Princeton Theological Seminary withdraws award from conservative minister

By Philip Sean Curran, Staff Writer
Backlash against a conservative Presbyterian minster receiving a $10,000 prize from Princeton Theological Seminary led the school to pull back the award, although he will be allowed to speak on campus next month., In a message Wednesday, Seminary President M. Craig Barnes sought to extinguish the controversy surrounding the appearance of Rev. Tim Keller, who was invited to speak at the conference and receive the annual prize of the Seminary’s Kuyper Center., The Rev. Keller, who opposes women and gays and lesbians from becoming ordained ministers, comes from the conservative Presbyterian Church in America, while the Seminary is part of the more liberal Presbyterian Church (USA)., Barnes wrote that he had been in touch with Keller and the heads of the Kuyper Committee and the Seminary’s Board of Trustees on the matter., “In order to communicate that the invitation to speak at the upcoming conference does not imply an endorsement of the Presbyterian Church in America’s views about ordination, we have agreed not to award the Kuyper Prize this year,” Barnes wrote., He added that Keller will still lecture at the Center’s conference, April 6, starting at 7 p.m. in the Mackay Campus Center., “We are a community that does not silence voices in the church,” Barnes wrote. “In this spirit, we are a school that can welcome a church leader to address one of its centers about his subject, even if we strongly disagree with his theology on ordination to ministry.”, The decision comes amid push back from some students, faculty and alumni, including the gay and lesbian and women’s groups, at the seminary., In an online open letter to the Kupyer Center and Barnes, they questioned how the Seminary could honor someone whose “exclusionary stances” are contrary to the values of the school., “While we wholeheartedly believe in academic freedom and the importance of hearing a diversity of perspectives, we believe this award constitutes an endorsement that jeopardizes Princeton Theological Seminary’s ability to be a place that affirms everyone equally in ministry,” the petition read in part., In the past, the award has gone to Rep. John Lewis (D-Georgia), Rabbi Jonathan Sacks and former Ambassador Andrew Young., The Rev. Keller could not be reached for comment., He started the Redeemer Presbyterian Church, located in New York City in the late 1980s., This was the second time that Barnes had written publicly on the Keller appearance. He touched on the controversy two weeks ago, in another open letter, in which he stressed the importance of hearing a wide range of views., “While my office issues the official invitations to campus, I don’t practice censorship over the choices of these organizations, even when I or the seminary disagree with some of the convictions of these speakers,” he wrote then. “It is also a core conviction of our seminary to be a serious academic institution that will sometimes bring controversial speakers to campus because we refuse to exclude voices within the church. Diversity of theological thought and practice has long been a hallmark of our school.”