Baylor Regents "Water Down" Church Membership

In a scathing editorial at Ethics Daily, Robert Parham says the regents at Baylor "watered down the definition of authentic church membership" when they introduced Kenneth Starr as President of the University.

Several Regents spoke of Starr's chuchmanship in glowing terms. Ken Hall, chair of the presidential search advisory committee and president of Buckner International, summarized the sentiment of the Regents saying, "He represents the very best of what it means to be an active churchman, who ... puts his belief into action through his local congregation of faith."

Parham' research reveals that Starr is a member of an independent fundamentalist Bible church that affirms the inerrancy of scripture, is governed by a board of exclusively male elders, and is pastored by a recent graduate of the seminary associated with Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

Parham then provides a scathing critique of the Regent's new definition of "active churchman" for Texas Baptists:

Starr's membership is in a church in the suburbs of Washington, D.C. He works at a law school in Malibu, Calif. He belongs to a church on the East Coast and works at a school on the West Coast, an arrangement that has been in place since 2004.

What kind of "active churchman" can't find a church where he lives and works – for six years?

How active can one be in his local church if he lives almost 2,700 miles away?

Why would a "church leader" not have a local church home where he lives?

If Starr represents "the very best" of what it means to be an "active churchman," then Baylor's leaders have redefined churchmanship for Texas Baptists. Call it minimalism or absenteeism. But for honesty's sake, don't call it active church leadership.

The Baylor leaders – who introduced Starr – have watered down authentic church membership and replaced it with the lowest common denominator from cultural Christianity. Conservative cultural Christianity would say that Starr is a conservative, which means he's a faithful Christian, according to some. Political ideology is more important than theology. Party membership is more important than church membership.

The need for the regents and advisory council to spin Starr's churchmanship is a deeply troubling signal about how they value church involvement.

Texas Baptists once believed in the centrality of the local church and expected faithful church members to be genuinely active. The tectonic plates of Texas Baptist theology have shifted.