Trustee reveals disturbing look inside of Albert Mohler’s SBTS
By Lawrence Fuqua
Special to the Capstone Report
A bombshell video released by six-year trustee of the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (SBTS) Dr. Tom Rush highlighted the expansive leftward drift of the Southern Baptist Convention’s flagship seminary under the leadership of Dr. Albert Mohler. Dr. Rush highlights problems of Critical Race Theory, rejection and hostility to the Dallas Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel, petty behavior toward conservative seminary faculty standing against racial identity politics and promoting bad teaching on same-sex attraction.
Here are 4 of the biggest bombshells from the video:
SBTS President Al Mohler says one thing in private and does another thing in public
SBTS’ promotion of a same-sex oriented teacher concerned Dr. Rush and led to Dr. Mohler agreeing in private but promoting the problematic teacher later in public.
Rush first points out the problem of Sam Alberry. The teaching Alberry propagates on same-sex attraction is very troubling. His material and relationship with the organization called Living Out is greatly problematic (just go read their articles for yourself). They stand contrary to a Biblical sexual ethic and to our understanding of biblical hamartiology and anthropology. Even Mohler agreed with him privately and yet, to Tom’s surprise, Mohler later extolls and partners with Alberry as seen through this video. When confronted on it, Mohler pushed back and asked whether Tom wanted him to remove it. Tom replied that he should, yet it remains online to this day.
Rejection of the Dallas Statement: Tom Rush proposed SBTS adopt the Dallas Statement on Social Justice & the Gospel. Al Mohler refused.
Given the rampant problems we are seeing with Critical Race Theory: Tom Rush suggested that the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary adopt the Dallas Statement so that they could take a bold stand on the gospel as it relates to social justice. Hitting another brick wall: Mohler told Rush that he only wants his seminary to sign the official documents of the Seminary, which are the Abstract of Principles and the BFM 2000. Tom’s objection was that the Chicago Statement of Inerrancy and the Nashville Statement have been adopted by the Seminary, so why not this document as well?
When the trustee meeting came around, Tom made a motion that the seminary adopt the Dallas Statement. He wanted professors to have a foundation to stand on in relation to CRT. This motion was rejected by the board of trustees.
The Firing of 2 Professors because of “COVID” their views on CRT.
Along with the motion of the Dallas Statement, Tom wanted to offer another motion: restoring pay to former seminary employees who refused to sign an NDA following their termination in the early Spring of 2020. This motion never received a second motion and was therefore rejected by the board.
Back in the spring the seminary attested that they would need to prepare for the anticipated loss of income that could affect up to 30% of the revenue of the seminary, so they decided to terminate a few professors. Two of the professors let were vocal opponents of CRT at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary, one of them even being a signer of the Dallas Statement—Dr. Russell Fuller.
What is odd about this move is that the seminary later hires several different professors after the firings. Why would they do that if they cut professors for only budgetary reasons?
In addition, Jim Orrick and Fuller were asked to sign NDA’s. Normally these are known as Non-Disclosure Agreements. In the paperwork given to these two, it was actually a Non-Disparagement Agreement. Here is what it states:
“Fuller agrees that he will not at any time before or after the execution of this Agreement directly (or through any other person or entity) make any public or private statements (whether oral or in writing) that are derogatory or damaging to Southern Seminary, or any of its administration, faculty or staff….”
They allegedly were being terminated for financial reasons, but if that’s the case, why silence them? Tom Rush argues in this video that this document is a threat, which goes contrary to 1 Corinthians 6:1-12. When Tom pointed this out to Mohler, the response he got was one of disagreement about the application of this text. While Mohler says he wouldn’t take the former professors who signed such an agreement to court, he says that threatening them works. Rush believes that this is bearing false witness.
Ultimately Tom believes that this contract was unethical, it was hush money to keep them quiet. There is no reason to do that unless the seminary thought that they had something bad to say. As a trustee, Tom wants to hear if a seminary has an issue with a professor or if a professor has an issue with the seminary. He wants to deal with any problems that might arise at the seminary.
Critical Race Theory taught at SBTS
After obtaining notes from a class taught by Dr. Jarvis Williams, it seems that CRT was being taught by Dr. Williams. Tom Rush compared this promotion of Critical Race Theory to his experience as a seminary student when he was learning higher criticism, which cast doubt on the reliability of the Bible. They weren’t merely learning about it, Dr. Rush said. It was being taught as a useful approach to Scripture. This appears to mirror what is happening at SBTS with Critical Race Theory.
Another point he brings up is when Matthew Hall called himself a racist and would struggle with that sin until he died. Tom has known Hall for several years and attests that Hall is not a racist at all. He claims Hall possesses false humility by adopting this woke narrative, which believes in a racialized worldview of unconscious racial bias.
A common theme in these four points: most trustees are not doing their job. It takes courage to speak out about these issues. We need more trustees like Tom Rush.
Same thing at SEBTS.
I would be interested to know details of how this is happening at other institutions, such as SEBTS (Southeastern Bible Theological Seminary?).
I would be interested to know details of how this is happening at other institutions, such as SEBTS (Southeastern Bible Theological Seminary?).
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