Students are upset the President of the Southern Baptist Convention will recieve university's highest honor
Some students have criticized the university's decision to bestow the Rev. G. Bryant Wright, a 1974 alumnus and current president of the Southern Baptist Convention, with an honorary degree at this year's commencement exercises.
The students say Wright's leadership of the convention, which opposes homosexuality and gay marriage, makes him an unfit recipient for the degree.
"He's head of the Southern Baptist Convention that is hostile to the LGBT community [and] that has kind of been an advocate for hate," said Zac Baker, a second-year visual communications student and public relations coordinator for USC's Bisexual Gay Lesbian Student Association. "Basically the Southern Baptist's platform is 'it's either this way or you're going to hell.'"
According to university policy, "an honorary degree is the highest honor the University of South Carolina can bestow" and therefore, "only those individuals of genuine distinction who have a sustained record of excellence of accomplishment or exemplary service of lasting significance" receive these degrees. The policy adds that recipients of the degrees should enhance the University of South Carolina's reputation.
The SBC originated in 1845 in Augusta, Ga. and currently has more than 16 million members and 42,000 churches across the U.S., according to sbc.net.
Tim Stewart, the director of USC's Baptist Collegiate Ministry, is supported by South Carolina Southern Baptist Convention in his role as a college pastor at the university. Stewart said that he is very excited that the university is bestowing the honor upon Wright.
"Dr. Wright has been a strong leader in the Southern Baptist Convention. He's been a long-term pastor in his church and has led that with integrity [and] character ... I think it's a really neat opportunity to distinguish one of our USC alumni," Stewart said.
Stewart added that in over 20 years of being a college pastor, he hasn't met a Southern Baptist Convention leader or pastor that expressed the views that opposing groups said they did.
SBC has passed resolutions against homosexuals in the military, same-sex marriage and The Walt Disney Company for "promoting immoral ideologies such as homosexuality, infidelity, and adultery" according to sbc.net.
"We've made some resolutions backing it up with what God's Word says," Stewart said. "We're not going to back off what God's Word has said. We do not intend any kind of harm on anyone. We want to lovingly produce and share the truth of God's Word."
Baker believes Wright and the Southern Baptist Convention's ideals go against the tenet in the Carolina Creed discouraging bigotry.
"No time is a good time for bigotry," Baker said. "There's never an OK time to do that, but now more than ever, the university should be rallying against those who don't have a voice."
Dustin Tucker, a first-year anthropology student and the membership director for Pastafarians at USC, also believes Wright is unworthy of the honorary degree.
"He's just not the kind of person I want representing me," Tucker said. "I feel like granting him a doctorate is a rep resentation of every student here. His organization's message is one of hate and intolerance and I really don't think that reflects well on the university."