BRIEF HISTORICAL CONTEXT FOR THE

MARING & WEISS CORRESPONDENCE

            In the 1970's Dr. Helen Powers was a member of the Seminary’s Board of Directors, as well as being on the staff of the Board of International Ministries of the American Baptist Churches, U. S. A., in Valley Forge. After becoming acquainted with me at the Seminary, she invited me to be the Bible teacher for the World Missions Conference in Green Lake, Wisconsin, from August 15-19, 1977. The studies would be for one hour, followed by a one hour discussion period, Monday through Friday. I accepted the invitation and when it was all over I was very glad that I did. I was so warmly received! My presentations and the discussion periods which followed the lectures were greatly appreciated. Dr. Powers, too, was very pleased—so much so that she gave a copy of the ten tapes containing my five lectures to the Seminary President, Dr. Daniel Weiss, for him to enjoy.

             The Board of International Ministries was so please with my lectures and the rapport between me and the conference participants that they invited me to teach again at the next World Missions Conference in the summer of 1978. Not only did they want me to teach again, but they wanted the Seminary to grant Continuing Education Credit for those who attended the Bible Studies at the upcoming 1978 conference. Consequently, President Daniel Weiss and Dean Norman Maring called a special faculty business meeting over the lunch hour on Wednesday, January 11, 1978, to discuss the possibility of granting the requested Continuing Education Credits for those who would take my classes at the next Green Lake Missions Conference. There was a quorum, and, with the support of the Dean and the President, the faculty approved the request for granting Continuing Education Credits for the 1978 Bible studies at Green Lake. At that luncheon meeting, my colleagues expressed appreciation for my performance at the Green Lake Conference, for it reflected well on the Seminary as a whole. For me it was obviously a delightful luncheon and a pleasant faculty meeting.

            But—and this is a big but—as soon as that faculty meeting was adjourned, Dean Norman Maring told me that he had an urgent matter of business he needed to discuss with me. So I invited him to my office across the hall from where we were meeting for lunch. So we went immediately to my office. He entered and closed the door behind him, obviously wanting privacy. Then—in less than ten minutes after receiving public affirmation from the President, Dean, and faculty colleagues for my 1977 Green Lake Bible studies—the Dean, in private, told me that President Weiss had listen to the tapes of my presentations given to him by Dr. Powers and he thought the content of my Friday lecture at the 1977 Green Lake Conference was heretical; and that, unless I could prove otherwise, the Seminary would be asking for my letter of resignation for not being in full compliance with the Seminary’s Doctrinal Statement. The four page letter from Dean Maring, dated January 12, 1978, provides a summary of that lengthy closed-door discussion. Six months earlier, almost to the day, Bernie Ramm had warned me that my remaining on Eastern's faculty was tenuous. (See his letter which is listed at the bottom of the menu.)
             I returned to Green Lake for the 1978 World Missions Confernence for another delightful experience. My teaching at the Seminary from 1978 to 2001 was equally pleasant and appreciated (click HERE to view some letters of appreciation). In May, 2001, just before retirement, I received the Alumnus of the Year Award and more letters of appreciation (click HERE ). To view my video interview at that time, in which I shared my esteem and respect for Dean Maring, click HERE.

The above paragraphs put the letters of Maring to McDaniel (1-12-78)
and McDaniel to Weiss (1-22-78) into their historical context.

For a glimpse of the controversy in the early 1970's
concerning the Biblical Studies faculty, click HERE.