THE TRUTH COMES OUT

The following is the actual letter sent from Ollin E. Collins, a trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, to one of the past presidents of the SBC. We are printing the actual letter unedited, so that Texas Baptists may read it as written.

May 9, 1994

Dear Bro.

My name is Ollin Collins and I am serving as acting chairman of the Presidential Search Committee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary.

I write to you, not as the acting chairman of that committee, but as a Trustee of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. Please know up front how much I love, respect, and support you in your ministries. I thank you for your leadership in our Southern Baptist Convention over the past years.

I write to you now with a broken heart and humble spirit, and I hope you will receive this in the way in which it is intended. I have to ask, why has there been such a strange silence from you men who have been in leadership over the Southern Baptist Convention concerning the action taken by our board in terminating Dr. Dilday on March 9th? I say strange silence because it just seems strange that when we finally did what you men had been leading us to do, and saying needed to be done for some ten years now, and yet once it was done it was as though we had leprosy and nobody wanted to touch us or be associated with us. We really feel like we have been hung out and left by our self and nobody that we have respected has stepped forward to say, “these are Godly men and women and the reason they are in that position is because we believe them to be men and women who walk with God and can be trusted.” Please understand, I am not saying that you needed to take a side, nor that you need to take a side now. But I am saying that it would have been nice to at least have had a public statement released by one of the high profile conservative leaders in our convention saying that we could be trusted to be Godly men and women who are acting to the best of our ability under the leadership of God.

I truly feel that because of the lack of this type of leadership by ANY high profile national conservative Pastor, that our conservative constituency is fragmenting. I would urge you on behalf of my fellow trustees to prayerfully consider making some kind of public statement saying that you trust us, believe in the trustee process, and urge conservative Southern Baptists to trust us to be making a decision that is right for Southern Baptists.

We want to move on and find a President, but in all honesty we feel that we 27 who voted to terminate Russell are in this all by ourselves when we receive over 450 letters, are bombarded from every news media, Baptist included, telling us what reprobates we are, calling us ecclesiastical bigots, and told that there are special places in hell reserved just for us.

It sure would be nice to have a public statement in the news media saying that you believed in us. I just urge you to prayerfully consider letting my fellow trustees know that you love us and you do believe in us. And also making it public so that others will know that as well.

Thank you for listening. Know that I love you, and I thank you for all that you have done and if I never hear a word from you that will not change how much I love and respect you. Thank you for listening.

Sincerely, Ollin E. Collins

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