(By Peter Smith, Pittsburgh Post-Gazette). Robert A.J. Gagnon, a biblical scholar who became one of the most outspoken and polarizing opponents of same-sex practice in a generation of debates within his and other Protestant denominations, has resigned from the faculty of the Pittsburgh Theological Seminary.
The seminary is affiliated with the Presbyterian Church (USA), a denomination that debated sexuality for decades before deciding in 2011 to ordain non-celibate gays and lesbians and in 2015 to authorize same-sex marriages in its churches. Mr. Gagnon, an ordained elder in the denomination, spoke out often against such liberalizing trends.
The seminary and the professor “mutually agreed to end their relationship” effective this past Monday, the East Liberty school said. Mr. Gagnon, 59, was a tenured professor of New Testament and had been on the faculty for 23 years.
“We appreciate the contributions Professor Gagnon has made to our students and the community during his time here and we wish him the best in his future endeavors,” a seminary statement said.
Mr. Gagnon, in a Facebook post, said the decision was mutual and that his departure had nothing to do with any “moral turpitude.”
And while neither the school nor Mr. Gagnon directly linked his departure to his controversial stance on homosexuality, he acknowledged that stance would narrow his prospects for future academic work.
“It is my desire to be forward-looking to the next stage of my career and ministry in the academic world as I seek a new institution in which to teach, research, and minister,” he said. “I think God is calling me to an evangelical institution, if the evangelical world will have me.”
He said it’s “unlikely, given my stances on sexual ethics and Scripture, that any university religion department or mainline denominational seminary would take me.”
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PTS has followed the course of PTSEM with its Tim Keller fiasco – are there any traditional, conservative, Reformed
seminaries remaining that are sponsored by the PCUSA? Dr. Gagnon is a much-respected scholar in the field of
Biblical sexual ethics and the Biblical languages – I am grateful for his truthful teaching as he has presented it in his
many articles, scholarly papers, talks and books.
Traditional believers can thank Professor Gagnon for his years of service to the church and for his defense of the faith and of male-female marriage. At 59, maybe he is even old enough to retire, and can relax and spend time traveling with his wife.
Pittsburgh class of 1983, but I will get to that in a moment. One has to wonder though. Why would an a tenured academic, the closest thing for a guaranteed job for life in America, chose to “voluntarily” leave a secure position, close to age 60 no less, for other opportunities. It makes no vocational, let alone logical sense. Or could it be a rather new president and administration, seeking to impose a Leftist hegemony on thought and opinion has let it be made known in subtle and not so subtle ways that Dr. Gagnon’s kind is no longer welcome along Highland Ave. My guess is the latter. In that sense this no less than an ideological purge in the institution. We have seen this movie before in the fundamentalist-modernist struggles of the 1920’s and 30s. Somewhat less bloody than Stalin’s about the same time, the results are the same.
Now about the Seminary. Sometime along the way of my military time I did not have any walls about to hang diplomas and alike, so my PTS diploma has been in a box in the basement for about 25 years. But over the years I assume I am still on their mailing list so I get hit up on donations and other mailings. I just shred them when the arrive. I am going to have to find that diploma and give it the attention it deserves.
Liberal, mainline Protestant theological seminaries are closing as we speak, Andover-Newton, Colgate-Rochester, Union NY, various campuses of Fuller, others have either closed, merged, consolidated along the way. As their patron denominations, churches collapse into extinction this will not change. Pittsburgh is well along that path as well.
It is important to sort fact and fiction. As for the Keller situation that had nothing to do with the PTS, but with Pittsburgh Presbytery. It was the right decision. Mr. Gregory refuses to give to the seminary that educated him. Perhaps he forgot his seminary education was subsidized by previous students, many churches, grateful laypersons. The separation of the professor and the seminary has been under no comment agreement by both sides. It is known that many churches and wealthy donors were appalled by many of Gagnon’s comments outside of the classroom over the years, and hurt fund-raising by the seminary. It is known that the professor was not always fair in regard to students of a certain sexual orientation.
I’ve been reading Gagnon’s landmark book The Bible and Homosexual Practice. He is a gifted scholar, who exhaustively defends the traditional teaching of the church. Any evangelical seminary should be honored to have such an able scholar and steadfast defender of the faith.
I will say to “James” if that is indeed his real name, that a paid my own way though PTS. I have no moral, theological or feel some sort of debt or gratitude to the institution. And that is not the only aspect of the Administrative State PCUSA I refuse to give or donate too. Or bow in submission too. What always amazes me about the Left in general is how they feel others should contribute or pay some sort of tribute to their various agencies or causes out of some supposed obligation to do so.
Much like I tell the Presbytery when they solicit funds for their various causes and issues. Liberals need to support and give generously, or liberally to their various liberal issues and causes they support. And quit assuming I or anybody else needs to fund their activities, they made the decisions and polices, that’s on them. Now if James objects to anything I have said I use my full God given name, I am most accessible in many ways, I am in the book. Wish I could say the same about him.
Robert Gagnon is the most kind but thorough and competent and fearless of scholars in this fiery, controversial area of biblical studies. He remained undaunted while others waffled and crumbled. He trusts his life to the will of God. Let’s pray Dr. Gagnon swiftly regains a teaching post. Meanwhile, I am looking forward to whatever he publishes on Romans!
It’s interesting that in the newspaper {if that published periodical deserves the name “newspaper” any more} article, Robert A.J. Gagnon is mentioned to be a Tenured professor and an Elder in the PCUSA, yet he is not referred to by either Dr. nor Elder Gagnon in the article’s text, while others are referred to properly, as in, “The Rev. David Esterline, president of the seminary, declined to elaborate on Mr. [sic] Gagnon…” or when they quote one of Dr. Gagnon’s most outspoken detractors, “The Rev. [sic] Janet Edwards”…there are at least two other persons referred to as “Rev.” in this article. Being the person that I am, I am not really all that adamant about having the appellation of “The Reverend” attached to my name – the title does not make the man – but if you are writing/publishing a {supposedly} NEUTRAL article {just the facts, as Joe Friday would have said}, you should either address all “titled” persons with their proper title, or refer to all as either “Mr.” or “Ms.” {sorry if I hurt anyones’ feelings, but the only titles, male [Mr.] or female [Miss, Mrs. or (shudderingly) Ms. – isn’t that a manuscript? Ms?}. I can only see this as a ‘slap in the face’ to Dr. Gagnon; he has honoured the Biblical {Jesus’} mandate to turn the other check and and has not castigated the author or the publisher.
No, there are no “traditional, conservative, Reformed” seminaries in the Presbyterian Church (USA), nor have there ever been. Remember, the PC(USA) was formed in 1983 by the merger of the UPCUSA and the PCUS, and by that time, the Theologically Liberal hegemony had ensured that all seminaries associated with both denominations would remain Theologically Liberal for the foreseeable future.
That being said, some of the PC(USA)’s seminaries have been friendlier toward Evangelicals than others, but all are increasingly hostile toward us. Princeton, long the bastion of classical Reformed education in the PCUSA, fell in 1929, although many Evangelicals in the PCUSA/UPCUSA/PC(USA) continued attending there for decades thereafter. Pittsburgh, which was formed in 1959 by the merger of the UPCNA’s Pittsburgh-Xenia Theological Seminary with the PCUSA’s Western Theological Seminary the year after those two denominations merged to form the UPCUSA, inherited some of the former’s classical Reformed ethos, but the Theologically Liberal character of the latter ensured that the product of the unequal yoking of the two institutions would gradually be dragged down into the muck, which it has. Union Seminary in Virginia also kept its Evangelical character longer than most other former PCUS seminaries, chiefly due to the fact that John Leith, Jack Dean Kingsbury, and Elizabeth Achtemeier were on the faculty, but since then, it has become as Theologically Liberal as the others. Likewise, the University of Dubuque Theological Seminary held onto its Evangelical character for a while, due to the presence of Donald Bloesch and Mark Achtemeier on the faculty, but then Bloesch retired, and Achtemeier converted to Theological Liberalism; even San Francisco had something of that with Jack Rogers on the faculty, before he, too, converted to Theological Liberalism. And none of these could be considered Reformed in the classical sense.
No, if one wants a truly Reformed seminary education, then one would do well to look at the PCA’s Covenant Seminary in St. Louis, Westminster Seminary (no denominational affiliation) in Philadelphia (where Tim Keller taught before becoming pastor at Redeemer in New York) or Escondido, California, or Reformed Theological Seminary (also no denominational affiliation) with its campuses all over the United States (including in NYC, where Keller now teaches).
Peter Gregory. You misunderstand my statement. You may have paid your own way through PTS, but the cost of your education was subsidized by others. In order to keep tuition low or affordable, the seminary used its endowment (given by churches and individuals) and direct funds given to keep tuition low. Just as a state university tuition is low (subsidized by taxpayers and endowments) and private colleges used endowments and gifts to keep tuition low.