FORT WORTH, Texas — A former professor at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary in Fort Worth, Texas, has filed a federal lawsuit against the seminary and its president, Paige Patterson, alleging she was dismissed from her tenure-track position because she is a woman.
In the lawsuit filed March 8 in U.S. District Court in Fort Worth, Sheri Klouda accuses the seminary and Patterson of breach of contract, fraud and defamation. She is seeking unspecified damages and has requested a trial by jury. Officials at Southwestern declined to comment March 12 on the lawsuit.
Klouda received her Ph.D. at the Fort Worth campus in 2002 and was unanimously elected by trustees to a tenure-track assistant professor position to teach Hebrew in Southwestern’s school of theology. She also is a graduate of Criswell College in Dallas.
Now a professor at Taylor University in Upland, Ind., Klouda alleges in the suit that after Patterson was elected to lead the seminary in 2003, she was assured "personally and specifically" by the new president that her position as a Hebrew professor was secure. But in April 2006, according to the lawsuit, Klouda was told she could no longer teach at the seminary and that she was "a mistake that the trustees needed to fix."
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