Quotes on the Elliott controversy

“You are closer to the center of the struggle, though it is not unknown to us here. I cannot believe that Southern Baptists are ready to abandon our principles of unity in diversity, freedom under God, and responsible management of our institutions for the sake of these few critics.

“?the majority would not be in favor of throttling scholarship or of turning back the calendar or of reducing our seminaries to the status of centers where students memorize the truths and errors held by our fathers.”

-John E. Steely

Southeastern Seminary theology professor

“It marks a theological milestone for Southern Baptists. I think that it should be known that all of the faculties of all our seminaries take essentially the same approach to Genesis which you take in your book. Individual professors may differ with you in specific exegesis and interpretations of particular passages, but there is no major disagreement with your approach and basic understanding of the Book of Genesis.

“You have written the book, you have received the publicity, and you have also received the abuse; but you have spoken for the faculties of all our seminaries.

“The men who take the extreme fundamentalist and literal approach to Genesis are not true defenders of the faith in our day. Nothing could be more devastating to my faith than to be forced to accept the literalists’ interpretation of the Bible.”

– Marvin E. Tate

Southern Seminary Old Testament professor

“Many of us realized that all of the seminaries are in this thing together and that there is no essential difference in what we are teaching. We are hardly worthy of the maturity that ought to be ours at the seminary level if we do not stick together. We are paying for our refusal to face problems. We have been turning out fundamentalist preachers without realizing that the day of reckoning would come. We have ourselves to blame.”

– Boyd Hunt

Southwestern Theology Professor

“I think you have leaned dangerously to the left, and unnecessarily so. I am ready to defend you as a conscientious Christian and no heretic, but I think you have gone too far. As you know, this type of emphasis is destroying our schools as training grounds for preachers in order to produce scholars.

“You are too useful to Southern Baptists to be lost by heresy trials or immature judgments.”

Clyde Francisco

Southern Old Testament Interpretation

professor

“?if I took a hand in defense of Elliott and Midwestern I would at the same time have drawn criticism on Southeastern which has so graciously opened the door for me to continue teaching. In a few (hard) years we shall begin to see the positive fruits of what is now happening. All advance has to face resistance which, after conflict, subsides and permits the advance to stand and become the basis for further progress. This was true in the Whitsitt Controversy, ?the evolution controversy about science and the Bible, and I think will be true about the present (belated) turmoil about biblical literature and theology. I have tried to help a little quietly and on the side-lines, but not as much as I wanted to help.

– J.B. Weatherspoon

Southeastern Preaching professor

additional support for Ralph Elliott and Midwestern Seminary came from Carson-Newman College, Cumberland College, Furman University, George Peabody College, Mercer University, Ouachita Baptist College, St. Paul School of Theology, Stetson University, Wake Forest College,

From seminary quarters came letters of praise from Southeastern professors Pope A. Duncan and Stewart A. Newman, Southern professors Henlee H. Barnette, Page H. Kelley, Dale Moody, Marvin Tate and Jerry Vardaman, New Orleans New Testament Professor V. Wayne Barton and Ruschlikon Old Te