Ky. colleges cross racial lines in new partnership

LOUISVILLE, Ky. — Leaders of Campbellsville University and Simmons College of Kentucky have crossed racial and geographical boundaries to forge a long-term ministry partnership.

Campbellsville, which is affiliated with the Kentucky Baptist Convention, and Simmons, a predominantly black school affiliated with the General Association of Baptists in Kentucky, will work together in such initiatives as a faculty-exchange program, collaboration on courses to benefit students in the Louisville-metro area and joint missions projects and worship experiences.

The agreement was signed March 8 by Campbellsville President Michael Carter and Simmons President Kevin Cosby during a partnership covenant service. Cosby, also pastor of St. Stephen Baptist Church in Louisville, compared the covenant agreement to the 1995 Southern Baptist Convention (SBC) apology for historic acts of racism. Noting that the SBC action denounced slavery and Southern Baptists’ “theological justification for such a sick sociology and a sick anthropology,” Cosby added, “Many times documents we sign become mere sentimentality. They are only substantive when we do substantive things like collaborate for the betterment of all people.”