Deeming the information demanded immediate action and could not be deferred to a regular meeting of the Board, based on the details presented, the Executive Committee unanimously resolved to terminate Dr. Paige Patterson, effective immediately, removing all the benefits, rights and privileges. – statement of SWBTS Board of Trustees Executive Committee released May 30, 2018
As I wrote a few weeks ago, the attack on Paige Patterson by Southern Baptist feminists and their willing helpers has been sickening to watch. It’s a witch hunt led by those who hate Paige’s decades of faithfulness to Scripture. Now they’ve finished their work. This past Thursday, Paige and Dorothy were slandered once more, and this time the trustees of Southwestern judged their false witness to have provided them sufficient cover to go on and do the evil deed they’d been so desperate to finish.
While Paige was over in Germany asleep, a small subset of the trustees met and kicked him out of his office and house, terminated his wages, and issued a press release justifying their cowardice.
That’s all you need to know unless you’ve read some of the slander used to justify this patricide. If so, read this defense of Paige written by a witness who’s had a front-row seat.
Take the time to read it all, but here’s a summary:
So why was Paige Patterson actually terminated? Was it for …
– encouraging a female student not to report to police an alleged rape at Southeastern? —We now know that he does not recall meeting with her and that she thanked him and sang his praises.
– not handling appropriately an alleged case of sexual assault against a SWBTS student? — We now know that he called the police, urged the woman to press charges and expelled the male student.
– telling an abused wife to return to an abusive husband? — We now know the wife assured him that her husband had not and would never physically harm her.
– objectified a 16-year-old girl in conversation with a woman and her son? — We now know Patterson has apologized for using a sermon illustration that misconstrued his heart and beliefs.
– fired student employee Nathan Montgomery? — We now know Patterson did not fire Montgomery and instructed that he not be fired.
Under this defense of Paige and accompanying documentation, I left this statement of gratitude:
Good work, sister! I just wish a woman didn’t have to be the one exposing the cowardice of the SBC, especially Southwestern’s conniving trustees. May God give Paige and Dorothy faith and protect them from bitterness. They have feet of clay like all of us, but they are both my heroes and have been for thirty years. It’s been a privilege to stand with them in the fight. Love in Christ,
Bad as the lies are, even worse are the methods and timing of the trustees’ actions. Here’s how it went down day before yesterday:
After midnight in Germany, while Patterson was sleeping, the chairman of the board of trustees, Kevin Ueckert, ordered Scott Colter to wake Patterson for a phone call. On the call, Ueckert told Patterson he was fired effective immediately, with no salary, no health insurance and no home. He then relayed that Patterson would receive instructions for vacating Pecan Manor upon returning to Fort Worth.
Before the phone call, both Pattersons’ and Colter’s email accounts, including personal contacts and calendar, were shut down without notice and while the three were traveling in Germany on behalf of Southwestern, leaving them without access to itineraries, train tickets, local contact information, hotel confirmation and flight boarding passes.
Also at some point before the phone call, the locks were changed without notice to the room on Southwestern’s campus housing Patterson’s private and personal archives containing ministry materials and documents from Criswell College and the Conservative Resurgence. No notice was given, and the Pattersons had no knowledge that this was being done and had not given permission for such.
…the trustees did not contact Patterson during their May 30 executive committee meeting to hear any explanation of these accusations before his immediate termination.
May God expose the liars—men and women alike. And may He bless Paige and Dorothy with the support and prayers of those who fear God and love His faithful servants—especially His servants, the prophets.
