Opinion ID: 391211
Heading Depth: 2
Heading Rank: 1

Heading: The Seminary

Text: 2 The Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary (Seminary) is a Texas non-profit corporation located in Forth Worth, Texas. 1 According to the Seminary's bylaws, it is owned, operated, and controlled by the Southern Baptist Convention (Convention), a voluntary association of Southern Baptist churches, incorporated in Georgia. The Convention elects the Seminary's trustees, dictates its purpose, and provides sixty percent of its financial support. As announced by the Convention, the Seminary's objective is to provide theological education, with the Bible as the center of the curriculum for God-called men and women to meet the need for trained leadership in the work of the churches. As described by Dr. Robert Naylor, President Emeritus of the Seminary, its relationship with local Southern Baptist churches is more functional than structural: The churches are the source, of course, of the Seminary, provide its constituency and use its product. The Seminary offers degrees only in theology, religious education, and church music; the curriculum is not to be expanded to provide strictly secular education, according to its bylaws. The Convention does not allow the Seminary to charge tuition. 3 The approximately 1450 seminarians must meet three requirements of admission beyond the ordinary academic standards. Each applicant must represent that he or she has received a divine appointment to Christian ministry, the spouse (if any) of each prospective student must express a conviction that the student has received such a call, and the local church of which the candidate is a member must pass a resolution acknowledging his or her personal integrity and commitment to the Christian faith and recommending the individual for admission to the Seminary. Thus, no matter how superior one's academic ability is, religious commitment is the quality that determines admission. 4 The procedures and criteria governing the Seminary's employment decisions reflect the nature of the Seminary and are the part of the Seminary's operation with which the EEOC is concerned. The Seminary's employees may be divided into three main categories: faculty, administrative staff, and support personnel. 5 Article VI of the Seminary's bylaws begins: It shall be the policy of the Seminary to strive for and maintain a faculty composed of persons of unquestionable Christian character, positive and consecrated Christian attitudes, faithful allegiance to the Baptist faith, highest possible scholastic attainments and aptitude for teaching. According to Dr. Russell Dilday, who at the time of trial was the President of the Seminary, the order of criteria in this provision and in a policy statement entitled Criteria for Evaluation of Faculty, adopted by the faculty in 1966, is not accidental: scholastic attainments are listed third because of greater importance than that is the individual's personal characteristics, his relationship to the Lord, the church, and his activities within the denomination. Evidence of this nature caused the district court to find that: Members of the faculty and administration of (the) seminary are considered ministers and are hired, assigned, advanced, tenured, evaluated and terminated on predominately religious criteria. And again, Recruitment of faculty and administrators is viewed as a divinely guided 'spiritual quest' mutually pursued by the Seminary and the prospective employee. 6 The district court also found that the support personnel perform a bona fide religious and educational function. Since ninety-five percent of these positions are filled by students and spouses of students and faculty, there is a built-in qualification for most of the support personnel. Undisputed testimony reveals that the remaining twenty-two full-time support personnel must be compatible with the Seminary family, and must display an appreciation for and participation in the mission of the Seminary. 7 In sum, as found by the district court, the Seminary regards its employment decisions as divinely guided assessments of each employee's suitability for the position he will occupy in relation to the students and as a representative of the institution ....