Southwestern Trustees Fire Dilday

by Herb Hollinger                                                                                                Vol. VII, No. 3, April 1994

Trustees of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, Fort Worth, met 7-9 March. During an executive session at their last meeting on the ninth, seminary president Russell H. Dilday was fired. Dilday, 63, had been president since 1978.

Upon leaving the meeting Dilday had no comment other than that the seminary no longer had a president. Later at his home he told news media and friends, "We are not defeated ... I plan to do only those things supportive of the seminary and the convention." He said he was surprised by the firing and "it will be awkward and difficult for students for a while," but he urged them to continue on. He also urged about 30 faculty and staff members at the informal gathering to continue to "do the same good job" they have been doing at the seminary.

Ralph W. Pulley, Jr., newly elected trustee chairman and a Dallas attorney, and other trustees gave no reason for the firing except ". ..the institution needed a new direction for the 21st century."

There had been wide speculation among the seminary community that the trustees might ask Dilday to take early retirement since the relationship between Dilday and the majority of the trustees appeared to be deteriorating. In earlier sessions of the 7-9 March meeting trustees deferred most of the recommendations made by Dilday concerning faculty selection, promotions, and an administrative realignment.

After the dismissal trustees met with the five vice presidents and announced William B. Tolar, vice president for academic affairs and provost, would chair a committee of the vice presidents "to continue the stability of the seminary."

The firing was immediate, and Dilday was restricted in his access to the seminary offices. He and his wife, Betty, may remain in the president's campus house until 7 June, three months. The severance plan will pay Dilday's base salary until age 65, including participation in the convention's annuity plan. The seminary will continue medical insurance coverage for both until 65. Also the plan allows immediate access by Dilday to a special housing allowance, a deferred payment adopted by the trustees in 1986. And the plan provides an allowance of up to $3,000 per month for Dilday until 65 for actual costs of off-campus office and secretarial assistance.

A presidential search committee was established chaired by Miles Seaborn, Jr., pastor of Bircham Baptist Church in Fort Worth, and including eight other trustees. A faculty member and a student will be appointed as advisors, and the board's chairman and vice chairman will serve ex officio. [BP]

[Editorial Comment: Dr. Dilday has long been an outspoken opponent of the conservative resurgence. His convictions and resulting attitudes and actions have caused relations between him and his trustees to steadily deteriorate over a number of years, so this action should come as no surprise to anyone who has followed events in the SBC. You will recall that though there had been sporadic brouhahas over liberalism in one or another SBC agencies stretching back 25 years or more previously, the conservative resurgence is commonly dated from June 1979 when Adrian Rogers was elected as the first conservative SBC president elected who was also committed to bring the Convention back to the full authority of the Word of God. For a few years moderates/liberals considered the conservative victories an aberration which would soon wither away, but as the middle 1980s approached they gradually became alarmed and began to express their concerns in word and deed. For those readers not well informed, the following chronology summarizes some of the more widely known incidents in which Dr. Dilday played a major role in opposing and/or criticizing the conservative resurgence.

June 1984: Dilday brought the convention sermon and warned that "an incipient Orwellian mentality" is threatening "to drag us down from the high ground" to "forced uniformity." And he opposed the re-election of Charles Stanley as SBC president.

December 1984: Although a convention employee, he became overtly political when he spoke to a group of moderates, "Concerned Southern Baptists," in Atlanta.

February 1988: SBC president Adrian Rogers and former presidents Bailey Smith and Jimmy Draper (Charles Stanley was ill but sent word that he agreed with their statement) met and issued a statement setting forth the SBC situation from the conservative perspective. Several major agency heads were present and commented afterwards. Dilday said he "had hoped for a statesmanlike proposal, . . . but instead we were given another defense of the takeover strategies of the past ten years .... we were given a statement which merely solidifies the hard line position of those who have gained control of the SBC."

June 1988: In spite of previous instructions from his trustees that he was not to speak out on the controversy, Dilday characterized Adrian Rogers' convention sermon as "steamroller demagoguery." And he indicated that he would continue to voice his opinions.

May 1989: He spoke to another moderate group, Baptists Committed, in Nashville.

October 1989: Because of the above incidents and other statements by Dilday, the Southwestern trustees met with him in closed session and jointly produced a statement including, ". . . we covenant together as trustees and president to cease and desist from making any statements, or writings, or engaging in any activities that could reasonably be interpreted as being intentionally political in nature,. . ."

February 1990: Dilday confronted Jerry Vines in the lobby of the Baptist Building in Nashville in front of at least four witnesses besides Vines and said, "Everywhere I go, I'm campaigning for Dan Vestal. I'm going public; I'm doing it right now. I'm going to promote him ... I publicly endorse Daniel Vestal. I'm with him." Vines, "You are?" Dilday, "Yes, I'm working with him every way I can. I'll surprise you how much I'm working for him. . . The trustees you sent me are objectionable, incompetent, and they couldn't even read a financial statement."

June 1990: In a press interview on Tuesday at the SBC convention, Dilday used the word "satanic." On Wednesday in convention session a messenger asked him to clarify what he meant. "The comment I made," said Dilday, "was that the methodology used in the takeover of the convention these past 12 years – the crass secular political methodology - does have satanic, evil qualities [to] which I am desperately opposed."

The point of the above chronology is not that it is all inclusive; it isn't. Nor is it to suggest that Dr. Dilday is not entitled to his own opinions and judgments; he is. But these events do demonstrate that Dilday has long held strong views in opposition to the leadership that Southern Baptists have consistently elected beginning in 1979, and against conservatives, and that as the conservative majority on his trustee board has naturally grown stronger over the years there has been increasing friction between him and Southwestern's trustees.

In view of the above, it is notable not that he has been dismissed, but rather that it did not happen several years sooner. It is no doubt very difficult for him and his family, and we should pray for their adjustment. Simultaneously conservatives should thank the Lord that Southwestern can now be brought into full coherence with the biblical course of the convention, and ask Him to guide the search committee as they seek God's man as the next president of that great institution.]

(The chronology was taken from James Hefley's five volumes The Truth in Crisis and his sixth book on the resurgence The Conservative Resurgence. The latter is especially recommended as the best documented history of events in the SBC over recent years.)