BETWEEN THE LATE 1970s AND EARLY ’90s, a concerted effort by church leaders transformed the leadership of the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) from largely theologically liberal—for example, denying the inerrancy of the Bible and a literal interpretation of some of Jesus’ miracles—to conservative. With conservative trustees, the convention’s six seminaries shifted back toward historic Baptist doctrine. In 2000, Southern Baptists adopted a conservative revision of their doctrinal statement, the Baptist Faith and Message.
Even though the Southern Baptist Convention embraced conservative theology nearly 20 years ago, not all Baptist colleges followed suit.
Jeremiah Greever, a 2012 alumnus, said that as he prepared to graduate, his academic adviser told him he would never recommend students attend the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (the denomination’s flagship seminary) because it was a...