Passages

Appointed • Joseph M. Stowell, former president of Moody Bible Institute, as president of Cornerstone University in Grand Rapids, Michigan. The author of many books, including Following Christ and Simply Jesus, Stowell has served since 2005 as teaching pastor at the 8,000-member Harvest Bible Chapel in suburban Chicago.

Died • Clyde Cook, president emeritus of Biola University, on April 11. A Biola alumnus and fourth-generation missionary to Asia, Cook served for 25 years as president of the Christian liberal arts university in Southern California, resigning in 2007. During his tenure, the school's enrollment nearly doubled to 5,752, and its endowment grew to $43.5 million.

Honored • Elizabeth and Caspar ten Boom, with the title of Righteous Among the Nations by Israel's Holocaust Martyrs' and Heroes' Remembrance Authority. The sister and father of Corrie ten Boom (author of The Hiding Place) were instrumental in saving nearly 800 Jewish lives before their imprisonment and deaths in German concentration camps. Corrie ten Boom was honored with the same title in 1967.

Dismissed • Sheri Klouda's lawsuit against Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary and its president, Paige Patterson, for wrongful termination. Klouda, a former Hebrew professor in Southwestern's theology department now at Taylor University, was fired because Patterson believed her teaching role exceeded the SBC's limitations on women in church leadership. U.S. District Judge John McBryde dismissed the case as an ecclesiastical matter, saying that any investigation would be an "unconstitutional intrusion into the affairs of the seminary as a religious organization."

Related elsewhere:

Cornerstone University has more about Stowell's presidency. He has already generated headlines at the school.

Cornerstone also announced that Ed Dobson, retired pastor of Calvary Church in Grand Rapids, will be the school's vice president for spiritual formation.

Christianity Today's liveblog noted the passing of Clyde Cook.

Catholic News Agency has more on the honoring of the ten Booms.

Baptist Press, Associated Baptist Press, and the Associated Press noted the dismissal of the Klouda lawsuit.