The juxtaposition of a few headlines this week provides a jarring picture of the drastic difference between how some American Christians are making news and the situation among our brothers and sisters elsewhere in the world.
While some Christians in the United States contemplate the luxury of a multimillion-dollar lawsuit, Christians elsewhere would simply like to survive the day.
What does this situation reveal about American Christians? Do we want to see it? Probably not. More importantly, will it make any difference? It needs to.
Let’s look at three news stories published in the Baptist Standard this week.
Christians in the news
At the end of September and as reported by Forum 18 on Oct. 13, Russian forces seized another Baptist church in Ukraine. Oct. 7, Hamas slaughtered more than 1,300 people in Israel and took as many as 250 hostages. Israel responded swiftly with deadly force, killing about 3,000 people in Gaza.
Also at the end of September, “Adam Greenway, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, sent a demand letter threatening a $5 million lawsuit,” Baptist Press reported Oct. 17.
In case you haven’t seen that news, here’s a brief explainer. Greenway resigned under duress as president of Southwestern Seminary in Sept. 2022. A seminary trustee task force reported in April 2023 they “found evidence of ‘imprudent’ and ‘unwise’ financial decisions,” some “contrary to institutional policies.”
A subsequent financial overview of the seminary found 20 years of deteriorating financial health. That report accused Greenway of “improper stewardship … without deference to financial controls and seminary financial policies” during his three-year tenure, describing expenditures deemed problematic.
Greenway’s attorney asserts these reports “cast Greenway in a negative light,” humiliated him “and harmed his job prospects.” As a result, Greenway is threatening to sue Southwestern Seminary for $5 million.
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Assuming a lawsuit is legitimate here, perhaps $5 million is a reasonable sum to seek. I don’t know. I do know in the middle of publishing the terror fellow Baptists are facing in Ukraine and Gaza right now, the news of a former Baptist seminary president in the United States threatening a $5 million lawsuit gives me whiplash.
What a stark contrast reveals
The contrasting headlines are a stark example of the disparity between where American Christianity is and the daily hardships our brothers and sisters experience elsewhere. Our troubles involve multimillion-dollar arguments between individuals. Their troubles involve the life and death of whole communities.
Some might see the difference as proof America is a much better place than the rest of the world. At least here, we have the freedom to take each other to court, whereas Christians in so many other places rarely have the freedom not to be dragged into court or worse. Yes, there is much to appreciate about living in the United States.
At the same time, remaining faithful to Christ through harsh persecution is a much nobler witness than building a case for why $5 million should or should not be awarded the plaintiff.
Looking closer
A natural question to ask is if Greenway should sue or threaten to sue his former employer. We shouldn’t ask this question in judgment of him, but to bring to the surface what we expect serving Jesus to be like—including our own service.
I don’t know enough of the facts to determine if Greenway should sue, and it’s likely you don’t either.
However, Paul seems to be pretty clear that to be wronged and defrauded is better for a Christian than to “have lawsuits with one another,” which he described as “already a defeat for you” (1 Corinthians 6:7-8).
Which is more offensive, that I question Greenway’s lawsuit or that we’re expected to suck up being wronged and defrauded?
Our brothers and sisters in so many places around the world face more than humiliation and harmed job prospects—the purported cause of Greenway’s lawsuit. Many of them face beatings, rape, kidnapping, imprisonment, torture, starvation or death just for being Christian. Talk about being wronged and defrauded.
Setting Paul aside, is $5 million justified? Here again, I don’t know enough of the facts to determine if the amount is valid, but I do wonder what exactly that $5 million is meant to cover.
Meanwhile, hundreds of Christians in Gaza would like a clean glass of water, some food and to see another day. Thousands of Christians in Ukraine have similar priorities.
This is to say nothing of Christians in Myanmar, Manipur, Sudan, Nigeria, the Democratic Republic of the Congo and many other places around the world who face near constant and often horrific persecution.
Looking in the mirror
I don’t mean to suggest Greenway isn’t aware of the difference between his situation and that of our brothers and sisters elsewhere. I believe he is well aware and cares deeply for the persecuted church.
I do mean to suggest American Christians have become so accustomed to our affluence and prominence that we tend to see no indictment of ourselves in the fact we even have the luxury of contemplating a $5 million lawsuit between Christian leaders while the rest of the world burns.
We might even argue the comparison between them and the situation of Christians in Ukraine and Gaza is apples to oranges.
But this is no false equivalence. We all profess the same Lord, of whose body we all are part. As such, our stories are bound up together, however different they may be. But through those differences, we too often make ourselves strangers to each other, working against our shared life in Jesus.
This week’s news gives us an opportunity to see our estrangement and begin to repair it—if we will hold these disparate stories side by side and accept what they reveal about us.
Eric Black is the executive director, publisher and editor of the Baptist Standard. He can be reached at eric.black@baptiststandard.com. The views expressed are those of the author.
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