| BAPTISTS TODAY
News Release www.baptiststoday.org |
April 28, 2003
DALLAS — Russell H. Dilday, former president of Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary, received the annual Judson-Rice Award for leadership and integrity from the independent news journal Baptists Today during a April 25 dinner that also commemorated the publication's 20th anniversary.
Former Southern Baptist Convention President Jimmy Allen presented the award on behalf of the news journal’s board of directors. He said Dilday reflected the commitment and integrity of early Baptist leaders Adoniram and Ann Judson and Luther Rice, for whom the award is named.
“Russell Dilday richly deserves the Judson-Rice Award for courageous and consistent leadership,” said Allen.
Allen recounted how Dilday lead the Fort Worth seminary “to its highest peaks in missions, scholarship and equipping leaders to forward the principles of the kingdom of God around the world” before being terminated by fundamentalist trustees in 1994.
“The single event that causes this award for courageous leadership, however, was when he refused to yield his convictions as a free and faithful Baptist to the creedalists who had taken over the seminary board as well as the Southern Baptist Convention,” said Allen. “The grace and consistency of his courageous response qualifies him for this award.”
Dilday, upon receiving the award, urged “Baptists today” to “never forget our spiritual birthright.”
“Tragically, there is an effort being made by some to re-write our history,” said Dilday. “They want to erase the true Baptist vision and reshape it. Some have called them pseudo-Baptists, rogues inside the family who never knew or have forgotten what our true identity is and are distorting it.”
Dilday said unless this effort is addressed, “the species called Baptistus Authenticus is threatened with extinction and a new breed called Baptistus Counterfeitus will be grafted in its place.”
He urged “Baptists today” to help shape “Baptists tomorrow” by preserving the authentic heritage of “Baptists yesterday.”
The Judson-Rice Award was established in 2001 with Allen receiving the inaugural award. Author and speaker Tony Campolo was presented the 2003 award by Baptists Today, an autonomous, national news journal based in Macon, Ga.
A fuller account of Dilday’s address, “Baptists Today, Yesterday and Tomorrow,” will appear in the June print edition of Baptists Today.