Of PhD's and Smoke-Screens

The Westminster administration has released some statements and reflections on the seminary's recent controversies and battles. These documents reveal some new information, and I do appreciate that. I'm glad that the seminary is reflecting on what it has recently gone through...but my goodness, there's also a WHOLE lot of spin going on here.
One particularly egregious example caught my eye: in this document, the VP for academic affairs (Dr. Trueman) discusses the pressure on WTS to have professors with PhD's in order to be accredited. He strongly implies that certain recent departures (Steve Taylor, perhaps?) were made necessary not for theological or personal reasons but only in order to fulfill accreditation requirements and to secure WTS' status as an academically respectable institution. He says things like this:
"That seminaries have typically had lower standards on this matter and
employed faculty who have spent many fruitless years on doctoral
programs has not served them well but has rather compromised their
academic integrity."

Just a quick reminder, in case anyone had forgotten:
Professor Al Groves never got a PhD. Neither did John Murray or John Frame. And we all know how much those men compromised the academic integrity of WTS.
As far as I can tell, these current and former WTS professors were hired years before they completed a PhD, ThD or equivalent...some never did. If they had been asked to leave, would we have had much of a faculty left?

• Poythress [he had a PhD in an unrelated field and didn't do a ThD until later]
• Oliphint
• Leonard
• Gaffin
• Green
• Edgar
• McCartney
• Murray
• Groves
• Frame

Are we supposed to believe that if accreditation standards hadn't been so "lax" in earlier years, these men wouldn't have been able to teach at WTS? If Westminster's academic integrity has been so compromised, why have recent graduates been accepted to doctoral programs at Harvard, Yale, Duke, Oxford, Cambridge, Notre Dame, Brown, U.Chicago, U. Michigan, Columbia, Saint Andrews, and William & Mary, just to name a few?
What "weakened" the seminary's academic credentials more: the laxity that allowed these professors to teach, or, perhaps, the forced departure of Pete Enns, one of the most highly qualified men on the faculty (Harvard PhD, numerous publications)? Why the reluctance to admit that theological issues may have had something to do with Taylor's departure?

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Who in the World...?

Half of my work-week is spent at Peace Hill Press, helping to create quality educational materials (especially in the fields of history, grammar, reading, and composition). I wear lots of hats there: sometimes a fact-checker for history textbooks, sometimes proofreading composition books, and sometimes overseeing some new products. Two of those new products were released this past week: audio versions of some junior-level biographies we had released earlier.
So...yeah...these are my first audiobooks: Who in the World Was the Secretive Printer? The Story of Johannes Gutenberg, and Who in the World Was the Unready King? The Story of Ethelred. They're also available on Amazon, if you want to give your money to the Internet Behemoth instead of a brave little family business. :)
Next up: The Acrobatic Empress and The Forgotten Explorer. I love being a history nerd.

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The Parting of the Ways

Westminster Theological Seminary and Dr. Peter Enns released a joint statement today. You can read the text at the WTS site or at Enns's site.

Other than announcing that Enns will be leaving Westminster immediately, the announcement doesn't include a lot of new info. WTS says that Peter's teaching is within the purview of Evangelical thought (nothing is said about Reformed or Westminster-ish thought) and Enns says that the WTS leadership has the responsibility to stick with their confessional commitments.

All true, of course, though the obvious question "does the teaching and writing of Peter Enns fit within those confessional/Reformed parameters?" remains a live one.

I'm sad, though not shocked, at this outcome. I believe WTS has pushed out a professor who represented some of the best of what Westminster offers. If you are a praying person, please pray for healing, charity, and wisdom for all those involved in this domestic dispute within Christ's household.

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Enns Responds to Critics

Those of you who've wondered if Peter Enns had any response to recent criticisms (from fellow Westminster faculty) of his book Inspiration and Incarnation should check out the new series he's begun on his website; it's called "Some Reflections on I&I and the Reformed Tradition," and it's a modified version of a paper he submitted to the Westminster faculty/board earlier this year. Go to http://peterennsonline.com/ii/ to read the various sections of the response (as of June 4th, two parts are up).
Having read what Enns has put up so far (and his other responses in print forums), I'm impressed with his willingness to clarify or even modify some of the points that he made in the book, and also with how he deftly dismantles some of the accusations which have been made against him.

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Save Our Money

Taking a break from Westminster updates, at least for one post: I've got something happier to tell you about.

First, you should know that I'm not very good at sticking with resolutions, and I'm not much good at making and keeping a budget. Mel's better at budgeting, but not perfect. We know that we SHOULD do it, and that it would help us save money or to spend what we do have more wisely, but it usually seems too intimidating, or time-consuming, or just too much of a hassle. So we've sort of been hit-or-miss about our budgeting, knowing generally what we have and generally what we're spending, and that fuzziness has probably cost us more than we'd like to admit.

...Which explains just how thrilled I've been with a new program called Pearbudget. The whole point of Pearbudget, as its friendly website will tell you, is "Really Simple Budgeting." It's the most intuitive computer program i've ever had the pleasure--yes, pleasure--of interacting with.
Mel and I have been using it for a couple of months now, and already it's saved us money and changed the way we think about our finances. Mostly it's made the process smoother, easier, and less scary. But in addition, because it involves inputting your receipts at the end of each month, it's made us more thoughtful about our spending...especially on items that don't seem like much at the time ("whoa, did we REALLY spend that much on soda this month?" "What in the world is 'ten dollars for breath mint expenses'?" etc).

And Pearbudget only costs 3 dollars a month. Three dollars. I bet it'll save you more than that in the first month you're using it. Try out their 30-day free trial and see. If you don't want to take my word for it, peruse the testimonials on their front page, or read some of the rave reviews it's getting from financial bloggers like Squawkfox: (she says that Pearbudget's simplicity and money-saving ability are "sexy," which wasn't the adjective that first leaped to MY mind, but whatever).

Full disclosure: I know the folks who invented Pearbudget, but they haven't asked me to post this. The service has been quite helpful to us, and the fact that it's run by friends is a nice bonus.

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Heroes, and Hard Questions

He wouldn't want such a title, I'm sure, but Dr. Dan McCartney of WTS is one of my new heroes, after the amazing sermon he preached at chapel there yesterday (April 2). Take a few minutes to listen to it, and ponder not only its challenge for us to follow Jesus' way of sacrificial leadership, but also its bold timeliness, given the recent goings-on at Westminster.

In other news, Mel has gone into barracks-lawyer mode and has posted some hard questions for the WTS leadership, regarding inconsistencies between the Enns suspension and the way that the ByLaws and Handbook call for such things to be done. If "due process" is indeed to be followed, these questions deserve good answers.

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Update: Board decision announced at WTS

The following announcement was released today, via email to the WTS community. I'll just quote it in full:

March 27, 2008

Thank you very much for your prayers for the special meeting of the Board of Trustees that was held on March 26 to address the disunity of the faculty regarding the theological issues related to Dr. Peter Enns’ book, Inspiration and Incarnation: Evangelicals and the Problem of the Old Testament. After a full day of deliberation, the Board of Trustees took the following action by decisive vote:

“That for the good of the Seminary (Faculty Manual II.4.C.4) Professor Peter Enns be suspended at the close of this school year, that is May 23, 2008 (Constitution Article III, Section 15), and that the Institutional Personnel Committee (IPC) recommend the appropriate process for the Board to consider whether Professor Enns should be terminated from his employment at the Seminary. Further that the IPC present their recommendations to the Board at its meeting in May 2008.”

In order to provide the entire Westminster community with a more complete understanding of the Board’s decision and to offer an opportunity for questions and dialogue, the Chairman and Secretary of the Board will join the President on campus for a special chapel on Tuesday, April 1 at 10:30 am. Students and staff are encouraged to attend and participate. Following that special chapel, they will hold a separate meeting with the faculty.

Our concern is to honor the Lord Jesus Christ and assure a faithful witness for Westminster for years to come. To that end, please pray for everyone involved during the next two months.

Jack White

Chairman of the Board

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