Taylor: No evolution
to be taught at SBU
By Brian Koonce
Staff Writer
December 27, 2005
JEFFERSON CITY – “Evolution is not being taught as fact at Southwest Baptist University.”
That is what President Pat Taylor had to say to the Missouri Baptist Convention (MBC) Executive Board Dec. 13 as he gave his report.
The board had directed its Inter-Agency Committee and Taylor to investigate reports that a professor of biology was teaching evolution as the true origin of life on earth.
“We did have an issue. It is now resolved,” Taylor said to a round of “amens” and applause from the board.
The professor, who was not identified, will remain on staff through the spring semester, but not in a position to teach evolution.
Taylor gave a full report to the Inter-Agency Committee while it met in executive session since the matter was personnel-related.
Gary Barkley, member of Pisgah Baptist Church, Excelsior Springs and committee chairman, told the Executive Board he was satisfied Taylor had taken all appropriate measures to stop the teaching of evolution.
“Dr. Taylor has shown us the documents,” he said.
Some members of the board wanted more detailed assurance that the issue had been “resolved,” but Barkley and Taylor held their positions that legally, they could say very little. Taylor did reassure the board that the university’s science department begins with the premise that the Word of God is true, and anything taught about the beginning of the world is based on that premise.