**UPDATED** Petition Against the Wrongful Firing of Dr. Eric Johnson

With the firing of Dr. Johnson the SBTS loses an excellent role model for future pastors. Worse, Dr. Mohler gains a reputation for giving in to blackmail.

I love and respect Dr. Johnson, especially also in his desire to teach and counsel in accord with God's word. I am very sad and upset about this situation. And I pray that Christians on both sides will seek love unity even with differing views.

I went to a biblical counseling training last year. I was mortified at the amount of time they spent discussing all the negative aspects of Christian counseling. Clearly, there is room for both.

MDiv, TEDS

If 25% of the petition is true, it is sad.

Do not fire a man who has been a great help to many Christians. I totally agree with his teachings and you will be doing your fellow Christians a great disservice, if you fire Dr Eric Johnson

Eric Johnson is a good man and an orthodox teacher.

It is a shame that Southern is known for training people to clean house by human power. It is sad that it is celebrated by calling other views heresy. I'm not sure of the reasons that are proposed against Johnson but I am aware of the "spiritual abuse" that has often been under the guise of protecting the Gospel. May we not hide these types of issues that come out but bring them to light, despite assumed positions. I hope that leadership can be clear to the public if they proceed and not just act like they are not being slanderous. I am grieved to hear of this news.

2005 SBTS graduate, M.Div.

I was a student at Boyce in the first decade of the 2000s, it is really sad that they are letting Dr. Johnson go. Johnson is orthodox and a good theologian. His essay in God Underfire showed his intellectual range. Shame on ACBC and Al Mohlet.

A struggling member at Third avenue Baptist Church.

I am a reformed evangelical credal confessing baptist. It seems, once more, The SBTS community has added to the law in the hopes of hedging against the heretical teaching that once engulfed it. Once more, the community has neglected the weightier matters of the law.

The ending of academic tenure and acts such as this threaten to destroy any credibility SBTS has left. Very disappointing.

Not to assume that Southern students will be unethical counselors. We are all responsible for our own choices in our work with clients. However, are teachers do mold and shape us profoundly. Without a man like Dr Johnson at Southern, I worry about its students and am concerned that they will suffer themselves without the guidance someone like him provides.

M.A. in Marriage and Family Counseling, New Orleans Baptist Theologicla Seminary candidate I couldn't understand for a while why Dr. Johnson was at a school that embraced a nouthetic counseling paradigm a long time ago since, as a Christian Psychologist, he clearly has views that differ from the powers-that-be at the school. This is ill-conceived, unjust, and unbecoming to an institution of higher Christian education. It is concerning to me that Southern is training students without the qualifications and the theological sophistication of Dr. Johnson. What kind of practitioners of soul care will its students possibly be when something as unethical, unloving, and ill-advised as this firing is now setting a precedent that is so troubling in its implications? I stand with Dr. Eric Johnson and can only hope that Southern's loss is another school's gain (fingers crossed it is mine!).

Also, I am a Boyce Graduate who attempted to have a more nuanced conversation with my Psych/Counseling professor and was shutdown. He continues to insist that all depression is as a result of unconfessed sin. Unreal.

This is unjust, ill-informed, and a statement to all that integrative counseling is unwelcome in the church. Shame on you, Southern.

I am a former Boyce student and I greatly displeased by this news. Eric Johnson was one of the best there and didn't have the narrow minded opinion all the rest had. I can say this for certain that I do not agree with Lambert and his view points, since I did have to take classes under him. He didn't allow for any though outside of it be a sin issue. Science would never be a part of anything that he taught and I disagreed with it from the very beginning. It saddenes my heart that someone who was greatly loved and respected by his students and also those in the Christian psychology area can be fired due to people throwing their weight around

I am signing this, even though I never attended Southern (my husband did), because I have been a victim of mental health shaming in the name of a strictly Christian Counselling theology (where they deny modern medical science completely). There is a genetic/scientific factor to consider when talking about mental health as well as serious conditions like PTSD. I personally have a history of depression and anxiety in my family on both sides. My mother and her sisters and my grandmother also suffered from it. Just like someone can have a genetic disposition to cancer or heart disease, they can have it towards mental health. I also spent two years battling post partum depression and was told that I needed to trust God more and have more faith, even though I could track my worst times around when I started my menstrual cycle (maybe TMI but we're all adults). I could feel the hormones in my system. And at my lowest times I was in prayer and studying God's word. This was not merely something needed to get over. God and a traditional therapist as well as close Christian friends have encouraged me through the journey, but I also had the help of anti-depressants and anxiety meds. I also suffer from a chronic medical condition as well. I will add he may not be a good fit for Southern, but perhaps a honorable resignation with a severance package would be in order. There are many other seminaries that could use this talent if it's not being respected at Southern.

Former alumni displeases with this decision.