Searching for Truth <> Believing You Have It
I have cherished a few glimmers of hope recently in news of some rapscallion bands of organized religion repudiating at least a few of the tenets of the far-right self-designated chosen who are so obviously vital to the Bush hegemony. I presume it is the latter that our masseuse-in-training is trying to kiss up to now that he has apparently been schooled in the spelling of that formerly scary "V" word and learned that exercising his veto power will in no way jeopardize his standing as a war-making ("Mars vs. Venus") male.
In that spirit, this was refreshing:
“I sat for 25 years and watched my denomination become much more narrow and, in terms of education, much more interested in indoctrination."
—William H. Crouch Jr., president of Georgetown (Kentucky) College (pictured above), talking about his and the college trustees' decision to disaffiliate from the Kentucky Baptist Convention
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The Georgetown breakoff is part of a trend among (formerly) Baptist-affiliated colleges, with different circumstances in each instance and in particular in each state, since affiliation is with the state conventions. In Georgetown's case, even though Dr. Crouch, the president, says, "We call ourselves a Christian college grounded in historic Baptist principles," the college also had ambitions to academic seriousness which current-style Baptist control would have made impossible—like satisfying the conditions of academic freedom and campus respect for diversity required for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
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One of the "last straws" at Georgetown was a request from the Rev. Hershael W. York, then president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, to consider adding a faculty member to teach a literal interpretation of the Bible. As Dr. York puts it, from the official Baptist standpoint, at a Baptist-supported school, "You ought to have some professor on your faculty who believes Adam and Eve were the first humans, that they actually existed."
"The real underlying issue," says David W. Key, director of Baptist Studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, "is that fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist form is incompatible with higher education. In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In education, you’re searching for truths."
In that spirit, this was refreshing:
“I sat for 25 years and watched my denomination become much more narrow and, in terms of education, much more interested in indoctrination."
—William H. Crouch Jr., president of Georgetown (Kentucky) College (pictured above), talking about his and the college trustees' decision to disaffiliate from the Kentucky Baptist Convention
[clip]
The Georgetown breakoff is part of a trend among (formerly) Baptist-affiliated colleges, with different circumstances in each instance and in particular in each state, since affiliation is with the state conventions. In Georgetown's case, even though Dr. Crouch, the president, says, "We call ourselves a Christian college grounded in historic Baptist principles," the college also had ambitions to academic seriousness which current-style Baptist control would have made impossible—like satisfying the conditions of academic freedom and campus respect for diversity required for a Phi Beta Kappa chapter.
[clip]
One of the "last straws" at Georgetown was a request from the Rev. Hershael W. York, then president of the Kentucky Baptist Convention, to consider adding a faculty member to teach a literal interpretation of the Bible. As Dr. York puts it, from the official Baptist standpoint, at a Baptist-supported school, "You ought to have some professor on your faculty who believes Adam and Eve were the first humans, that they actually existed."
"The real underlying issue," says David W. Key, director of Baptist Studies at Emory University's Candler School of Theology, "is that fundamentalism in the Southern Baptist form is incompatible with higher education. In fundamentalism, you have all the truths. In education, you’re searching for truths."
posted by Sir Gumbo at 10:40 PM
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