Criswell College Reinstates President

The Rev. Paige Patterson, a key strategist in the fundamentalist rise to dominance among Southern Baptists, was reinstated as president of Criswell College a week after he was fired.

College trustees, who dismissed him for spending too much time in church politicking, reversed themselves after fundamentalist leaders and students rallied to his support.

“We just prayed and came together in the spirit of the Lord,” said the Rev. Adrian Rogers, three-term Southern Baptist president whose 1979 election to that post began a 12-year string of victories by biblical fundamentalists.