting to celebrate their achievements, to stay connected. That's not the case for us." Then one of my friends (he teaches at a Baptist university and has written several "best sellers" in biblical studies) said, "You're right. I never thought of that before." To which I replied, "you'd think that they would want to celebrate your success, make it evident to everyone how proud they are of you and the rest of us. But they don't. It's as if we are academic orphans."
That observation has become evermore evident to me as my alma mater, Southwest Baptist University, is about to be taken over by forces within the Missouri Baptist Convention. If the convention goes their way in a few weeks, new board members will bring a majority vote to implement their agenda: to turn SBU into something it's never been--a fundamentalist/calvinistic college.
It's an odd thing to me: the Baptist institutions of higher education that produced me back then find me undesirable today. What my professors taught me--the value of higher education I received from them--is now considered a threat to theological education. It just feels so strange. These "mothering institutions" that had such a profound impact on me--the way I read the Scriptures, fostering my desire to obey Christ and serve His Church, helping me sort out what it means to make a difference for the kingdom of God--they don't want to have anything to do with "their children" born at a certain time. I entered their doors in 1975, left their buildings eleven years later (BA, Mdiv, PhD), ready to embrace the calling of God on my life, believing I had received the best education Baptist money can buy.
I believe I have fulfilled that calling as a pastor and a professor. And, I thank God that I have found a place to serve Him with a loving Baptist congregation who takes seriously their calling to be the Body of Christ. But, when I think about where I came from, the college and seminary that birthed me, I have this strange feeling that I don't belong. There will be no homecomings. I have no place to rest my "theological" head. I have no alma mater, no "mother" who will always root for me, will say she is proud of me, will claim, "he's mine."
It's a hard thing to admit, but it's finally dawning on me: I'm an academic orphan without a home.
5 comments:
You might not have a mother, but I am lucky enough to be counted as one of your children. I could not be who I am today without your teaching and example of how to read the scriptures. Thank you.
I attended SWBC-as it was named then-at the same time you did. I am heartbroken by the experiences of abandonment and loss for all us who received a foundation of Christian education for ministry there. Thank you for expressing your thoughts here as they certainly resonate with me. Prayers for your ministry in a new place. Thank you for touching the lives of so many students. Rev. M. Jane Wood
I, too, am part of the stateless diaspora of those who in our bones are still Baptist, as defined by our upbringing and experience, but who now don't recognize what that corner of Christendom has become--graceless, authoritarian, and just plain nasty. So many people are mourning the impending demise of SBU as it's been for 142 years-- a liberal arts college for the education of a broad swath of middle class midwesterners including not just Baptists, but other believers and non-believers attracted to what is had to offer--a good education, teachers who were both scholars and committed Christians, and a warm, welcoming culture. Now, a hostile takeover by those with a history a hostile takeovers who are looking for their pound of flesh will likely dismantle this institution that has meant so much to my wife and me as well as many of our grandparents, parents, aunts, uncles, and siblings.
So, while our institutions reveal themselves to be just as frail and fallible as those who make them up, let us still rejoice in the communities of spirit that can and must sustain us. Rodney, your teaching, in all its various guises, created communities of believers that reflected your own deeply held values of kindness, decency, grace, and intellectual rigor. Those communities will outlive not only the now sadly unrecognizable institutions of our youth, but our own corporeal existence.
I would like to echo Aaron's sentiments above. I am continually grateful to the Lord for you teaching and example and also those others as well whom I benefitted from during by time at Redford at SBU.
Regarding the forces mentioned above, I will pray for them that God might have mercy on them in dicipline to open their eyes and lead them to repentance as I can only imagine that if they are Christian then they must be a bit ignorant and nearsighted in their calvinist zeal.
May the Lord bring you encouragement this day! Praying for you and that you may have comfort and courage from the Spirit. I always enjoy your posts and hope to read more soon. As always, thanks for sharing your thoughts and wisdom! -KP
I went to Williams Baptist College. Though I never had you as a professor, I heard you speak at a Wednesday morning chapel service (which I went to begrudgingly- but God was doing a work in me despite my reluctance). After that chapel service we began attending Central Baptist in Jonesboro.
You baptized my firstborn and dedicated my two other babies. You helped me during my divorce and I will always treasure hearing you say to me "I am so proud of you" at your going-away party.
Now I am reading your blog and learning about your feeling of being an "orphan". I can relate on a certain level.
There is a diabolical power at work and it is sweeping through the churches in our nation. I have never seen such a time as I am seeing with Progressive Christianity, Word of Faith, New Age in the church, etc. So much of it can be identified as gnosticism with a new name and occultism hiding behind a different nominclature. So many are "selling out" and losing "the faith" (correct doctrine) for the phoney religion we are being inundated with currently, it should come as no surprise that the infiltration of truth for false beliefs would make its way even into our seminaries. As I peruse preachers on TV and YouTube, so many teach not "right" but "almost right" and so few know or care about the difference. It can become very disheartening.
Then one day my husband turns on the television and a face from the past is on the screen, still teaching truth and I find myself so encouraged that I text my firstborn "I am watching Dr. Rodney Reeves on a local channel right now!" And I thank God that there are still Godly people who act aa a light in the darkness- a city on a hill.
Stand firm and fight the good fight! I am praying for the eyes of so very many to be opened to the apostasy all around us! In Jesus name...
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