Church Fires 14 Trustees at Erskine College

As someone who was present at this meeting (and also an alum of Erskine), the term ‘fired’ is inaccurate – the entire board was dismissed and then reconstituted. No individual board members were targeted. In addition, the actions were taken to bring the operations of the college and seminary into compliance with its existing mission-statement as a Christian liberal-arts college. No one is seeking to eliminate the liberal arts focus but to build on and enhance that commitment, and thus Dr. Crenshaw’s observation is inaccurate as well. These actions occured due to past intransigent resistance from the Board and administration from carrying out the mission statement which they supposedly agreed to support.

Dear mcmullen84,”the entire board was dismissed and then reconstituted. No individual board members were targeted.”I congratulate you for as fine an example of gobbledegook and obfuscation as I’ve seen in a long time. What do you know, when the lights came on again, there was the ‘reconstituted’ board and 14 empty chairs. But how did they know to leave? Ah, inner light, my friend, inner light.

Mr or Ms disembedded, you are a person of few words ;-)For a fuller account of the Synod meeting, anyone may look at http://tinyurl.com/yg8jlee . The only gobbledegook has come from the Erskine Board for decades now.

Why are religious colleges even accredited?

@amnirov:That’s a laughably bigoted response. Even though I have deep reservations about how the ARP Church is exercising its authority in this case, they at least have not forgotten that education always serves some end. At church-related liberal arts colleges, that end is to produce thoughtful and faithful Christians. At secular privates and big publics, the end is to produce docile consumer-citizens to fuel the late-capitalist market state. Boards exercise authority to preserve the desired end in those institutions just as much as they do to preserve the distinct end of church-related colleges. Not to do so would be willful neglect.

“Our education as currently structured and practiced fits us only for being wandering gypsies for America, Inc.” — Ashley Woodiwiss, channeling the spirit of Wendell Berry.

McMullen – When a body is dissolved and subsequently reconstituted with half of it’s original members, it is hard for me to see how you can claim that no individuals were targeted. It seems obvious (to me, at least) that those fourteen board members who lost their seats were targeted, for some reason or another. Nevermind that Dr. Taylor and the Stuart Foundations have been two of the College’s largest donors over the course of the last ten or so years, because trustees aren’t supposed to raise money, right?The college, if it desires to continue to produce students who go on to impact society, must have leading it Trustees who are role models for students. Having a Board composed of pastors, Christian men who have a Christian occupation, does nothing for students who want examples of individuals who live their lives in a Christian manner while being the top scientists, businesspeople and academics in their fields.I hope the Synod will realize this. Soon. My four recent years there were wonderful and I hope that in the years to come students will be able to say the same about their “Erskine Experience”.ZSDavis ’08

kirvine02 -According to The Index-Journal article cited above, one of the professors at the school had been “under fire by members of Students Aligned for a Faithful Erskine.” Said the professor: “I try to teach critical thinking… Part of critical thinking is asking questions about everything. You don’t accept anything just because someone says it.” Further, some students object to having their faith questioned, a topic that creates an uncomfortable situation for the school.So… at least in this instance, it seemed like the school (and the students in said group) are more interested in pursuing unquestioned faith rather than critical thinking about said faith. There’s a reason the phrase is ‘blind faith’, and it appears that this school is promoting it.

Note: In addition to its action regarding the Board of Trustees, the Synod is going to revise the bylaws of the college.

@relpoliticsExcellent comments on this issue.

Further reading into the Erskine situation suggests Ersline’s SAFE group is the problem. Let’s hope a good journalist in South Carolina will explore the origin and funding of this student group to see who is pushing their definition of Christian that seems to have a lot in common with focus on the family and enthusiasts for intelligient design on the Texas School Board.

Yales Jon Butler is scheduled to speak tomorrow at Erskine on The Surprises of Religion in America. Could be quite an interesting lecture event if anybody pays attention; maybe parents and SAFE Students.