I haven’t given a cent to my alma mater, Oklahoma Baptist University (OBU), in close to 40 years, maybe more.
That’s about to change . . . more on that later.
In October 1973, just a few months after I graduated from OBU, a movie, starring Barbra Streisand and Robert Redford, hit the theaters, titled The Way We Were. The title song, voiced by the inimitable Ms. Streisand, painted a picture of “misty water-colored memories of the way we were.” The memories treasured by those of us who studied at the OBU of that day may make us a little misty-eyed, but they remain – to those of us who lived them – vivid memories of a place where professors challenged us to confront difficult questions concerning faith and our deepest convictions, where fellow students joined us in wrestling with those questions. That’s the way we were at OBU back then.
Battle for the soul of . . . OBU?
Controversies had been percolating in the Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) since the late 1950s, gaining steam as the 1960s dawned. There were allegations that some SBC seminary professors were questioning the literal interpretation of Bible accounts of the creation, Jonah being swallowed by a fish, and so forth. But SBC dissidents were largely still flying “under the radar” during my years at OBU. However, in 1979, they went public with their plan to seize control of the SBC and rid it of anyone who disagreed with them.
Though a lot of Southern Baptists in the 1980s chose to ignore it, calling it a “preachers fight,” it was really a battle for the soul of the SBC. It ended in 1990, with the result being a hostile takeover of the convention by a faction bent on imposing – on churches and pastors relating to the SBC – their interpretation of specific biblical passages AND their application of those passages to hot-button issues within the convention and the world at large.
In the end, those who initially chose to ignore it ultimately had to choose. If they continued to support the SBC, they were pledging agreement with the changes its new leadership made to the confessional statement, Baptist Faith and Message (BFM), and supporting its stances in the wider political world. Some churches chose to leave and to affiliate with other Baptist groups, such as Alliance of Baptists and the newly-formed (1991) Cooperative Baptist Fellowship.
Most churches, however, had members on both sides of the controversy, with some continuing to support the SBC and others designating their gifts to other groups.
To the victors go the spoils, and one of those “spoils” consisted of the six SBC seminaries, which now were controlled by the new fundamentalist SBC leadership.
Baptist colleges and universities, however, were another matter. In most instances, they related to their state convention, not directly to the SBC. So their allegiance depended on that of the state convention.
Only two state conventions – Virginia and Texas – resisted SBC control, the latter only after a decade-long fight for control of the Baptist General Convention of Texas (BGCT), which ended in 1998 when fundamentalists – frustrated by losing the presidency, year after year, to candidates nominated by David Currie’s Texas Baptists Committed, surrendered and formed their own rival state convention.
My alma mater, OBU, however, related to the Baptist General Convention of Oklahoma (BGCO), whose leadership enthusiastically supported the “new” SBC.
It was the soul-searching struggle I experienced at the OBU of the 1970s that fueled my interest in the battle for the SBC from its beginning in 1979 on through the years. My interest in these matters was so keen that, in 2011, I was elected to lead, as executive director, Texas Baptists Committed, the organization that, in the 1990s – under the courageous, strategic, and determined leadership of David R. Currie – had singlehandedly prevented the fundamentalists from gaining control of the largest state convention, the BGCT. So my passion for Baptist principles runs deep throughout my soul.
It also runs deep through my family heritage. My dad, Dr. A. Jase Jones, received his Th.D. in Christian Ethics under the teaching of Dr. T. B. Maston at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth. Daddy said that Dr. Maston – who was truly the conscience of Southern Baptists in matters of social justice, including racial justice and equality, and care for those Jesus called “the least of these” – was the greatest influence in his life. One of Daddy’s close friends, Jimmy Allen, was a fellow Maston Th.D. grad who served as the last “moderate” president of the SBC before the fundamentalists began running candidates and winning the presidency in 1979. Daddy was strongly opposed to the fundamentalists’ power grab.
From the OBU I knew to an OBU I didn’t recognize
I still celebrate the OBU where I studied in the early 1970s. Faculty and students were encouraged to honestly grapple with our questions and doubts with regard to matters of faith. We were free to question the narrow faith with which most of us had grown up and search for something deeper. That’s my story and that of many of my OBU friends from those days. In November 2020, I wrote a blog post, 50 years ago today, Nov. 12, 1970, I leapt out of the fundamentalist foxhole, in which I told the story of OBU’s key role in helping me search for a more authentic faith. My old OBU friends – both of my generation and earlier – and I still talk about the vibrancy of our journey through the OBU that existed back then.
But that OBU, in effect, died when fundamentalists took over the SBC – and the BGCO – in 1990. The BGCO of our day was surely conservative, but it wasn’t fundamentalist. By that, I mean that it still respected the independence of students, faculty, and administrators. On the rare occasions that Oklahoma Baptist pastors crossed the line into an attempt to control our students and administration, they were quickly reminded that this was not their proper role. One example was an incident, during the 1970-71 school year, of a pastor interrupting a concert in Raley Chapel to denounce the band that was performing and attempting to stop it. He was confronted by OBU’s interim president, Robert Lynn, who told the pastor, in no uncertain terms, that a group of pastors would not be allowed to dictate what OBU’s students could see and hear on their campus.
That was the OBU I knew. But SBC/BGCO control has severely restricted the freedom of students and faculty, and administrators through the years have meekly obeyed the dictates of the SBC/BGCO. In some rare instances, their meekness toward the SBC/BGCO translated into harshness toward dissenting faculty and students.
In 2012, a former OBU professor gave me a document, compiled by numerous OBU faculty members during the late 2000s-early 2010s, exposing alleged mistreatment of faculty by the then-president and his administration. It told of an OBU president who frequently lost his temper, yelling at faculty members who chafed at his rigid dictates, ultimately running them off in one way or another.
Lunch with the OBU president and staff . . . invited by the Brusters and Wades
This was the OBU that I refused to support. This is the “baggage” I brought with me on July 13 of this year, when I attended a luncheon, in a Dallas suburb, with the current OBU president, Heath Thomas, and members of his administration staff. Lunch was provided by OBU. Hosts were two of my dearest friends, Bill Bruster and Charles Wade, 1962 OBU grads, and their wives, Charlotte and Rosemary. Bill and Charles had been leaders, in the 1980s & 1990s, in the fight against the fundamentalists’ attempts, first, to take control of the SBC, and, then, to take control of the BGCT. They have continued to actively defend historic Baptist principles of freedom in every arena. There are no two people I trust more than I trust Bill Bruster and Charles Wade.
Bill and Charles love the OBU that we all knew when we were students. They have been disappointed by the OBU that emerged after the 1990 SBC takeover. However, they have kept an open mind to the possibility that someone would come along who would recognize the importance of the values we treasured at OBU back in the day. In recent years, they have gotten to know Heath Thomas, who has served as OBU president since 2020, and have been impressed by the spirit he has demonstrated and the actions he has taken as OBU’s president. They wanted other OBU grads in the Dallas-Fort Worth area to hear from Dr. Thomas, so they arranged this luncheon.
That “baggage” I mentioned earlier? It made me skeptical as I entered the venue of the luncheon. I had heard Heath Thomas speak once before, at OBU in the fall of 2023, at another luncheon – where my Class of 1973 was honored with induction into the “50-Year Club.” At that 2023 event on the OBU campus, I was pleasantly surprised by what I heard. I was expecting the president of OBU to present some dry “president-speak,” the usual kind of speech that talks a lot and says very little. Instead, I heard someone who didn’t sound “programmed”; he seemed to be authentic, a real person who cared about his students, faculty, and yes, alumni.
But it wasn’t enough to make me want to give. I still felt it was probably the same OBU that had come under the thumb of the SBC/BGCO control machine over 30 years earlier. So when I walked into this luncheon on July 13, 2026, I was determined that, regardless of what I heard that day, I would never again give to my alma mater.
OBU 2026 . . . under (re)construction
Then I heard Heath speak (“I’m just Heath, call me Heath.”), along with Julie Paul – OBU vice president of advancement and alumni, and Jill Jefferson – OBU executive director of development for the DFW area. We heard three people who are excited about what is happening at OBU today. All three are OBU grads from the 1990s. This is not only my alma mater, it is theirs, too, and I sensed from all three a heartfelt personal investment in the OBU of today – its students and faculty, as well as in honoring the OBU that changed the lives of alumni like me, who graduated long before the SBC & BGCO came under fundamentalist control.
Heath Thomas said that the past 3 years have seen more “exponential change” in OBU’s campus than in any period in its history, which dates to its founding in 1910. He assured us that he was “not just using ‘president speak,'” then proceeded to describe much of the change.
From 2021-2024, he and his staff implemented a “multiply strategy” that included:
- $2 million investment in engineering
- Expansion of OBU’s health care programs into graduate-level classes
In April 2023, a tornado struck the OBU campus, leaving massive damage in its wake. Every one of the 1.47 million square feet of the OBU campus was impacted. Total damage was $115 million, including:
- Lost: 20 houses and two apartment buildings
- Totaled: Raley Chapel and Shawnee Hall
- Holes in every building on campus
- Water, wind, and debris damage
Heath assured us, however, that, while the tornado increased the scope of the work and accelerated timelines, it didn’t change the overall plans that were already in progress.
2024 saw the inauguration of the Shape the Future campaign at OBU, which is ongoing at this time and involves extensive change to OBU’s campus and programs. Phase 1 is scheduled for completion in 2027.
OBU alumni are especially concerned about the fate of Raley Chapel and Shawnee Hall, both being venues where we spent many memorable hours as students.
Raley Chapel? Heath said that the insurance people said “you could tear it down for all we care.” He knew, however, that his fellow OBU alums had too much of their lives invested in the history of Raley Chapel for them to countenance its razing. So he and his staff decided the best way forward was a “rescue mission to re-raise the spire of Raley for the next 75 years.” He called it the largest work project – encompassing 7½ acres – in OBU’s history. The area surrounding Raley Chapel saw the loss of 120 to 160 trees, as well as destruction of storm water drainage.
The tornado necessitated what he called a “civil engineering design that regrades the entire campus.” Because the storm water drainage had to be replaced “to handle all of the watershed from all across the campus,” the area around Raley Chapel – from the east side to the south lawn – will, when “relaunched,” have four water features with fountains. Heath envisions a beautiful space where students, alumni, and the community will gather for community events such as outdoor concerts.
The Raley Chapel interior is being completely redone, including re-leading and cleaning of the stained-glass windows. The renewed Potter Auditorium, Heath told us, “will be a world-class performance space, tailor-made to be a recital hall and performance hall for our fine arts.” OBU will now be a Steinway campus with “state-of-the-art Spirio Steinway design . . . in Raley Chapel so that we can have concerts and broadcast them all around the world on Spirio Steinway pianos.”
The “relaunch” of Raley Chapel is planned for August 2027.
Shawnee Hall relaunched in October 2025, and Heath invited us – the next time any of us are on campus – to go in and take a look around. He said that, if anyone asks what we’re doing there, just tell them “the president invited me here.” He said that we might find ourselves in some of the pictures that line the walls of Shawnee Hall, archival materials from every decade of OBU’s existence. In addition to the presence of OBU’s first graduate health care labs, an especially intriguing note about Shawnee Hall was his mention of “an immersive world-class classroom” containing all touchscreen walls. I can’t help but wish that Coleman Raley, my psychology professor in Shawnee Hall in 1970, could see that – he would think he had been flown to the Moon. (My main memory of Dr. Raley is him swatting wildly at the wasps that had made their way into the classroom and calling them “dive bombers.”)
Heath touched on numerous other additions and enhancements – some already implemented and others to be launched soon – involved in the Shape the Future campaign, including:
- Software engineering (2025)
- First doctoral health care program (January 2026)
- Master’s in speech language pathology (August 2026)
- New engineering building (March 2026)
- Intentional industry partnerships, including one with Northrup Drummond, aerospace defense contractor, that resulted in three engineering students being granted paid internships, after which all three were promised jobs after graduation
Phase 2 of Shape the Future will begin in late 2027, after the completion of Raley Chapel. Heath said that it will be “very student-focused,” including residential spaces and “affinity-based groupings” of student activities.
Fall 2025, he said, saw the fourth consecutive year of increased enrollment, and his latest information indicates that 2026 will see even more growth.
After Heath finished his presentation, he was asked about St. Gregory’s College, the Catholic school located down the road off of MacArthur. St. Gregory’s declared bankruptcy several years ago, and its property was deeded to OBU. Heath said that St. Gregory’s abbot called him one day about the possibility of a land swap in which the St. Gregory’s property would be returned to St. Gregory’s. Heath and the OBU board agreed to a swap in which OBU received 133 acres of prime real estate, including 80 acres on I-40 plus 53 acres adjacent to Shawnee airport. In return, OBU gave St. Gregory’s Abbey the entire 73 acres – 278,000 square feet – of St. Gregory’s property.
Welcome to the “new” OBU . . . back to the way we were?
When asked about how OBU is handling the political division in the U.S., as it relates to its students, Heath cited the vision of OBU’s founders, as reflected in the charter they adopted, including the following elements:
- Provide education to women and men on equal terms
- Have followers of Jesus in law, medicine, music, technology, “both abstract and applied“
- Equip the next generation in every sphere of life
He said that “education needs to transcend the noise in our culture today. . . . Christ taught us that it’s important to hold convictions and also to love each other and serve each other.”
When asked whether he has board support for that charter, Heath replied that yes, he does, and that, before candidates agree to serve as board members, he shows them the charter and asks them to confirm their support for it. He does the same with prospective staff and faculty members.
What I found especially encouraging was Heath’s emphatic commitment to a liberal arts education. “At OBU,” he said, “you’re going to be trained to think your way across the room, and that’s basically what liberal arts education is . . . transdisciplinary skills that exceed professional vocational training. OBU continues to lean into the Christian liberal arts tradition and equip our students to live all of life all for Jesus.”
I also appreciated Julie Paul’s reflections on her experience at OBU, remarking that she and her fellow students “were able to wrestle with our faith and our convictions and our ideas and what culture was and what the Lord was to us . . . in a space where we could have difficult conversations. . . . mentored by professors who cared about us, who cared about our well-being, who cared about our education.”
My “takeaways” from hearing from – and chatting with – Heath, Jill, and Julie
Afterwards, I spent several minutes talking one-on-one with Heath Thomas. He listened as I shared with him the story of the faith struggle that began one day because of remarks in Western Civ class by Dr. Bill Mitchell (he told me that Dr. Mitchell had passed away just recently). I shared about the people in the OBU community who helped me learn to think through faith issues for myself and pointed me to resources to help me in my search – particularly Jerry Barnes, then pastor of University Baptist Church, and friends in late-night “bull sessions” in Brotherhood Dorm. I also shared with him about meeting the love of my life, Joanna, at OBU, and falling in love with each other, a love story that lasted until her passing 48 years later.
I told Heath that the significance of OBU for me was that I was challenged to be honest in confronting my questions and doubts about the faith with which I had grown up, and to search for a truth to which I could commit my life. Heath thanked me for sharing my story and my transparency in doing so. He assured me that this is the kind of environment he has sought to foster as president of OBU.
I also told him that I have OBU classmates who have vowed never to return to OBU – or support it – as long as it is tied to the BGCO and SBC, and that I understand their concerns but that I’ve told them that I return to OBU not to honor the OBU of today but to celebrate the OBU that changed my life over a half-century ago. In fact, as I shared with Heath, whenever I’m back on Bison Hill, I experience a peace that I feel nowhere else, and I get very emotional, all because of how God got hold of me there and refused to give up on me, changing my life in the most profound ways.
A couple of weeks after that luncheon, I had coffee with Jill Jefferson, OBU’s executive director of development for the DFW area. As had Heath before her, Jill listened intently and with deep interest as I shared my personal OBU story. From her own experience at OBU, she – as had Heath and Julie – affirmed the importance of students being able to work out their faith through questioning, doubting, struggling toward a faith that is authentic for them. We even found common ground on some issues that had disturbed me about OBU’s past administrations.
Heath, Julie, Jill – from none of these encounters did I ever hear anything that smacked of indoctrination. Maybe, I began to think, an atmosphere of freedom is still possible at OBU, despite the events in SBC and BGCO life over recent decades.
When Julie spoke at the luncheon, she told us that we would find – in the Shape the Future packets we had been given – a special gift, and we were the first group of OBU alumni to receive it: a Christmas ornament fashioned from the original Raley Chapel spire. When she told us that, tears came to my eyes. Raley Chapel – where I spent so many hours in Chapel services; where I fondly remember our being directed so many times, by Dean Warren M. Angell, in the Hymn to the Alma Mater; downstairs in Dr. Richard Farley’s voice studio and in Yarborough Auditorium for music recitals – including my own Senior Voice Recital in November 1972; and where, in Potter Auditorium during a March 1973 Jimmy Webb concert, I first held hands with Joanna. Oh, does that place ever hold memories for me, beautiful memories. So I can’t imagine a more special gift from the OBU Alumni Office!
Principles and convictions
Convictions are important, and I hold strong convictions about Baptist principles and the ways in which the SBC and BGCO of the past 40 years have abandoned those principles. However, the OBU that I knew in the early 1970s taught me to be open to new information and to new activity of God’s Holy Spirit among us. One key principle for me, as it relates to Christian higher education, is academic freedom – the freedom of faculty and students to explore different ways of reading and understanding scripture, and different ways of responding to God’s call on our lives. In October 2008, when I was directing communications for Texas Baptists Committed (a little over 2 years before becoming executive director), I asked a great friend and OBU 1973 classmate, David Sallee, to write an article for the TBC website.
At that time, David was president of William Jewell College, a historically Baptist school in Liberty, Missouri, which he had led – several years earlier – to refuse further funding from the Missouri Baptist Convention because of the strings attached to that funding: they sought control over content published in student publications at William Jewell, as well as material that could be taught in the classes, and so forth. I could not imagine anyone better qualified to write an article on academic freedom at Baptist colleges and universities than David Sallee, and David welcomed the opportunity to write it. Though TBC ceased operations in 2017, I have kept its website online because of the many resources available there, including David’s article. Just click this link: Academic Freedom at Baptist Colleges and Universities, by David Sallee. It is as relevant today as it was when David wrote it in 2008.
OBU isn’t perfect today, and it wasn’t perfect when David and I were students from 1969-1973. It isn’t run by perfect people today, and it wasn’t run by perfect people then. I remember protests, when I was a student, over the lack of equality between women and men students. Women had a strict curfew in their dorms; men had no curfew. So freedom wasn’t absolute then, either, and students were not always satisfied with the administration. Surprise, surprise!
But hearing from Heath, Jill, and Julie, getting to talk with them, and hearing their responses to my story and my concerns – all of this has been a game-changer for me. As I listened to them and talked with them, I discovered something about myself that I hadn’t realized before – I have been waiting for someone to give me a reason to again support my alma mater, the place that changed my life. I have been waiting for someone to give me hope for the current generation of OBU students and generations to come. OBU for me no longer has to be simply nostalgia for the OBU that was; it can now be hope for the OBU that is . . . and is to be.
A few days after the luncheon in July, I called a friend, who was a professor at OBU in a past administration and left because of that administration’s interference in his work there. I shared with him about what I had learned about the OBU of today and that I was seriously considering giving again. My friend replied that he just can’t make that leap as long as OBU is affiliated with the SBC and BGCO, because of their prohibition on women serving as pastors.
I fully understand his concern. Equality of women and men in ministry, as well as in the home, workplace, and society in general, is a key issue for me as well. For him, this is a line that prevents him from supporting OBU. I have other friends, including 1973 OBU classmates, who may not be convinced by what I have written here, who will still be adamant about refusing support to OBU until and unless it is severed from the BGCO and the SBC. I understand that, and I respect their concerns and their decision.
From 2012-2016, I supported a movement, led by OBU alum Jacob Lupfer, known as “Save OBU,” which sought to do just that – save OBU by severing it from control by the BGCO and the SBC. In 2012, I met with a group of them at OBU following Homecoming, and I regularly published Jacob’s well-researched blog posts in my Weekly Baptist Roundup e-newsletter that was read by around 1,000 Baptists every week. In retrospect, Save OBU was a cause doomed to failure, but it was a noble one, and I was proud to support Jacob and the small group of OBU alums, students, and faculty who were in his corner. As we learned then, breaking the affiliation of OBU with the SBC & BGCO is a steep hill to climb.
I choose to give to support my alma mater
However, maybe the right president, with the right people around him, can lessen the control that those entities exercise over OBU by putting trustees in place who pledge support to the intent of OBU’s founders, as expressed in the founding charter, to provide equal education to women and men, and to provide a well-rounded liberal arts education in which students are encouraged to, as Heath put it, “think their way across the room . . . to live all of life all for Jesus.”
I trust Bill Bruster and Charles Wade, and through them I’ve come to trust Heath Thomas, Jill Jefferson, and Julie Paul, that they and their colleagues are creating new spaces and opportunities for students to wrestle with their faith as they did, to be honest with their questions and doubts, and to believe that God is big enough to hear those questions, to handle their doubts, and to give them strength and wisdom to seek a faith that is authentic for them, as so many of us did in the 1970s and before.
In addition, I’m excited about the many enhancements that are taking place to OBU’s campus, its programs, and its curriculum, all with an eye toward shaping students for generations to come.
So I choose to begin giving, for the first time in decades, to support OBU in its quest to Shape the Future.