Passages

Resigned • Michael J. Easley, as president of Moody Bible Institute. The former pastor of Immanuel Bible Church in Springfield, Virginia, Easley quit in order to “devote more time and energy [to] seeking medical treatment” for severe back pain. He had been president since March 2005.

Dismissed • Paul G. Irwin, as president of the American Bible Society (ABS). Irwin had been placed on paid leave following a May New York Times exposé about a pricey web consultant he’d hired. Tax records show that the consultant, Richard J. Gordon, a former convict with business ties to online pornographers, received more than $5 million from ABS between 2005 and 2007 (CT, July p.15). In addition to not renewing Irwin’s presidential contract, the Bible society’s trustees also launched an independent financial review of the organization.

Died • Earle Edward Cairns, a longtime history professor and department chair at Wheaton College. He was 98. A prolific author, Cairns is perhaps best known for Christianity Through the Centuries, first published in 1954. The book, now in its third major edition, has more than 300,000 copies in print.

Appointed • Dennis P. Hollinger, as president of Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary. Hollinger, who previously served as president and professor of ethics at Evangelical Theological Seminary in Myerstown, Pennsylvania, became Gordon-Conwell’s sixth president, succeeding interim president Haddon Robinson.

Resigned • Francis Collins, as director of the Human Genome Project. Author of The Language of God: A Scientist Presents Evidence for Belief, Collins and his team mapped the human genome in 2003. Collins said the May passage of the Genetic Information Nondiscrimination Act, which prohibits discrimination based on a person’s genes, fulfilled one of his “personal goals” and contributed to his decision to leave.