Most professors know about problems in higher education such as decline in tenure and erosion of faculty governance. But are they aware of the increase in forced termination? Forced termination is when a professor – even a tenured one – can be made so miserable they feel compelled to leave. It often includes administrators using undocumented (or unshared) financial or other reasons to cancel a contract, close a department, or end a position. The reasons do not have to contain actual misbehavior, immorality, or ineptitude.
The Netflix series “The Chair” spotlights many of these problems. It shows, for example, an older woman professor who has her large office taken away and is given instead a dilapidated, unsafe one in the basement of the gymnasium. This is part of a plan by the administration to push out older professors or anyone else they find “uncomfortable.” The series shows the administration putting pressure on the chair of the department, an Asian woman played by Sandra Oh, to get rid of this longtime, tenured woman professor, as well as a few others.
Most professors are deeply disturbed by this, but the effects on those in religiously-affiliated higher education are often more profound. Dr. Marcus Tanner, a professor at Texas Tech, studies the effects of forced termination, especially on people of faith. “They bully them until they can only leave. Tenure is meaningless. They will harass them so they won’t want to stay.” He explains that its effects on the professional person linger for a long time, even if they find a new job, something increasingly difficult today (phone conversation, 8/1/21; also see, Marcus N. Tanner, “Forced Termination Among Clergy: A Study of Experiences, Processes and Effects & Their Connection to Stress & WellBeing Outcomes,” TANNER-DISSERTATION.pdf (tdl.org) May 2011).
The decline of organized religion is far-reaching. Seminaries and colleges are closing, others have merged, been absorbed, or gone virtual. Enrollments keep dropping. All this is often used to diminish faculty governance, tenure, and full-time positions. Enrollments in seminaries have dropped by 25% and the Association of Theological Schools reports that thirty-three percent (33%) of seminaries report a reduction of faculty (called “right-sizing” from corporate world) with nineteen percent (19%) as a response to Covid. They also reported that twenty-one (21%) of institutions are now pushing early retirement. In addition, there was a thirteen percent (13%) increase in the number of contractual faculty, which means a decline in tenure. Much of this is happening on a larger scale as well. The AAUP documents that this year two-thirds of four-year institutions now have no faculty involvement in budget decisions and quoted an article in the Wall Street Journal that stated that tenured faculty currently make up 30% of professors, down from 80% in the 1970s.
Unfortunately, at private religious institutions there is little recourse since the “ministerial exception” prevents U.S. anti-discrimination law from applying to religious institutions. “This exception was first outlined in the 2012 case, Hosanna-Tabor Evangelical Lutheran Church and School v. EEOC. Here, the Supreme Court concluded that a religious employer could discriminate against certain employees for a non-religious reason, such as age, sex or disability.” In one seminary I studied for this project, for instance, where most of the reductions and forced terminations involved older women, there was no way to launch a gender discrimination suit. Attorney David Ball told the women: “You can try it, but you will lose.” He notes that many seminary professors are ordained, which makes the dilemma more difficult because, he says: “Ministers have the least legal protection for their employment than any type of employee.” In addition, “many more people are considered to be minsters by the legal system than consider themselves to be ministers in the everyday sense of the word….The root is the concept that religious organizations can discriminate for religious reasons” (David Ball, ordained minister, employment attorney, telephone conversation August 1, 2021). This Supreme Court ruling, originally used to separate church and state, has been expanded to eliminate, in religiously-affiliated institutions, the normal employment protections that American expect – such as against discrimination based on gender, race, age or disability. Actually, a school doesn’t necessarily need the ministerial exception to push someone out, although that makes it much easier for, as one college president told me in all honesty, “If I would want to get rid of someone, all I have to do is reorganize. I just keep the position vacant for a year and then fill it” (Source wishes not to be identified; personal phone conversation, August 2021).
I have been interviewing thirty persons, mostly forcibly-terminated professors from Protestant and Catholic institutions, and several professionals who work with them.[i] Their stories demonstrate a stunning depth of disillusionment. The majority of these often-ordained religionists feel so betrayed by the church that they – and often their families – refuse to be part of it anymore. Tanner finds the trauma pushes these professionals as well as their formerly devout spouses and children to leave, avoid or, at best, simply distrust the church (Personal phone conversation 8/1/21). Many now claim to be spiritual but not religious.[ii]
One professor, forcibly terminated from an Episcopalian seminary, said “I’m … not sure who I am anymore… I absolutely believed that was what I was put on earth to do.” An ethnic minority professor – brought in and pushed out of the same Roman Catholic university repeatedly – said at first, she loved the school’s ethos. “It was about finding God in all things.” She later reflected: “All of this niceness. Everyone telling me ‘We love you’… then they let me go….You perform Ignatian, but I don’t believe you anymore.” Another female professor at a Catholic college echoed: “I was just another line item.…. I wasn’t treated with the Jesuit values I had been teaching ….It very much felt like spiritual abuse.” She, like many, noted the secretive meetings, non-compliance with academic process, isolation, and helplessness as the targeted professors are not allowed to defend themselves.
For many seminary and religiously-affiliated faculty, their job is an expression of their faith. One female ordained professor at a progressive Protestant school said her position was a “literal ministerial calling…. It was such a joy to feel I was fulfilling God’s providential work in a small way. I also got to worship, share the sacraments, preach, sing in the choir….That was my community of faith.” She added: “I was effectively isolated and dismissed….I have wasted my entire life and for what? …. I don’t have a religious community anymore. It’s highly unlikely I would affiliate with a church again.”
A male seminary professor said: “After I was let go… I stopped attending church. One of the trustees was rector of my church…. He voted against me. This shows what Christianity is really about.” Another said: ”We don’t go to church anymore. I had grown from a disenchanted evangelical and saw myself as a prophetic voice. I was pushed out indirectly but as soon as that happened, I said ‘That’s it.’” Another ordained seminary professor said: “I can’t imagine being part of the church anymore. The SBNR identification just makes more sense.”
Some of the interviewees, although abandoning the church, affirmed their ongoing belief in God and Christ. One echoed some others: “I don’t believe in the church anymore…. Is my faith strong and meaningful? Yes, it is. Do I trust the institutions that have been bearers of that gospel? Not one bit.” A few tried to keep their connection, but with a skeptical eye. One former professor at a Catholic institution said “I continue to be in a love/hate relationship with church. To the extent that ‘Nones’ question everything, I would be in that category. I have a foot in, but an inside/outside stance.“
It is not only conservative schools that push people out. Seminaries with stellar progressive reputations are often equally ruthless in their use of forced termination. In both types of institutions, however, pietistic or political language can disguise the harsh treatment. One conservative professor said: “If I look to my colleagues to say this isn’t right, they say we just need to trust God.” A progressive one commented: “They talk the liberation game, but their practices are anything but liberating.”
The interviewees often reported that their colleagues simply “went silent.” One female professor explained the administration tries to “to isolate you and make you the exception.” Another blamed “Herd mentality…. Religious people tend to think if someone is excluded, there must be something wrong with them.” One insisted “The current model…can’t be sustained. [It is] a toxic culture with the complete breakdown of community and collegiality.” Another likens the current system to someone with dementia. She says these institutions are “too healthy to die and too sick to live.”
The loss of committed highly trained professors, once devoted to the church, is a “brain drain” that can only hurt organized religion. Since most had believed their work was grounded in spiritual principles about the value of each individual, no wonder they felt betrayed. Remaining professors often keep their heads down, focus on their own work, and hope their productivity, good teaching, and non-confrontive demeanors will save them. In the end, the real “bottom line” is that often religiously affiliated institutions are not handling challenges in ways that reflect their ethical or spiritual values.
[i] I interviewed thirty-one (31) people, fifteen (15) women and sixteen (16) men. Eleven (11) were professors from Protestant schools (both seminaries and colleges), nine (9) were professors from Evangelical schools ( one seminary and rest colleges); and four (4) were professors from Roman Catholic colleges. I also interviewed seven (7) professionals — including counselors, researchers and an attorney. Many of them were made to sign Non-Disclosure Agreements (NDA). Often these were linked to some kind of severance package, but surprisingly not always. As a result, I had to keep their identities anonymous. They feared that their former institutions would start legal actions against them.
[ii] Their critiques are similar to my research in Linda Mercadante, Belief without Borders: Inside the Minds of the Spiritual but not Religious, New York: Oxford University Press, 2014.
You have accurately described my experience with ordained ministry. I was bullied and maligned by my staff and former staff and made so miserable I had no choice but to leave. It’s been the most traumatic experience of my life.
Thank you, Dr. Mercadante, for your work. Others who have endured forced termination will take comfort in the confirmation of their experiences. I was forced out of leadership of a congregation after I spoke out against the war in Iraq in 2003. The quote “too healthy to die and too sick to live” is an excellent expression of what corruption looks like. I found a way to remain in ministry, a work to which I know I am called and that I love, by telling myself, “If it happens again, I will be done.”
And, I thought I was the only one…at first.
Great article Linda.
You could have easily been talking about the school I went to in LA and graduated from in 1996 and what that did to me as a student.
This is Very sad indeed.