Thoughts on Southwestern

I just got back from a month-long trip to Europe and found the article of May 7 regarding the two Southwestern professors being pushed out. Needless to say, I was overwhelmed by both anger and grief. One of these men was my brightest student at SW. Therefore, I am submitting the following for the Opinion Page:

With reference to the May 7 story regarding the two Southwestern Seminary professors who chose not to sign the 2000 Baptist Faith and Message, I wish to comment about one of them: Jeph Holloway, professor of Christian ethics. While I was chairperson of the department of Christian ethics at Southwestern, Jeph was my graduate assistant and teaching fellow for three of those years.

Jeph was one of the brightest and most godly graduate students I ever had at Southwestern. Shortly after graduation, his Ph.D. dissertation was accepted for publication (a rarity for SW Ph.D.s) by the prestigious Scholars Press of the Society of Biblical Literature. He then served 10 years as Bible professor at Williams Baptist College in Arkansas (one of the most conservative schools identified with the SBC). No one has ever questioned his commitment to the veracity and authority of Scripture.

Now he must leave Southwestern because the trustees, led by the likes of Miles Seaborn, have lately (after hiring Jeph) superimposed, not merely the inerrancy of Scripture (always expected), but now minor "interpretations" of selected passages (wifely submission and no women pastors) as required orthodoxy for professors at SWBTS. More serious was the elimination of "Jesus Christ as the criterion for interpretation" from the BF&M (a seismic change from the 1963 version).

Fundamentalists, not conservatives, did this. When will the news media stop confusing these words in reporting the dastardly deeds of fundamentalists? There is a huge difference.

Jeph Holloway is a very healthy conservative, a superb teacher, and a godly role model for students. To drive this man of brilliance, conviction, integrity, and spirituality out of the classroom at SWBTS is a prime example of fundamentalism's stupidity and arrogance. Ken Chafin was right when he warned years ago that inerrancy would eventually require "inerrant interpreters" who will try to use their interpretations to control the rest of us.

Guy Greenfield, former professor of Christian ethics, 
SWBTS, 1980-91  Amarillo, Texas