Posted on 02/20/2015 8:09:31 AM PST by Alex Murphy
A Brewton-Parker College vice president fired Feb. 2 after refusing to sign a non-disclosure agreement about Ergun Caner’s Jan. 20 resignation has been reinstated.
Iowa pastor Dave Miller, editor of SBC Voices, a group blog devoted to news and commentary about the Southern Baptist Convention, reported Feb. 18 that he had confirmed rumors circulating the day before that C.B. Scott was reinstated as vice president of alumni, advancement and church relations at the Baptist-affiliated school in Mount Vernon, Ga., by interim president Charlie Bass.
Peter Lumpkins, vice president for communications, confirmed the information to Baptist News Global Feb. 19.
Scott, a former pastor promoted to vice president soon after Caner took over as Brewton-Parker’s president in January 2014, told Southeast Georgia Today Jan. 29 that he turned down a severance package on the condition that he sign a non-disclosure agreement as a “matter of personal integrity.”
Dwight McKissic, a black Southern Baptist pastor in Texas, posted a blog Feb. 5 quoting four witnesses claiming to have heard racist comments and profanity by Caner prior to his resignation citing emotional stress over his son’s death last summer by suicide.
Board chairman Gary Campbell told faculty and staff Feb. 2 that trustees investigated reports of racial, vulgar and derogatory comments used by Caner but the findings were inconclusive. A fourth allegation of unspecified “inappropriate behavior,” he said, was not investigated because Caner decided to resign saying that he “no longer had the will or energy to fight.”
In his first comments to faculty and staff, Bass, who returned to campus as interim president 18 months after resigning as vice president of student services, acknowledged the school’s image has been “tarnished” by events of recent years, including nearly losing accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, but he still believes God has “big plans” for the school.
“God didn’t call me nor did he need me here to close this campus,” Bass . “He had the perfect opportunity to do that while we were under probation with SACSCOC. But He didn’t allow it to happen.”
A seven-member committee searching for a new president includes Robert White, executive director and CEO of the Georgia Baptist Convention.
Since Scott’s dismissal, SBC Voices raised about $2,500 to help him and his wife with living expenses and ongoing health insurance costs. After his reinstatement, Miller said Scott suggested the money be returned to donors, but after deliberation the group decided to use the money to help Karen Scott purchase a new wheelchair prescribed by doctors, which with insurance will cost in the neighborhood of $4,000.
Board chairman Gary Campbell told faculty and staff Feb. 2 that trustees investigated reports of racial, vulgar and derogatory comments used by Caner but the findings were inconclusive. A fourth allegation of unspecified “inappropriate behavior,” he said, was not investigated because Caner decided to resign saying that he “no longer had the will or energy to fight.” In his first comments to faculty and staff, Bass, who returned to campus as interim president 18 months after resigning as vice president of student services, acknowledged the school’s image has been “tarnished” by events of recent years, including nearly losing accreditation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools Commission on Colleges, but he still believes God has “big plans” for the school.
In the blog article mentioned above, two witnesses each claimed that Ergun Caner said that "there would be no way that [Caner] would place [Scott] in that position [V.P. of Affairs]", that Scott was “horrible in the classroom, horrible with people, did not try to fundraise money, and thinks he is half black.” All four witnesses reported Caner using racial and sexual epithets in a number of conversations. The blog also made a reference to a "sexting" incident, but it was unclear if this was referring to the use of sexual epithets or to something else.
He sounds like he needs a break to pull his life together.
There have to be other men with less baggage to take the position.
Disclaimer: Opinions posted on Free Republic are those of the individual posters and do not necessarily represent the opinion of Free Republic or its management. All materials posted herein are protected by copyright law and the exemption for fair use of copyrighted works.