A Georgia college president weighs in on Shorter controversy: Believers v. non believers
Oglethorpe University president Lawrence M. Schall sent me a link to his recent Huffington Post blog on the Shorter University controversy; the Baptist college is requiring its faculty to sign Personal Lifestyle statements forbidding premarital sex, adultery and homosexual sex. The pledge is reportedly causing upset faculty to leave the school.
The Personal Statement also requires that employees be active members of a local church. And the employees must agree to not drink in public places where students may see them, including restaurants, concerts and sports events. Nor can they attend a Shorter function if they consumed alcohol six hours prior to the event.
As an outsider, this is a tough one. I would never sign such a statement nor do I believe anyone should be asked to renounce homosexuality. In my book, homosexuality is no more a choice than one’s gender. Regarding the other two “sins,” it’s certainly easier to renounce them, although from the national data I’ve seen, not so easy for us to avoid those particular activities. That’s a subject for another blog, I suppose.
From what I have heard and read, the Lifestyle Statement has not gone over so well among the already very Christian staff and faculty at Shorter. It’s hard to know how many people have resigned or are planning to, but from the reports, it looks like many dozens if not more. Interestingly, no student has been asked to sign such a pledge. That peculiarity aside, whose issue is this, really?
I believe such pledges are legal at a private institution. I am assuming Shorter does not accept federal aid as that would change the entire equation, or at least ought to. But if they are just another private club (like Augusta National Golf Club, which still amazingly excludes women from membership), then who is to tell them what they can or cannot do? I would certainly hope their constituents would, and maybe that is what is happening now as faculty and staff choose to walk away from an institution they love. Time will tell what students will do come fall. I am trying to figure out why students would not have been asked to sign on as well. Is Shorter planning on banning gay faculty, but welcoming gay students? That doesn’t seem possible.
Where do I come out on this? Shorter is “a Christ-centered college.” There is no mistaking its religious mission. Assuming the Trustees at Shorter support the pledge (and we have to assume they do), then I suppose they can decide to do what they want to do and interpret Christianity in any way they choose. From the outside, it feels like the wrong approach to take, but I suspect the leadership at Shorter doesn’t care that I feel this way. I would hope, though, that they cared about what their current faculty, staff and students feel. It doesn’t appear that’s the case. My sense is that they just plan to hire folks who are willing to sign the pledge and allow the non-believers to go elsewhere. What they plan to do about students — retaining, recruiting, and disciplining — is a question we’ll have to wait to have answered. The Shorter community looks like it is being divided into believers versus “non-believers.” In the end, for me, it’s a really unfortunate story.
–From Maureen Downey, for the AJC Get Schooled blog
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69 comments Add your comment
Ronin
May 25th, 2012
1:19 pm
P.H. your comment: “Conservatives are all for religious freedom, except that religious freedom in their minds means being free to project their moral views upon others, whether they be women, gays, or people of other or no religious faiths.”……………..
Conservatism has become a one way street, they lost me decades ago, when I decided to think for myself. Don’t ask, don’t question why, simply follow and obey. Anyone who asks questions based on scientific fact or or uses logic to make a point is labeled a troublemaker or not a team player.
Also, their moral compass is superior to yours because of religious indoctrination.
While I have traveled all over the world, the southeastern United States takes the prize for pompous religious zealots.
AlreadySheared
May 25th, 2012
2:27 pm
@”Progressive”
Gosh – ‘metacognition’, “adherence’, ‘discern’, ‘encompass’. You got bigger words than me – you must be right.
And, since you have declared on this anonymous forum that you are “involved in education” “at a higher level than [I will] likely ever be”, there is no way I can possibly overcome your overwhelming appeal to authority. Once again, you must be right.
However, I do have a word – ‘obtuse’.
As in “You are too obtuse to realize that the intolerance you are criticizing Shorter for is identical to the intolerance that you yourself are displaying.”
Reading your comments helps me understand the in clear, minute detail the mindset of the high-level acadmics who hounded Lawrence Summers from the presidency of Harvard for speculating, not stating, that one possible reason for under-representation of women in science and engineering could be due to a “different availability of aptitude at the high end.”
Or, in a different field, the self-righteous individuals who engage in recrimination and retaliation against any prominent scientists who dare to question the validity of anthropogenic global warming, uh, climate change – whatever we’re calling it these days.
Rock on, sir or madam. The further you go, the behinder you get.
Progressive Humanist
May 25th, 2012
2:40 pm
As I said, Sheared, all beliefs (opinions) are not of the same value. My perspective, based on science and objective knowledge, is not of equal value to religious belief, based on fictitious assumptions. It is superior. Opinion does not hold the same weight as fact, as much as you’d like to believe it. Your worldview is based on unsubstantiated malarkey, which is why you should not be teaching children. This country is far enough behind in education and our students have great enough misconceptions of the natural world that they do not need someone like yourself to further miseducate them. You think that my criticism is the same as Shorter’s discrimination because you can’t discern between fact and opinion, evidence and belief, logic and baseless speculation. It is also why you are not qualified to be an educator.
Ole Guy
May 25th, 2012
3:51 pm
Remember Beaver’s brother, Wally?…Golly gee whiz, I thought one of the primary platforms of education was TOLERANCE; you know, like not just agreeing with the things that you agree with, but trying to understand the value structure of those who may not share the same ideas that you have. Holy smokes, I always thought it was, you know, like cool and mature to at least, you know, at least try to understand that the whole gd world doesn’t have to fallm in line with the values which I just happen to agree with. I don’t know, it’s all so gd “cornfusing”. So much for the value of higher education. I better start learning to form my own values, and I better make sure those values are in strict conformity to those of others, or else I’ll be in dutch. Yeah, I better make sure that MY beliefs are in line with the beliefs of others, or I’ll be in one helluva world of poo poo.
AlreadySheared
May 25th, 2012
4:24 pm
@Progressive,
I am not qualified to be an educator. Please, no! I am sorry. I apologize. I want to rise to your standards. If only you would help me. Write down those ideas which are incorrect, as well a those I should adhere to.
I will study your instructions, do my very best to avoid the wrong and pursue the right.
If you can give me something in writing that shows me the way, I would even sign it as part of my pledge to do better going forward. I really want to keep doing what I am doing – help me out here. Please? You are right and I was wrong. I’ll sign, and I’ll promise. I’ll do better, you’ll see.
Progressive Humanist
May 25th, 2012
4:36 pm
So, Ole Guy, if a teacher thought Hitler and his ideology were the best thing since sliced bread and wanted to make sure the students were well aware of this too, then we should make sure we show tolerance for his views in the name of diversity? What about if one believed that Blacks were genetically and intellectually inferior? What if they thought all Americans should worship Zeus and our government should be based on the ideals of the Greek gods? What if they were Scientologists and wanted to spread the word that all humans are the remnants of creatures killed by a hydrogen bomb by Xenu and left in volcanoes? Or how about if they were convinced that what students should be working toward was a life that would lead them to planet Kolob in the afterworld?
Should we be tolerant of all these “wonderful” views in the name of diversity and seek to have them incorporated into education? Or does that just go for Christianity, which is every bit as fictitious?
No, not all views are equal and we don’t have to be tolerant of nonsense when it comes to what is acceptable within the context of education.
Progressive Humanist
May 25th, 2012
4:42 pm
Sheared,
Sometimes unqualified educators such as yourself slip through the cracks. Unfortunately, it happens way too often, which is one of the reasons the state of education in this country is in such sad shape. I’m trying to do my part on a daily basis to keep unqualified people from the classroom, but I can only do so much.
AlreadySheared
May 25th, 2012
4:54 pm
@Progessive,
No! Please do not cast me out into darkness. I understand now that you have a deep and absolute knowledge of what is right and wrong with respect to education.
I want to change. Please help me to leave my erroneous ways behind and conform to your high standards. Please help me follow your light to an understanding of that which is subjective, and that which is objective, just and unjust, right and wrong. I want to do better.
incredulous
May 25th, 2012
5:47 pm
@sheared. Substitute “right” and “wrong”, or “moral” and “immoral” with beneficial and detrimental. Or if you prefer, assume your dialectic approach is the only approach and then ask yourself the same questions that you ask of progressive humanist and yourself. It’s a start.
Progressive Humanist
May 25th, 2012
6:41 pm
incredulous- To be fair, I’m the professor and Sheared is the elementary school teacher. She just doesn’t have that much knowledge to go on, mostly lower level concepts and unsubstantiated opinions. She started out without much of an argument and finished up the same way.
Students and teachers can adhere to any personal philosophies and mythologies they wish, but once those mythologies are brought into the mission of the school and the curriculum, then it ceases to be education and becomes indoctrination. That’s what we have at Shorter, and unfortunately, that’s what some here would prefer.
AlreadySheared
May 25th, 2012
8:05 pm
@incredulous,
I have had my fun with “Progressive Humanist”. As the folks who create South Park would put it – we have encountered a full-blown ’smug alert’ here. Let me count the ways:
1) reflexive, bitter condemnation of those he or she disgrees with.
2) increasingly shrill, multisyllabic, and threatening rhetoric
3) vague references to his (dropping the unknown gender shtick here in favor simplicity) professional accomplishments and grandeur
4) an outright declaration to the effect that his opinion is superior.
5) demonstable obliviousness to the fact that the very attitude he is railing against (the truth has been revealed to me alone) is the mirror image of his own.
6) finally, wonderfully, in a complete icing-on-the-cake manner (bless you Ole Guy)….. a bizarro HITLER
argument – “Yeah, I understand that HITLER was a vegetarian too.”
I have to stop – this is starting to seem like abuse to me. No mas.
Jim Morris
May 25th, 2012
8:44 pm
Enter your comments here
Follow this link to see the letter of resignation from a highly respected Biology professor at Shorter. I am a Shorter alumni and the school has been part of my life for many years. It is a school that has always been known for extremely high academic standards and for being a diverse Christian based school. What the GBC is doing is distorting the word of God and it is proving to be an embarrassment to Christians everywhere. Richard Pirkle explains very well the reasons why the bulk of the faculty are leaving.
http://saveourshorter.com/2012/05/22/letter-of-resignation/
Buckhead Boss
May 25th, 2012
10:45 pm
As a private employer, my company reserves the right to choose its employees according to our standards. Our standards don’t include bigotry or wilful ignorance at any level. We do look for employees who’re willing to question and think for themselves.
Already sheared, I think you’re already pathetic. Really, really pathetic.
Buckhead Boss
May 25th, 2012
11:01 pm
The sad point is that Shorter is shortchanging the kids who pay to get an “education” there. “Shorter” actually seems an appropriate calling card, come to think of it..
Truth in Moderation
May 26th, 2012
2:14 am
Mr. Buckhead Boss!
I question your use of animal murder as a blog handle. I personally think you are immoral and promote animal cruelty. Now, CAN I HAVE A JOB?
Truth in Moderation
May 26th, 2012
2:52 am
“A Georgia Resident (UGA grad?) Weighs in on Shortening and Bacon Controversy:
Lonneshia Shafaye vs. Piggly Wiggly”
Truth IS stranger than fiction……..
http://www.thesmokinggun.com/documents/bizarre/shoplifter-went-on-piggly-wiggly-rampage-789304
FYI
May 26th, 2012
11:38 am
@ Jim Morris, May 25th, 8:44 pm.
I suggest you read the first page of comments on this blog thread …Richard Pirkle’s letter was brought up almost at once by “shortermom82″ in the link she included at May 25, 7:24 am, and by Cal, 7:39 am, and then commented upon by Prof at 10:44 am.
Buckhead Boss
May 26th, 2012
4:50 pm
Truth, don’t assume the buck is dead. Keep an open mind, young dawg. Good luck with the job search.
James
May 29th, 2012
10:50 am
For those of you that are either moral relativists or clueless on why these “specific” sins are listed on the pledge and not others, let me spell it out for you: Crimes like child molestation and what not are already illegal and have laws against them, so those crimes/sins go without saying. This pledge is seeking to bridge the gap in the difference between what society/U.S. government says is wrong/illegal/immoral and what the Bible says. Many parts of society not only do not oppose these sins (pre-marital sex, adultery, homosexuality), in fact they promote them.
So please stop saying things like “why didn’t they put child molestation or kidnapping on the list”, it makes you seem really obtuse.
For the record, I don’t have a dog in this fight, as I don’t work at, nor did I attend Shorter University.