Psychology professor Dr. Martin Seitz, who was placed on indefinite administrative leave by Asbury University March 11, claims all of his actions were prompted by the Holy Spirit.
“I am not sorry for anything I did or said,” said Seitz. “How can I be if I believe they were led by God, as I do?”
According to Seitz, he was placed on probation due to a number of reasons. First, immediately after chapel on March 6, Seitz sent an email to all students, faculty, staff and administration criticizing the chapel message, delivered by Asbury Provost Dr. Timothy Wooster.
(The Asbury Collegian published an article March 15 that explains in more depth the reasons Seitz sent the email.)
Seitz interpreted Wooster’s message to suggest that every human, including Christians and non-Christians, is created in God’s perfect image and that all cultures are good, a concept that Seitz said is not Christian.
Part of his email stated, “While it is true that all people are created in God’s image, that image has been damaged since the fall. No human has been conceived in God’s perfect image since the fall, apart from Christ. The most we can say is that all humans retain a damaged remnant of the image of God until and unless they are redeemed. All humans are God’s creatures, but all humans are not God’s children.”
Seitz said he received 30 responses to the email: 14 positive and 16 critical. On March 8, Seitz printed copies of the entire set of responses, posted them outside his office door and handed them out in packets to 36 students in two of his classes. Among the emails was one that Seitz said “contained many vulgarities” and suggested his email was “white supremacist” which, Seitz said, it is not.
“I think the white race and white cultures are prone to fallenness like every other race and culture,” he said.
Also on March 8, Asbury President Dr. Sandra Gray scheduled a meeting with Seitz to take place after chapel on Monday, March 11. During Monday’s chapel, Seitz made a public display in the balcony of Hughes Auditorium during the final worship song. He held a trumpet to his lips but did not make a sound. He then left before everyone else, knocking a handful of papers over the balcony where Gray and Wooster were standing below.
Seitz said knocking over the papers was deliberate. “I wanted administration and others to read [the documents],” he said.
The papers contained a large collection of verses from Jeremiah that Seitz organized as a message to the community. His document begins at Jeremiah 1:4, “Now the word of the Lord came to me saying … stand up and tell them everything that I command you.”
Another part of the document states, “Blow the trumpet through the land … the alarm of war. … For scoundrels are found among my people; they take over the goods of others.” The entire document is available on The Collegian’s website.
“The trumpet was a prophetic act in line with the Jeremiah passages in which the trumpet was a warning signal: ‘Beware — the invaders (those who are championing the idea that all people are created in God’s perfect, not fallen, image; all people, not just the redeemed, are the children of God) are coming,’” Seitz said.
After that chapel, Seitz was placed on leave.
Seitz said he was bothered at the lack of attention Asbury administration gave to the theological issue at hand.
In an interview with The Collegian, Gray addressed the theological issue. “We believe we are created in the image of God because He tells us that and He tells us several times,” said Gray. “He created all things, and so, therefore, He created all people; it doesn’t mean that all people are following His will because we know there are many that are not. … I do believe that individuals are not perfect yet.”
Gray mentioned several places in Scripture where God says we are created in His image and also His likeness. She said that some people choose to follow God’s will, others don’t and some do at times and do not at other times. “Everyone is not choosing to walk as a child of God, and we see much of the brokenness near and far all around the world,” she said.
The university’s faith statement says that humans are born with a “bent toward sinning.” “Though I was created in the image of God, as were you, I know that I fall so short of fully being what He would want me to be,” said Gray. “We will never reach that place of full perfection until we are on the other side with Him.”
“So do I believe and does the university believe that we are created in the image of God? Yes absolutely,” said Gray. “But are we all children of God, walking with him each day? No, we are not because we’ve been born into a broken world and we may not have ever accepted Him, or we may have and then we may be making wrong choices. So we come into the family of God through adoption.”
Gray mentioned she would be open to having a talkback with students on the concept of imago Dei if students were interested. “I don’t want to leave [the theological issue] just unaddressed,” she said.
This was not the first time Seitz said he felt led to initiate what he calls “prophetic acts.”
In 1995, when Seitz heard about an attempt to bring a controversial revival group to Hughes, he stood in silent protest during chapel while wearing a sweat jacket and hoodie over his clothes. In recent years, he was critical of a High Bridge Festival film and advocated for a more careful screening process. He prompted Asbury to write a statement on the university’s stance on sexuality just before same-sex marriage was legalized, and his comments have also prompted administration to put restrictions on chapel music volume.
“Prophets are critical of the community to which they are called to address and, therefore, are not popular nor universally understood,” said Seitz. “I accept that burden.”
It is undetermined whether Seitz will be back at Asbury next semester. He is currently blocked from accessing Asbury email, and administration notified him that the terms of his “probation” have yet to be discussed. Seitz mentioned that if those terms required him to apologize or teach his courses online, he would resign.
