At his Grace and Truth to You blog, where Wade Burleson shares “Personal Reflections on the Southern Baptist Convention,” he informs us of some startling news:

Yesterday Dr. Paige Patterson met with professors in the theology school at SWBTS and said that the seminary would be letting go the five point Calvinist professors from the seminary, claiming that the lack of funds and the need to reduce faculty as the rationale for the impending releases. Odd, however, was the chosen method of reduction.

It was not years of service, nor even the performance of the professors, but rather, administration sought to ascertain just who on the faculty were avowed “tulip” men, and those are the ones being let go. Some of the professors present at the meeting included men who specifically informed administration of their beliefs at the time of their hiring, and they were told at the time their beliefs were not a problem. (Online source)

Really. So with the Southern Baptist Convention rife with purpose driven apostasy, contemplative spirituality, and embracing the Emergence rebellion against Sola Scriptura, this is their solution; persecute Calvinists? Well, come to think of it to continue their return home to Rome the SBC would eventually have to do so. Guess there’s no time like the present.

I am thankful for men like Mike Corley who says today at his blog The Expositor: “We will watch and see what and how this develops…” (Online source) And that Paige Patterson you and your Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary can take to the bank.

*Update* Now it needs also to be noted that in the combox of the above post Dr. Greg Welty, who is a Calvinist on staff at SWBTS, denies there is any such purge:

There was no group meeting of faculty yesterday, in which we were all told we were fired, for our Calvinism or otherwise. That is a lie. No Calvinists have been fired. (Online source).

And then Burleson would later respond that indeed there is:

is a purging of anyone who is not in agreement with a particular ecclesiological, soteriological, and eshcatological viewpoint. (Online source)