AN APPEAL TO THE BAYLOR BOARD OF REGENTS
by Eugene Hung
Dear Regents,
Thank you for taking this moment to hear from a brother in Christ. As Baylor University is a Baptist institution, and as I'm a licensed Baptist minister who grew up in Texas, attending a Baptist elementary school and a Baptist church, I think there's a lot we have in common. Additionally, like some of you, I have a background in vocational ministry. I hold a four-year Master of Theology (Th.M.) degree from Dallas Seminary, and I served as a full-time church minister for over a dozen years before switching over to the nonprofit space. I hope our commonalities help us each to understand where the other is coming from.
Of course, you're aware that there are multiple reports that influential people in the larger Baylor community are putting pressure on you. Namely, they want you to limit Mr. Briles' penalty to a one-year suspension and to keep the rest of his staff intact.
Perhaps these influential people have forgotten this phrase:
Thou art the man!
In all the years you and I have sat under Baptist preaching and teaching, going all the way back to our childhoods and our King James Bibles, we no doubt have heard this phrase at least once. And many of us even know right away where the line comes from: the prophet Nathan's confrontation of King David.
Now, I suspect that the folks lobbying for Mr. Briles' and his staff's return don't quite get just how awful and horrific Baylor's sins have been. But I hope they'll understand if they hear the line again:
Thou art the man!
My studies at Dallas Seminary helped me to see things in the Scriptures that I'd never seen before. I saw Bathsheba for the first time as she really was - not as the seductive temptress we see in modern Bible films, but as a typical Israelite woman, bathing where she would have normally done so. I also learned that David was not where he normally should have been - with his soldiers, at the front, being responsible and accountable. And from his high vantage point above the hilly city of Jerusalem, he gazed longingly and lustfully upon Bathsheba, and then acted. The Hebrew phrase in 2 Samuel 11 is chilling. Translated, it is literally, “he took her.”
He raped her.
Bathsheba was no temptress. He was the king. She was his subject. He took her. That does not describe consent at all.
We will recall that after sending for her and having sex with her, he then went to great lengths to cover up the subsequent pregnancy. He first summoned Uriah back from the front and encouraged him to take a load off, to go home to his wife for a conjugal visit. Uriah refused. David then plied him with alcohol to get him drunk, hoping that Uriah would then go have sex with his wife. Though intoxicated, Uriah still refused. Finally, David had Uriah sent back to the battlefield with secret instructions for the general in charge: put Uriah in the nastiest part of the fighting, and then retreat from him, leaving him without support or cover, so he dies.
You know this story well, I'm sure. You have probably even taught it from the pulpit or in Sunday School. We remember that David’s sins of rape and murder-by-proxy are followed by months of non-repentance. He goes about his business, not feeling a bit of guilt, not recognizing just how horrific his actions have been. His sense of entitlement is on full display as he then brings Bathsheba into his palace and makes her another one of his wives. And then she gives birth to a son.
The Bible's words are familiar in 2 Samuel 12:1-4 (NLT):
"So the Lord sent Nathan the prophet to tell David this story: 'There were two men in a certain town. One was rich, and one was poor. The rich man owned a great many sheep and cattle. The poor man owned nothing but one little lamb he had bought. He raised that little lamb, and it grew up with his children. It ate from the man’s own plate and drank from his cup. He cuddled it in his arms like a baby daughter. One day a guest arrived at the home of the rich man. But instead of killing an animal from his own flock or herd, he took the poor man’s lamb and killed it and prepared it for his guest.'"
David, the account says, was infuriated. Full of self-righteousness, he responded, “As surely as the Lord lives … any man who would do such a thing deserves to die! He must repay four lambs to the poor man for the one he stole and for having no pity.”
Surely Nathan’s old, steely eyes glared right into David’s as he declared, “You are that man!” Or in the language of the King James Version:
Thou art the man.
Let’s apply this passage to the matter at hand. I humbly yet firmly believe that Baylor, as a whole, as a unit, has behaved like "the man," like King David. The school, through high-level employees, enabled sexual crimes against women and covered them up. In the interest of maintaining its huge success on the field and its new-found national adulation, and awash in dollars pouring in from enthusiastic donors, Baylor acted like the rich man in the parable. That is, it took something from vulnerable people. The rich man stole from the poor man and his family; Baylor stole from women who trusted the school to protect them. And Mr. Briles and other football staffers were the most responsible. Like Catholic bishops who gave second and third chances to pedophilic priests as they transferred them from one parish to another, Mr. Briles and other coaches committed grievous wrongs. They abused their leadership positions, and would be fired from any Baptist church or school.
Except for Baylor, that is, if some influential people have their way.
Thou art the man.
With Baylor’s witness for Jesus in tatters, and its name now synonymous with hypocrisy among non-Baptists, these influencers need to hear that line and that story again. They need to see how closely Baylor's actions have mirrored King David's, and to feel convicted with absolute clarity about how horrifically the school has treated Jasmin Hernandez and the other rape survivors.
Please help these powerful people, whether donors or even fellow board members, to understand. Show them and a watching world that Baylor is broken in its sorrow, and repents.
"You do not desire a sacrifice, or I would offer one.
You do not want a burnt offering.
The sacrifice you desire is a broken spirit,
You will not reject a broken and repentant heart, O God" (Psalm 51:16-17 NLT).
Thank you so much for listening. I pray that God gives you courage and grace going forward.
