Crisis at Cedarville University: On the Anthony Moore Scandal at Cedarville
A Guest Post by Lee Enochs
My name is Lee Enochs and I am an alumnus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary. I know most of the people involved in this controversy at Cedarville University personally. I have known Dr. Anthony Moore and Dr. Thomas White since 2008. I love these guys greatly and it breaks my heart to see this transpiring at an exemplary Evangelical institution such as Cedarville University, which is, in my estimation, one of the finest schools in America today.
I am a Southern Baptist and I write this guest post as a proud son of the Southern Baptist Convention. Scandals like this are greatly hurting our witness for Christ and I pray that a profound sense of Biblical repentance occurs throughout all of our Evangelical and Southern Baptist churches, colleges and seminaries.
As an Evangelical and as a Southern Baptist, I implore my brothers and sisters to repent and return back to the authority, inerrancy and inspiration of Scripture and back to the person and redemptive work of Jesus Christ at the cross.
As an alumnus of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with knowledge of what occurred with Anthony Moore and his surveillance of another individual in Fort Worth, I tried to reach out to Dr. Thomas White a year ago about this issue, but during my interactions with Dr. White it somehow did not come up that I knew there was a police report in Fort Worth that detailed Anthony Moore’s surveillance activities of a male individual in Fort Worth, Texas.
I thought Dr. White knew what I did about the matter and I was resigned to let him deal with Anthony Moore in a biblical and restorative manner.
I know many of the people involved in this scandal. I had a great deal of information about what occurred with Anthony Moore at the Village Church. I knew that there was a police report and tried to communicate to Dr. White then that there were serious issues with Anthony Moore that should have disqualified him from any semblance of a job at Cedarville. When I was finally able to communicate to Dr. White my concerns about Anthony Moore teaching at Cedarville, he responded by saying he had accountability in place for Dr. Moore last year.
After communicating my concerns with Dr. White last June (2019), it was very difficult for me to believe that the Thomas White I have known all these years would put students in jeopardy at Cedarville. For close to a year I sat on the knowledge that there was a police report about Anthony Moore’s surveillance activities in Fort Worth, Texas because I assumed that Thomas White knew the same information I did.
I spoke to Dr. White yesterday and he told me he did not know the full extent of Dr. Moore’s unwarranted surveillance of another individual when Moore was a pastor at the Village Church in Fort Worth.
So, for close to a year my conscience greatly bothered me about the matter of Anthony Moore being at Cedarville until I could not remain silent anymore.
Because I love the Evangelical Christian church in America and the Southern Baptist Convention, I came forward and spoke to Todd Wilhelm of “Thou Art the Man.” It was my love for the Evangelical students, parents and alumni of Cedarville University that made me come forward and reveal to Mr. Wilhelm that there was a police report in Fort Worth, Texas that details the illicit surveillance activities of Dr. Anthony Moore.
There are too many scandals like this taking place in Evangelical and the Southern Baptist Convention these days. We must collectively repent and turn to Jesus Christ before it’s too late. There is a crisis transpiring throughout American Evangelicalism and the Southern Baptist Convention and we must all repent of our apathy and complacency and fully embrace the glorious Gospel of Grace found in Jesus Christ.
“Truly these times of Ignorance God has overlooked and now commands all men everywhere to repent” (Acts 17:30).
In closing, I wish no ill will towards Anthony Moore and pray that he gets the counsel and support he needs to restore his walk in Jesus Christ.
I also have no personal animosity towards Dr. Thomas White who I count as a long time brother and friend. I take him at his word that he did not know the full extent of Anthony Moore’s surveillance activities before he hired Dr. Moore at Cedarville University in 2018. I will let the outstanding Board of Trustees, students, and alumni of Cedarville University decide on this question.
May the grace of our Lord Jesus Christ be with us all.
Lee Enochs is a 2014 graduate of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and a 2018 graduate of Princeton Theological Seminary.
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