Former SWBTS Prez. Adam Greenway Threatens Seminary With Lawsuit If They Don’t Give Him $5M
Former Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam Greenway is threatening to sue the school he once ruled with an iron fist, sending a letter through his lawyers demanding $5,000,000 from the organization on account that their disclosure of his financial mismanagement caused him to be humiliated and also significantly harmed any future job prospects.
Last year, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary President Adam Greenway was canned for being terrible at his job. Marked by a desire to reshape the seminary’s ethos in his own self-centered image, at least 45 faculty left under Greenway’s watch, either retiring, resigning, or simply being fired, such as the canning of the much-loved top professors David Allen and Robert Lopez.
Crucially, a Summary of Findings released by the Southwestern Seminary Board of Trustees Task Force into the behavior of Greenway and the institutional failings at SWBTS was devastating, with their report noting:
The task force concluded that Adam Greenway engaged in a pattern of spending that the task force believes did not reflect proper stewardship of seminary resources. This pattern of spending occurred without deference to financial controls and seminary financial policies.
Between 2019 and 2022, over $1.5 million was spent on renovations, furnishings, and related expenses to the President’s home. These expenditures were made at a time when the seminary was making significant budget cuts, including the reduction of faculty personnel and positions. Examples of expenses for the President’s home include $59,865.79 for Christmas decorations, more than $25,000 for artwork, and $11,123.49 for an espresso machine and accessories. Despite extensive renovations completed early in his tenure, further optional work was done on the President’s home in late 2021 when more than $180,000 was spent on HVAC work… $4,850.51 for the framing of personal diplomas.
According to the Tennessean:
“The framing of these expenditures as unauthorized and lavish personal gain undertaken by Dr. Greenway is an assertion of financial impropriety on par with embezzlement,” Greenway attorney Andrew Jones said in the Sept. 25 letter to Southwestern, according to a copy The Tennessean obtained.
Southwestern’s public disclosures of spending under Greenway were “grossly inflated and false,” Jones said. For example, an “infamous ‘$11,000 espresso machine’” — a detail that many Southern Baptists have joked about since Southwestern published it — was actually $5,952.67, Jones said.
As if spending nearly $6000 for a coffee maker is any better. SWBTS Chairman Jonathan Richard has flatly refused to entertain Greenway’s demand for five million dollars, saying that the seminary would aggressively defend the school if Greneway decides to sue.
He’s following Falwell’s playbook. The devil has placed so many charlatans in the American Church. Remember by their fruit you will know them.