FORT WORTH (TX)
Baptist News Global [Jacksonville FL]
September 9, 2024
By David Bumgardner and Mark Wingfield
In a surprising turn of events, the defamation lawsuit brought against Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and its former trustee chairman by former President Adam Greenway has come to an abrupt conclusion, with Greenway receiving none of the compensation he sought.
Seminary officials announced Monday, Sept. 9, they have signed an agreement with Greenway, who now lives in Florida, even though he has made repeated claims that his former employer defamed him and owes him millions of dollars. Part of that claim arises from his assertion that his firing from the Fort Worth, Texas, seminary left him unemployable.
Since his firing, Greenway has gone from a $300,000 annual salary at Southwestern to a variety of positions where he makes less than 10% of his former salary, according to court documents.
Greenway reportedly is working as a substitute teacher in a classical magnet school in Florida. He previously was dean of the Billy Graham School of Evangelism at Southern Baptist Theological Seminary before being elected Southwestern Seminary’s president in 2019. He resigned abruptly in September 2022, and it was revealed later the school was teetering financially and had the lowest enrollment since World War II.
Trustee leaders later accused Greenway of financial mismanagement, including exorbitant expenses to renovate and furnish the president’s home on campus. His predecessor, Paige Patterson, also had been accused of lavish spending, including on a new structure that was to be his retirement home.
The sudden and unexpected settlement in the lawsuit comes just days after Greenway had been compelled by the court to produce a ream of documents via legal discovery that reportedly would have further embarrassed him if made public.
Southwestern’s leadership has maintained all along that Greenway has violated the terms of a separation agreement that in 2022 paid him a lump sum of $229,500 in exchange for a clause that both parties would not make any “false and disparaging” statements about the other.
“When Adam Greenway approached the seminary on the eve of his deposition and offered to drop his lawsuit with no monetary consideration in return, it was clear this was the best decision for Southwestern Seminary,” seminary leaders said in a written statement. “We believe the manner of this resolution not only vindicates the seminary, it further demonstrates the allegations made in the lawsuit were without merit. Grateful for the favor God has bestowed on the seminary since the fall of 2022, we are now eager to refocus our full energies and resources on carrying out the mission of Southwestern Seminary.”
Greenway alleged Southwestern trustees violated that agreement when they published summary findings of an internal financial investigation — including the revelation that Greenway had purchased an $11,000 espresso machine for the president’s home.
According to discovery documents made public last week, Greenway applied for work at 21 churches, denominational entities, nonprofit organizations and educational institutions, and could not get hired. That list includes the pastorate of several prominent Southern Baptist churches, leadership roles at four universities, two state Baptist conventions and several Baptist associations.
Originally, Greenway had negotiated a golden parachute out of Southwestern with his longtime friend Paul Chitwood, who now heads the Southern Baptist International Mission Board. After news of that sweetheart deal leaked, Chitwood was forced by his own trustees to rescind the offer.
Greenway was hired, in part, to clean up the mess left at Southwestern by Patterson, a hero of the “conservative resurgence” in the Southern Baptist Convention who presided over the greatest decline — in finances and enrollment — in the school’s 100-year history.
Also in the discovery documents Greenway was compelled to provide last week, he revealed he had contact with 31 individuals about his allegations against the seminary in ways that potentially violated his separation agreement. Notable names on the list include former seminary Police Chief Kevin Collins and former Chief of Staff Heath Woolman, both of whom have been implicated by the seminary in former Interim Provost Matt Queen’s federal criminal court case for falsifying records related to sexual abuse.
Greenway also revealed communications with former seminary trustees Aaron Sligar and Andrew Bunnell, who made accusations of financial and moral misconduct against trustees and seminary administrators and in defense of Greenway. Both Sligar and Bunnell later resigned from the board.
One day after the settlement was announced, Greenway released his own statement about the turn of events.
“Late last week, I directed my legal counsel to extend an olive branch to legal counsel for Southwestern Seminary, motivated by my steadfast desire to achieve an amicable resolution to our ongoing dispute, whereby the seminary would fulfill its original commitment to take responsibility for issuing a joint statement acknowledging our separation, with malice toward none and with charity toward all,” he wrote. “While I am grateful that such a joint statement has now been issued, I disagree strongly with the seminary’s characterizations of the motivations behind or the meaning of the settlement.
“Scripture counsels us that we are to ‘if possible, as far as it depends on you, live at peace with everyone.’ I am content to let the joint statement speak for itself. I look forward to putting this chapter of my life behind me and focusing on the hope and the future that our Lord has for me and my family.”
The resolution of Greenway’s defamation suit against the seminary marks the end of one chapter in a series of legal dramas for the seminary. BNG has verified that the current criminal investigation into and upcoming trial of former Interim Provost Matt Queen does not involve any current seminary personnel.
And this week, another high-profile case in which both the seminary and Patterson are named defendants goes before the Texas Supreme Court on a technicality that could keep a sliver of the original case alive or scuttle the entire thing. That case involves claims by an anonymous former student, known as a Jane Roe, that she was sexually abused multiple times by another student who also was a seminary employee and that Patterson mishandled the case and subsequently defamed her through the actions of his subordinates.
This story was updated Sept. 10 to include the statement from Adam Greenway.