Southern Baptist seminary turmoil continues as ex-president demands $5M in lawsuit threat

Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary is yet again facing turmoil over past leadership after it publicly disclosed details about spending under former president Adam Greenway.

Greenway threatened to sue Southwestern, a Southern Baptist Convention-affiliated seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, in a demand letter for $5 million, which said the financial disclosures humiliated Greenway and harmed his job prospects. The letter is a sharp break from a resolution the two sides once sought.

Already a source of strife among seminary trustees, conflict over Greenway is the latest example of Southwestern dealing with repercussions of rocky leadership transitions. The tumultuousness has become a defining characteristic for Southwestern despite its effort to move past the controversy as it responds to enrollment losses.

Southwestern is one of six seminaries affiliated the Nashville-based SBC, which subsidizes seminarians’ tuition through church giving revenue it collects through a budget called the Cooperative Program.  The Southern Baptist Convention is the nation's largest Protestant denomination.

“The demand letter from Adam Greenway is baseless and incredibly disappointing, especially given his professed love for this institution,” Jonathan Richard, Southwestern board chair, said in a statement.

Southwestern’s attorneys disputed Greenway’s claims and refused to give him $5 million in an Oct. 11 letter responding to the demand letter sent by Greenway's lawyers in late September.

“If Dr. Greenway should decide to file suit, we will defend aggressively the seminary against every claim,” Richard said in his statement. “The facts, when fully known, will reveal a very different reality than the one contained in his demand letter.”

Greenway, who took over at Southwestern in February 2019, stepped down in September 2022 and fully resigned in February after he and the seminary reached a confidential settlement agreement. Since then, Southwestern appointed David Dockery as the new president.

Meanwhile, a task force comprised of board trustees assessed spending during Greenway’s tenure, of which some of the findings the seminary published in June. That task force review divided trustees, leading to a contentious board meeting and a public statement chastising specific trustees. Also, Southwestern received a censure by its accreditors for noncompliance standards of with financial responsibility and proper governance.

“The framing of these expenditures as unauthorized and lavish personal gain undertaken by Dr. Greenway is an assertion of financial impropriety on par with embezzlement,” Greenway attorney Andrew Jones said in the Sept. 25 letter to Southwestern, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained.

Southwestern’s public disclosures of spending under Greenway were “grossly inflated and false,” Jones said. For example, an “infamous ‘$11,000 espresso machine’” — a detail that many Southern Baptists have joked about since Southwestern published it — was actually $5,952.67, Jones said.

Also, Jones’ letter said Southwestern violated its separation agreement with Greenway, which said neither side would disparage each other. Southwestern’s attorneys shot back in their Oct. 11 response letter.

“The fact that Dr. Greenway does not like the results of that financial review and the public disclosure of it (which he demanded) does not make the results of the financial review false or in any way defamatory,” Southwestern attorney Michael Anderson said in the Oct. 11 letter, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained from Southwestern.

Greenway’s attorney did not respond to a request for comment. If Greenway sues, it will be just after Southwestern got out of several court battles over controversies involving Greenway’s predecessor, Paige Patterson.

This year, Southwestern and Patterson settled its part of an abuse lawsuit against Patterson ally Paul Pressler, and the two won another lawsuit from a from female seminarian whom Patterson reportedly sought to intimidate when she reported being raped. The latter case is under appeal in the U.S. Court of Appeals Fifth Circuit.

Two years ago, Southwestern settled a lawsuit against a charitable foundation run by Patterson allies that had diverted gifts away from Southwestern and Baylor University.

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The two presidents before Patterson, Ken Hemphill and Russell Dilday, left the seminary under outright or suspected hostile conditions.

Meanwhile, Southwestern’s full-time student enrollment, once a leader among the six SBC seminaries, dropped by about half in the last two decades, according to Association of Theological Schools data. Both Patterson and Greenway have received criticism for excessive spending during financially worrisome times.

Greenway has rarely responded to that criticism publicly before, but his recent demand letter articulates his views loud and clear.

“Dr. Greenway, once respected as president of a renowned seminary,” the letter said, “has been made a pariah in his professional and religious community, ridiculed as a self-indulgent embezzler, and has been widely disgraced by national coverage of his defamatory narrative.”

Liam Adams covers religion for The Tennessean. Reach him at ladams@tennessean.com or on Twitter @liamsadams.

This article originally appeared on Nashville Tennessean: Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary: Ex-president demands $5M