Though this news story from South Carolina doesn’t seem to approve of the recent action of the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church to remove Erskine College’s current board of trustees, I suspect it may be a healthy development. A big part of the reason for the secularization of higher education in America is that church denominations allowed themselves to be fooled into believing their schools were still Christian right up to the point when the faith identity was irretrievably lost.
The story quotes faculty members who worry that academic freedom is going to be lost and that academic excellence will go with it, but the concept is famously elastic depending on who it is who wants the academic freedom and how they plan to use it. Certainly, it would be foolish for a church to run a university happy with the thought that professors are being hired who don’t care much for — you know — the actual Christian mission.
I don’t know if the facts on the ground support my reading of events, but the sheer precedent the ARPC is setting seems like a good one. Denominations should pay a lot of attention to what they are supporting in their colleges and universities. At a minimum, they should expect to see the faith treated as a relevant and vital part of the enterprise rather than as an accessory.
March 4th, 2010 | 4:46 pm | #1
The article described concerns by certain faculty regarding the legitimacy of questioning beliefs.
If I’m not mistaken, academic freedom that consists in the freedom (for faculty) to question certain beliefs should be fine as long as a board reserves the right to require that academics have a certain answer, in the end, to those questions. It is the same situation for a secular university that requires a rejection of racism, though it may allow questioning of the issue.
Every institution has its “doctrinal” requirements regarding what is true: the differences are simply what they believe to be critically true and so require belief in.
March 5th, 2010 | 7:25 am | #2
Some college boards, and other folks as well, seem to forget the important difference between education and indoctrination. Indoctrination is being told what to think; education is learning how to think. Education, in other words, is your way out of group think, not into it.
Or, to put it another way: The late Allan Bloom talked about how we used to criticize Soviet historians because they would re-write their history books every time a new regime came to power, putting in a new set of good guys and bad guys. We criticized them because we knew that when things outside the academy control the academy, that’s the death of learning. That’s the case whether that which controls the academy is a Politburo or a denomination.
March 5th, 2010 | 1:39 pm | #3
I disagree, the precedent the ARPC is setting will in no way benefit the college. By removing Trustees that they elected will and does not sit well with the Faculty and Alumni. Trustees were removed for no reason. They were all men and women of their church who had all signed a statement of faith. The ARPC doesn’t have the right to judge ones faith. That is between the individual and the Lord.
March 5th, 2010 | 1:45 pm | #4
These trustees were removed for a reason. Their actions proved that they were not upholding the ideals for Erskine and statement of faith. Actions speak louder than words or any document someone signs. I applause the ARP church for doing the right thing! Erskine is a Christian school! It is supported by the ARP church!
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