Tuesday, June 24, 2008

wikipedia entry for Trinity Baptist College

Bob Gray, the founder of Trinity Baptist College, had a page on wikipedia. It survived for awhile before eventually getting pulled. Too bad, it had some good information that went beyond the media reports.

TBC's wikipedia survived without mention of the Gray incident, until recently.

Here's their current wikipedia:

Trinity Baptist College.

It does contain an inaccuracy that will probably be corrected, or result in it's getting pulled.

"In 1992, in order to cover up for Bob Gray, the church voted Thomas Messer to be the senior pastor of the church and later the president of the college."

Tom Messer was actually chosen by Bob Gray. Nobody really voted on him, although there are reports of a voting fiasco between Messer and a fellow named Mike Hamm. Apparently, Hamm won the first two elections, but technicalities were called in to question that forced a third vote, and a win for Tom Messer.

The phrase 'in order to cover up for Bob Gray' is surprising considering there is not an article referenced. Let alone a court testimony, or deposition quoted. I don't expect that will stay up too long.

Your guess is as good as mine, but when the wiki entry says 'the church', is it referring to the entire church body? Or, just the small group of pastors whose vote ultimately counts. And when I say 'pastors', I'm really referring to the main pastor (Gray) and his associate (Willinger). Not even the votes of deacons count as they are strictly in an advisory role.

If wiki is referring to the entire church body, no one, except friends of victims, and those who were insiders, would have had any idea what was happening with Bob Gray. So, that would not have even been an issue when Hamm and Messer were considered as potential pastors.

If the other two cases are not thrown out, perhaps we'll hear more about how Messer became pastor in the upcoming trial?

We shall see.

Still no wiki for Bob Gray, though.

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