6/1/1985 - Amazon Web Services

Board Rejects Silencing
Of Seminary President
Page 2
ming the annual Southern Baptist Convention in Kansas City, Mo, last June, ~ilday, in a
convention sermon, attacked the fundamentalists, calling them proud brokers cd per. mter
Ray L. Jiloneycutt, pesident of Southern Baptist Theological Seminary in ~auisville, Ky. ,
stirred emotions when he called for holy war against the fundamntalist plitical faction in
the SBC.
" The last six years fundamentalist leaders have successfully sought to elect their awn
candidates to the SBC presidency. - The latest, Charles F. Stanley, pastor of First Baptist
Churd.1, Atlanta, was installed as wesident during the Kansas City meeting.
Dilday said one p rpe of the, Tuesday trustee meeting was to express concern the seminary
is one of the "targets" of f milamentalist leaders af tes they cited a trend toward li&ralism
in certain SBC-connectd colleges and seminaries.
He said most trustees agree, "The seminary is right in the middle of this and the
fmdamantalist movement is indeed aimed at the edmatioml institutions including the
seminaries. Ard that's where our conem is."
Sane semimy leaders fear a fundamentalist daninated convention might exact re~isals
against professars viewed as too liberal and/= cut s&ml funding to a school viewed as having
strayed too far £ran the mnser~tive Baptist viewpoint.
Ralm Pulley, a Dallas layman on the seminary board, made the motion to instrllct Dilday to
stay out of denominatioml politics, a trustee said. Pulley is one of three sdnary trustees
who are members a€ the First Baptist Chur&, Dallas, where W.A. Criswell is past=. Criswell
is seen by many as being the behid the scares oentral figure of the f-entalist movement.
One of Criswell's associates at First Baptist, Paige Patterson, w b is also ~esident o£ the
Criswell Center for Biblical Studies, spearheaded the fmdamentalist movement in the SBC.
hther trustee, Jcrhn May, a Ft. Wffth music evdngelist, says he is a fundamentalist but
mt aligned with any group. He has a great adniration fm Dilday but doesn't like his role in
the Baptist controversy. "I don't feel like a person receiving a salary like Dilday's £ran the
dmomination should chose sides," he said.
Afterwards, even tbse who opposed Dilday' s involvepnmt in the mntrwrsy paisd his
leadership at the saninary and said they would aontinue to bck him in semimry matters. McKay
said, "Wz agreed to disagree. I love Dr. Dilday and I think he has done a marvelous job. I
hate to see him drag the seminary into this fight. I don't think the seminary w ill get
anything out of this exce* a blcdy mse. "
Draper said he agreed Dilday had sane responsibility to speak as a seminary leader ht he
would like Dilday's statements to h less divisive. "I'd like him to speak out and invite all
the people to acme to the Southern Baptist Convention in Dallas next y~ar instead of saying
'these are the bad guys and let's get rid of them.'"
-' The trustees also anmunaed a fiveyear program to raise $25 million has gone over the top
and adopted a new UparS90 progsam goal OE raising amther $50 million f a the seminary by
1990.
--3s-
(Jim Janes is religion editor far the Fcrt Warth Star;-Telegram.)