Due to the financial strain of the COVID-19 crisis, Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary has decided to close the largest evangelical archaeology graduate program in the world, the Tandy Institute of Archaeology. In the process, the school is firing five full time professors and tossing to the wind more than 25 students who were in the process of earning graduate degrees in archaeology.

The justification for this move, according to the school’s administration, is that it is part of an institutional reset. To this end, they decided that graduate degrees in archaeology are “incongruent” with the school’s mission of training of pastors.

In my opinion, this decision is nearsighted and the notion that ministers need not be concerned about archaeology could not be further from the truth.

In 2016, I participated in an excavation on the island of Cyprus that the Tandy Institute hosted. Although I was (and am) not an evangelical or a Southern Baptist, the archaeologists and budding archaeologists on that excavation were top notch, respectful, and so gracious to me. I learned so much from them about archaeology and Cyprus and I consider Tom Davis (acting director of the Tandy Institute) and some of his students friends. My heart hurts for the former faculty members and students of the Tandy Institute and their families.

For more information on this sad and terrible announcement see Christianity Today.