Area Baptist leaders have little comment on ousting of Missouri Baptist Convention leader

Local Baptist ministers mostly kept quiet about the ousting of David Clippard, a Jackson native, from his position as executive director of the Missouri Baptist Convention over harrassment and religious intolerance charges.

Most area Baptist ministers were unavailable or declined to comment. An exception was the Rev. Mike Shupert of First Baptist Church in Cape Girardeau. First Baptist is no longer associated with the Missouri Baptist Convention, and was one of 19 Missouri Baptist churches notified that its delegates would not be seated at the October convention meeting but was held in Cape Girardeau.

In a prepared statement, Shupert said:

"This firing should come as no surprise to anyone familiar with recent goings-on in the Missouri Baptist Convention. When fundamentalists are in control of a group, you can't be fundamentalist enough. Now that they've gotten rid of the churches that they perceived as too 'liberal,' they've begun devouring one another, even their own leader. It's very sad and messy and it's going to get messier, I'm afraid.

"I know the official party line regarding the firing had to do with Clippard's temperament and leadership style. Frankly, the information flow is so biased and limited, it's difficult to even talk about what the 'facts' may or may not be. But I'm pretty sure it had more to do with politics and grudges than anything else though. Sad."

The official reasons given for Clippard's dismissal have been remarks about Islamic extremists that he made last October at the Missouri Baptist Convention and an alleged sexual harassment complaint.

lredeffer@semissourian.com

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