Tennessee Temple University - Not Quite Ready for Tennessee Baptist Convention Adoption

No one has quite come out and said it yet, but the writing on the wall looks like there are Tennessee Baptists who would like to see Tennessee Temple University become the newest addition to the list of Tennessee Baptist Convention educational institutions. I am opposed to such a move. I believe very strongly that it would be a mistake. Here are my reasons:

• Tennessee Temple is not regionally accredited... Here is Temple's accreditation. Compare to Union, Carson-Newman, and Belmont. The Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools is perhaps the newest/weakest route for TTU's accreditation and may not be taken seriously institutions across the country (CNP):

  "..TRACS' limited recognition is somewhat tenuous and their reputation is somewhat controversial. Students are better off enrolling in schools that are accredited by a regional association, the Accrediting Association of Bible Colleges, or the Association of Theological Schools, all of which are fully recognized by both accreditor-approving agencies (the Department of Education and/or CORPA) and by other academic institutions."

  
  
• There are simply too many faculty members with degrees from TTU and Temple Seminary that could be construed as faculty inbreeding. Additionally, the faculty boasts a concentration of Liberty, Luther Rice, Bob Jones, and Baptist Bible Seminary degrees...not exactly icons of Southern Baptist heritage.
  
• Entanglement with an independent Baptist church is not a prudent direction to take. For the past 50+ years, Highland Park Baptist Church could hardly call itself a SBC church (in spite of its early history) , it is not currently listed as a Tennessee Baptist Convention church, and mentions nothing of its proud SBC Heritage on the church's history page. Evidently, some TTU alumni consider themselves quite independent.
  
• The lack of honesty on the part of the supporters of this effort to simply say, "We want a conservative Baptist seminary in Tennessee" and an attempt to draw a picture of HPBC as some sort of "SBC heritage" monument is disingenuous. There is nothing wrong with the desire to have a seminary...just come on out and say it. Let's build a place where Jerry Sutton can be president of something.
• Danny Lovett is no David Dockery.
  
• There is an endorsement for this action by Jerry Vines. I think Jerry is a wonderful, God-fearing, Bible-believing man...but I wouldn't trust him any farther than I could throw an elephant. That is just my personal opinion, but you might ask some of the SBC leaders who were trampled in the 1980's if they don't share that sentiment.
  

Whew. After all that, I may need an extra glass of sweet tea!