The University of Southern Mississippi The Aquila Digital Community Dissertations Spring 5-1-2015 Return to Holy Hill: Louisiana College, Academic Freedom, and The Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence, 1995-2006 Joseph Learned Odenwald University of Southern Mississippi Follow this and additional works at: https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations Part of the Educational Leadership Commons, Educational Methods Commons, Higher Education Commons, History of Religion Commons, and the Liberal Studies Commons Recommended Citation Odenwald, Joseph Learned, "Return to Holy Hill: Louisiana College, Academic Freedom, and The Southern Baptist Convention's Conservative Resurgence, 1995-2006" (2015). Dissertations. 53. https://aquila.usm.edu/dissertations/53 This Dissertation is brought to you for free and open access by The Aquila Digital Community. It has been accepted for inclusion in Dissertations by an authorized administrator of The Aquila Digital Community. For more information, please contact [email protected]. The University of Southern Mississippi RETURN TO HOLY HILL: LOUISIANA COLLEGE, ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION’S CONSERVATIVE RESURGENCE, 1995-2006 by Joseph Learned Odenwald Abstract of a Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education May 2015 ABSTRACT RETURN TO HOLY HILL: LOUISIANA COLLEGE, ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION’S CONSERVATIVE RESURGENCE, 1995-2006 by Joseph Learned Odenwald May 2015 This study examines a period in the history of Louisiana College in which the college’s sponsoring organization, the Louisiana Baptist Convention, a Southern Baptist affiliate, began to insist that professors at the college teach only in accordance with the official views of the Southern Baptist Convention. The literature is replete with studies on the movement affecting the Southern Baptist seminaries, but little has been written about the impact of the Southern Baptist Convention’s Conservative Resurgence on the colleges. As such, this study explores the changes that were made to the academic freedom and governance policies as the trustees sought to return the college to what it was perceived to have been: a holy hill where the Bible was touted as inerrant and traditional values were prescribed. Robert Lynn, who served as president from 1975-1996, led the college to adopt modern concepts of academic governance, and the college had a chapter of the American Association of University Professors. As his tenure was coming to an end, pressures from a conservative faction of the Louisiana Baptist Convention intensified. This led to the filing of a lawsuit by four faculty members for character defamation. ii Lynn’s successor, William Rory Lee, a Mississippi Baptist clergyman and experienced higher education administrator, arrived in 1997. Shortly afterward, the lawsuit was settled and a quiet period of five years ensued. In 2002, the figures who pressured President Lynn during his waning years returned with similar demands. When President Lee and his vice-president for academic affairs resigned in early 2004, a divisive search for a new president commenced. In early 2005, chair of the teacher education department and inerrantist Joe Aguillard was narrowly selected as president. Over the next few years, academic freedom was redefined and faculty governance essentially eradicated. iii COPYRIGHT BY JOSEPH LEARNED ODENWALD 2015 The University of Southern Mississippi RETURN TO HOLY HILL: LOUISIANA COLLEGE, ACADEMIC FREEDOM, AND THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION’S CONSERVATIVE RESURGENCE, 1995-2006 by Joseph Learned Odenwald A Dissertation Submitted to the Graduate School of The University of Southern Mississippi in Partial Fulfillment of the Requirements for the Degree of Doctor of Education Approved: Dr. Thomas O’Brien __________________ Committee Chair Dr. John Rachal ______________________ Dr. Lilian Hill _______________________ Dr. Eric Platt ________________________ Dr. Karen Coats ______________________ Dean of the Graduate School May 2015 DEDICATION To my parents, thanks for always holding education in high regard and for supporting me in what has seemed to be a never ending academic career. To my grandfather, Big Big, thank you for your persistence that I become “Dr. Odenwald.” You cheered me on, more so on those nights when I was commuting to and from Hattiesburg. And you accompanied me when I surveyed Fred Downing’s private collection of materials that constitute the data used in this study. For that trip we took together, I am ever grateful. To Laura, you came into my life right after the proposal defense and your beauty and the hope that I could share the rest of my life with you pushed me to close this chapter in anticipation of the next. Who you are and what you have experienced comprise all I long to be. I love you, and am grateful that your grandmother and I share in the Louisiana College legacy vi ACKNOWLEDGMENTS I owe much to the professors who taught me at Louisiana College, especially Dr. Fred Downing, Dr. James Heath, Dr. Carlton Winbery, and the late Dr. Connie Douglas. Their commitment to teaching and the liberal arts did much to move me beyond the simpleton philosophy that I possessed when I first ascended the Holy Hill. I expected to find confirmations of my beliefs and opinions. Instead, I was challenged to think beyond my worldview. As the faculty grappled with the threat to their academic freedom during my junior and senior years, I was inspired to devote my life to higher education. In many ways their loss was my gain, and thus what I have written serves to tell the story of those who gave so much to Louisiana College. I am especially grateful for Robert Lynn, whose presidency and leadership are explored within the pages of this dissertation. He built the Louisiana College I inherited as a freshman in the fall of 2001. This work highlights his contributions, and I think fairly depicts him as a higher education administrator who believed in academic freedom and shared governance. To Dr. O’Brien, Dr. Hill, Dr. Rachal, and Dr. Platt, thank you for the challenging curriculum and for working to make the higher education administration program stronger. Your contributions are akin to those who gave years of service to Louisiana College. I am especially grateful for you granting me the privilege of studying my passion: Louisiana College. Indeed that gesture is fitting given the topic of academic freedom. vi TABLE OF CONTENTS ABSTRACT .……………………………………………………………………………. ii ACKNOWLEDGMENTS ...…………………………………………………………..... vi CHAPTER I. PURPOSE, JUSTIFICATION, METHODOLOGY, AND CONTEXT OF LOUISIANA COLLEGE …………………..……....……………............. 1 Introduction Purpose Statement Justification Definitions Methods Instrumentation Context Surrounding the Conservative Resurgence at Louisiana College Seeds of Establishment and Conflict in Colonial Higher Education Southern Baptists as Resisting, Tolerating Modernism A Hermeneutical Shove at the Seminaries The State Baptist Conventions and Colleges in the 1980s The Baptist College Categories Since 1990 Louisiana College, Unique Compared to Other Baptist College Controversies II. FOUNDATIONS OF THE CONTROVERSY: FUNDAMENTALISM, MODERNISM, AND EVANGELICALISM ……………………….......31 Histories of Religious Higher Education III. IDEOLOGICAL STRIFE WITHIN THE SOUTHERN BAPTIST CONVENTION: DYSFUNCTION THROUGHOUT THE TWENTIETH CENTURY ……………………………………………………………....58 The Controversy for Conservatives The Controversy for Moderates IV. CONSERVATIVE RESURGENCE CONCERNS AND INITIAL PRESSURE ………………………………………………………….......88 Under Siege The College Responds viii V. INSTITUTIONAL CONVERSATIONS, CONFLICTS, AND CASUALTIES …………………………………………………………122 VI. RAMIFICATIONS AND RESPITE …………………………………...153 VII. NEW CENTURY, OLD ARGUMENTS …………………...................169 VIII. AN INSTITUTION IN CHAOS………………………………………. 182 IX. ACADEMIC FREEDOM REDEFINED…………………………........ 207 X. CONCLUSIONS, IMPLICATIONS, AND FUTURE RESEARCH…. 227 Conclusions Opportunities for Further Research Personal Perspective BIBLIOGRAPHY………………………………………………………………………241 viii 1 CHAPTER I PURPOSE, JUSTIFICATION, METHODOLOGY, AND CONTEXT OF LOUISIANA COLLEGE Introduction This study will describe a controversy at a small Baptist college in the Deep South named Louisiana College, affectionately referred to by some of its alumni as “Holy Hill.” The dispute was between Louisiana Baptist clergy and academicians and academic administrators at Louisiana College, and it took place from 1995 to 2006 and involved issues related to governance and academic freedom. In telling the story, I situate the struggle at Louisiana College within the larger context of Southern Baptist higher education since 1962. The first half of this chapter explains this study’s purpose, its justification, and methodology. Terms used in the study are also defined in this section. The second part of this chapter attends to the context surrounding the conservative resurgence at Louisiana College. I explain the seeds of conflict in colonial higher education, changes in higher education’s purpose, the Southern Baptist reactions to modernism, and look at the seminaries which first experienced the suppression of academic freedom after the Conservative Resurgence. Then I outline the history of state Baptist Conventions and Colleges in the 1980s and the Baptist College Categories Since 1990. The chapter concludes with a look at