The Future of Baptist Higher Education

Chapter Eleven, Response 1: To Whom Are Baptist Colleges and Universities Accountable?

171 Chapter Eleven To Whom Are Baptist Colleges and Universities Accountable? Response 1 Daniel Vestal The Challenges to Baptist Higher Education The challenges facing Baptist higher education at the beginning of the twenty- first century are daunting. In fact, in my darkest moments, I find myself with little hope for the future vitality or relevance of many Baptist colleges and universities . The future of Baptist schools seems cloudy and problematic because of the convergence of two forces. First, there is the continued threat from fundamentalism , particularly in the schools that have a continuing relationship with the Southern Baptist Convention. Most state conventions in the SBC are now controlled by fundamentalists and therefore represent a constituency that is indifferent, if not hostile, to the whole enterprise of Baptist higher education . Fundamentalists clearly do not really believe in education; they support only indoctrination. For this reason, they will stifle academic freedom and excellence if given the opportunity. Second, there is the challenge from the opposite direction: secularization. The list of colleges and universities that started as Christian and as Baptist and that have become secular is much too long. Increasingly the temptation for schools started for and by Baptists is first to isolate themselves from their Baptist constituency and become Christian in a generic sense with little or no loyalty to the Baptist family. Often they gradually then lose both their Baptist and Christian identity altogether. This movement toward secularization has been well documented, and the trend still continues. Undoubtedly financial issues play a role in both of these challenges. There is only so much Baptist money to support higher education, and the competition for that money is intense. The cost of supporting Baptist SchmelVita Future.indd 171 SchmelVita Future.indd 171 4/11/2006 1:20:41 PM 4/11/2006 1:20:41 PM 172 To Whom are Baptist Colleges and Universities Accountable? educational institutions constitutes an incentive for state conventions to divest themselves of this obligation. As Baptist colleges and universities face diminished support from Baptist organizations, they must look for money from other sources, which can cause significant change in the schools’ priorities and policies. Equal to the effect of limited resources on the future of Baptist higher education is that of the scarcity of courageous, creative, and competent leadership. In many institutions, administrators have been more concerned with institutional survival than with the Baptist principles of academic and religious freedom. Some Baptist college and university leaders , rather than face an uncertain institutional future, have been willing to conform to a fundamentalist agenda and have sacrificed the integrity of their leadership. Others have capitulated to an elitist and secularist pressure to pursue the values of the secular academic marketplace rather than to continue the arduous task of combining academic excellence with unapologetic Christian commitment. Others, many of whom are leaders of vision and integrity, have simply grown weary of the struggle, which doesn’t exactly inspire younger Baptists to pursue Christian higher education as a career. Someone has remarked that the most difficult position of leadership within the Baptist family is that of president of a Baptist college or university. The Effect of the Changing Baptist Landscape The denominational context in which Baptist colleges and universities exist today is undergoing radical change. Most interpreters of North American religious life say that we are living in a postdenominational culture—that is, that Christian denominations simply don’t have the power or influence over local churches that they had in the past. And they exert even less power or influence in the lives of individuals. Although I don’t believe that Christian denominations will disappear in the foreseeable future, I do believe that they will face significant reconfiguration. If so, this would mean that the age we are living in is not so much a postdenominational age as it is a neodenominational age. Churches will still affiliate, network, partner, and connect with other churches, but they will do so in different ways. One fact is clear: because individual Christians and local congregations do not feel the intense loyalty to denominations that they did in the past, the funding, support, and sense of identity that resulted from denominational loyalty will continue to fade. This means that the question “To whom are Baptist colleges and universities accountable?” must be addressed within the context of a changed and changing denominational reality. In the past, many Baptists believed their schools were...