SBC Elites practice brutal politics in fight over power and money. One example shows the pettiness of the insecure paranoid Adam Greenway when the ousted SWBTS president came to power.
The rumor swirling among Southern Baptist Convention preachers is that the ousted President of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (SWBTS) Adam Greenway dug up the remains of the previously ousted SWBTS President Paige Patterson’s dog. We decided to see what actually happened.
The rumors come in various forms; however, one of the most vivid includes these details that sometime soon after becoming SWBTS President that Adam Greenway removed the gravestone, dug up the bones and mailed the remains to Patterson.
There is a certain level of barbarity to this story that shows you just how nasty, brutish, and short one’s life can be in SBC politics. While SBC Elites do not possess the power to do as Charles II to the remains of Oliver Cromwell (exhumed the body and displayed the head on a pike), but SBC Elites will do the next best thing—dig up your dead pet!
However, that part of the story may not be true.
According to a source very close to Patterson, Greenway ordered dug up the gravestone marker for the dog as one of Greenway’s first acts as President of SWBTS. The marker was thrown away. According to a source close to Patterson, a landscaper saw the marker tossed aside, recovered it, and took it to Patterson.
However, if the dog remains buried or if it was dug up is unknown. Though it appears unlikely that the dog’s remains were mailed to Patterson. (Patterson wrote about the dog for BP and the dog was featured in Patterson’s presidential portraits at SWBTS and SEBTS. Also, the dog appeared in a stain glass of Patterson that Greenway also removed at SWBTS.)
Still, Greenway’s actions show a bizarre, ruthless, and even Byzantine that SBC Elites act toward others. How did this vindictive streak go unnoticed for so long?
Surely, the people who worked with Greenway at SBTS knew about his lack of character. So, why would they follow Greenway to SWBTS knowing who and what he is?
And one source at SBTS said that administrators like Greenway when at SBTS are typically sycophants—as that is the only way someone gets a position of authority under the “insecure paranoids” running SBC seminaries.
And if you doubt “insecure paranoid” is a good description of SBC Elites like Greenway, then you should pay attention to what Greenway told the beloved former SWBTS professor Dr. David Allen. Greenway said he didn’t trust people he didn’t hire, and Greenway was digging through Dr. Allen’s emails from 10-20 years earlier.
Those are hardly the actions of a sane leader.
The bottom line: SBC Elites practice the most brutal of politics over the power and control of the SBC. They’ll even toss away a pet’s gravestone to send a message. These people are truly wicked.
And what does it say of those who Greenway hired and promoted?
Nothing good.