Kevin Bauder on the future of fundamentalist education

Tim, regarding BBS you said, “Wayne Slusser was not a good choice.” I’m mentioning this statement because it seems to be a bit out of place. If I may say so, in a very gracious way, it may even border on slander since you’re casting a negative light on a person with no clear basis or good reason for doing so.

Dr. Decker was an outstanding professor with whom I enjoyed some limited interaction before I enrolled in the seminary. Unfortunately, I was never able to have classes with him, though I still refer to his written works in my studies. That said, My M.Div. experience with Dr. Slusser as a professor has been a good one and I am looking forward to an NT preaching class with him this coming Fall.

On a separate but related note, I’ll add that two girls from our church are upperclassmen at Clarks Summit University and have had a tremendous experience there, including a quality education, a transformative discipleship approach, and clear spiritaul growth and development.

We are, shall we say, not interested in going to BJU. Faith and Boyce are both regionally accredited and offer strong programs in the non-bible undergrad degree my son wants.

[TOvermiller]

T Howard wrote:

Clarks Summit (aka Baptist Bible Seminary) has been bleeding seminary students for a while. They are choosing to go to SBTS and other conservative evangelical seminaries instead.

What do you mean here? That Clarks Summit undergrad students are going elsewhere for seminary or that seminary students are leaving their program midway through to go elsewhere instead? (Or that their Masters graduates are going elsewhere for Doctoral degrees afterwards?) And on what basis do you say this? I - for one - am a very satisfied and grateful BBS student who’s wrapping up an M.Div. there this year.

Tom,

Let me be clear: I, too, am a very satisfied and grateful BBS graduate. Before I left, I even inquired about starting and funding an annual seminary scholarship in honor of Dr. Decker. I believe I received a rigorous, advanced theological education at BBS. But, since I graduated with my M.Div., the seminary has lost several key faculty members and has downgraded due to fewer residence students. The last I heard, the seminary now mostly attracts online students and this led to the selling of its seminary building and reducing its full-time seminary faculty. BTW, I’m a big fan of on-line seminary as long as the academic rigor is maintained. Therefore, I’m not a fan of Liberty’s online program.

Now, from what I was told by several seminary faculty the year I graduated (2016), many men who in the past would have gone to BBS for seminary (I’m assuming they know this because these men were attending GARBC churches) were choosing instead to attend a Southern Baptist or other conservative evangelical seminary. They knew that I was also accepted to the M.Div. program at SBTS and were curious why I chose BBS instead.

[TOvermiller]

Tim, regarding BBS you said, “Wayne Slusser was not a good choice.” I’m mentioning this statement because it seems to be a bit out of place. If I may say so, in a very gracious way, it may even border on slander since you’re casting a negative light on a person with no clear basis or good reason for doing so.

Dr. Decker was an outstanding professor with whom I enjoyed some limited interaction before I enrolled in the seminary. Unfortunately, I was never able to have classes with him, though I still refer to his written works in my studies. That said, My M.Div. experience with Dr. Slusser as a professor has been a good one and I am looking forward to an NT preaching class with him this coming Fall.

Tom,

I’m not sure how saying Wayne Slusser was not a good choice to replace Rod Decker is slander or, in this case, libel. I’ve made no character judgments about Dr. Slusser. I’m sure he’s a great guy and a good professor. I’ve only interacted with Slusser once and that was during my doctrinal paper defense. My point was that replacing a well-respected and recognized Greek scholar like Decker with Slusser wasn’t like replacing Michael Jordan with Lebron James. The former provided BBS with a level of academic rigor and respectability (at least in NT Greek studies) that was lost.

But, let’s be honest, Decker was a rare bird. There aren’t too many professors at independent baptist seminaries who are recognized scholars in their field of study.

On a separate but related note, I’ll add that two girls from our church are upperclassmen at Clarks Summit University and have had a tremendous experience there, including a quality education, a transformative discipleship approach, and clear spiritaul growth and development.

As I said previously, I have no knowledge of the quality of undergrad education at Clarks Summit University.

[TylerR]

We are, shall we say, not interested in going to BJU. Faith and Boyce are both regionally accredited and offer strong programs in the non-bible undergrad degree my son wants.

I can understand your not being interested in BJU. However, lack of regional accreditation should not be one of your reasons — they’ve been regionally accredited for several years now. Achieving regional accreditation was one of the good changes that has happened under Steve Pettit. The quality of the academics at BJU has never been an issue, and now they have the accreditation to go along with it. When I attended in the 80’s and BJU was not accredited, I had no trouble being accepted into more than one graduate program, and one professor I interviewed with for the grad program in computer science even remarked that students from BJU entering their program had always been very strong academically, especially in math and sciences.

Thanks. I know they recently achieved regional accreditation. The institution just has too much baggage for me to ever be comfortable with it. I once reluctantly broached the subject with my wife and she was vehemently against it. I am not really enthusiastic about it. The institution’s baggage sours me on anything about it. I wish them well … from afar.

[TylerR]

Thanks. I know they recently achieved regional accreditation. The institution just has too much baggage for me to ever be comfortable with it. I once reluctantly broached the subject with my wife and she was vehemently against it. I am not really enthusiastic about it. The institution’s baggage sours me on anything about it. I wish them well … from afar.

As I said, I understand why some may not choose it. But a “fundy degree mill” it is NOT, and in certain programs, it’s one of the better options. However, BJU will, unfortunately, be fighting with its past (and what people remember of it, rightly or wrongly) for some time to come.

I know they’re good, and I know their seminary has an excellent reputation. I heard Bauder say recently that it’s just as good as the better evangelical seminaries. It’s just too much baggage for me! Even I wouldn’t do something like a PhD there, because the institution’s very name just conjures up the silliness of fundamentalism’s worst impulses. I couldn’t ever say I had a degree from there without feeling a sense of embarrassment. I know it’s not fair, but that’s just the way it is … (sad face).

Matriculated from BJU with a business degree in the mid-1990s. Still a lot of the cultural trappings even then, some of which were simply not biblical. The Lord led me to remain in the Greenville area since, working in the secular workplace. Have had one question/comment from a co-worker in 25 years related to theology/cultural views of BJU. Rest assured that there is hardly a more thin-skinned politically-correct environment than corporate America, so I think I would have heard a lot more than that in 25 years if there really was that much baggage. The “baggage” thing is a non-issue right here in the area where BJU is seen up-close by the community.

Folks can sincerely hold their views on the past, but the reality is that institutions change, even by God’s grace for the better. As an analogy, Kia and Hyundai were the targets of auto quality jokes 20-30 years ago. Now both make vehicles that are at least as reliable as the average mark. Consumers could still refuse to buy K/H autos due to quality issues from 20-30 years ago. But such decision-making would have to either be ignorant of or in willful denial of K/H quality performance over the last 10+years.

We all have our blindspots, me included. I just don’t understand hanging onto a mental image that no longer represents reality, especially when talking about matters of consequences. May seem counter-intuitive, but if I had a bad experience as a teen with a green car that broke down on me on a date with the pretty girl in the class (embarrassing) and I still loath the color green, that’s unfortunate, but not a big deal. For one, green can’t change the fact that it’s green.

If my best friend stole that pretty girl from my romantic plans and I still can’t stand the guy, well, I probably should think hard about if that is wise. We both have grown a lot as people and he’s probably not the same person he was and I am not either. All analogies break down, but just a thought.

Grateful for a Savior Who is making all things new.

Most people know nothing about BJU and there isn’t much baggage there, in that respect. The baggage is in my head. I don’t want to go there or get a degree from there, or have my son get one, either. There’s literally no reason on earth to go there when there are other institutions around. Just don’t want to have anything to do with the school. I wish them well … from afar. Sincerely.

See the next article in the series …