{"id":111880,"date":"2013-10-08T10:02:05","date_gmt":"2013-10-08T14:02:05","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/?p=111880"},"modified":"2013-10-08T10:24:42","modified_gmt":"2013-10-08T14:24:42","slug":"nytimes-offers-tales-of-two-christian-colleges","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/getreligion\/2013\/10\/nytimes-offers-tales-of-two-christian-colleges\/","title":{"rendered":"NYTimes offers tales of two very different Christian colleges"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana, has had a reputation as one of the toughest places for criminals to do time in this country. If you go in, and the crime is serious enough, you\u2019re not likely to come out. For years, decades even, the prison was a hotbed of violence and strife.<\/p>\n

While still not a \u201ccountry club\u201d institution, the temperature and mood at the Louisiana State Penitentiary has changed, and the introduction of classes from a Southern Baptist college are apparently part of the new equation. The New York Times<\/em> is on the scene<\/a>:<\/p>\n

Like most of his fellow inmates, Daryl Walters, 45, can expect to spend the rest of his days in the infamous prison on a former slave plantation here. He was sentenced to life without parole for a murder more than 20 years ago in a state where a life sentence means just that.<\/p>\n

Yet there he was on a recent evening, preaching the Gospel to 200 men in a spired church in the heart of the Louisiana State Penitentiary, talking salvation and joy to murderers and rapists and robbers who waved their arms to an inmate band\u2019s Christian worship music.<\/p>\n

\u201cGod is merciful,\u201d intoned Mr. Walters, an assistant pastor at one of many churches scattered through this maximum-security prison, informally known as Angola. \u201cGod gives us so many benefits.\u201d<\/p>\n

Mr. Walters is a graduate of one of the most unusual prison programs in the country: a Southern Baptist Bible college inside this sprawling facility, offering bachelor\u2019s degrees in a rigorous four-year course that includes study of Greek and Hebrew as well as techniques for \u201csidewalk ministry\u201d that inmates can practice in their dorms and meal lines.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

The story, by reporter Erik Eckholm, touches all the bases and quotes approvingly from the prison\u2019s warden, and includes a left-handed compliment from an official of the state\u2019s American Civil Liberties Union chapter:<\/p>\n

Mr. Cain has used religion and peer counseling \u2014 backed by sharp discipline for defiant behavior \u2014 to promote what he calls a \u201cmoral rehabilitation\u201d of individuals and a sense of community among men who might easily be consumed by rage or despair.<\/p>\n

\u201cThe greatest enemy here is lack of hope,\u201d Mr. Cain said in an interview. \u2026<\/p>\n

Still, the seminary appears to be legal because it is paid for privately, is voluntary and admits non-Christians, said Marjorie R. Esman, the executive director of the A.C.L.U. in Louisiana.<\/p>\n

\u201cI think that what Burl Cain calls moral rehabilitation is, in his mind, religious doctrine, but a lot of good has come of it,\u201d Ms. Esman said. \u201cI think it\u2019s unfortunate that the only college available is a Christian one, but the fact that a college is there at all is important.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There is one source of expertise missing from the piece, and that\u2019s anyone from Prison Fellowship, the organization founded by the late Chuck Colson and perhaps the largest evangelical Christian organization specializing in prison ministry. Surely someone could be found there to offer an informed comment, but the group is oddly absent. Instead, the Times<\/em> team turns to two academics for the pro-and-con (no pun intended):<\/p>\n

Whether religion, per se, helps create peaceful prisons and reduce recidivism is a matter of scholarly dispute. Byron R. Johnson, a criminologist at Baylor University and the author of \u201cMore God, Less Crime,\u201d argues that studies have shown the benefits of faith in\u00a0rehabilitating criminals. He is now leading a study of the impact of the Baptist seminaries inside Angola and the Darrington prison in Texas.<\/p>\n

But Winnifred F. Sullivan, a professor of religious studies and law at Indiana University, said, \u201cThere is no firm evidence that it is the faith component that makes these programs work.\u201d<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Overall, however, the story is solid and the emphasis on the positive aspects of the program is a welcome one. Readers with an interest in the subject will want to catch the multimedia elements of the piece, which includes nearly two minutes of audio from inmate\/minister Daryl Walters. Hearing his testimony might put a lump in your throat.<\/p>\n

On the other hand, Times<\/em>man Joseph Berger, who \u201cserved as chief religion correspondent\u201d for the paper \u201cfrom 1985 to 1987,\u201d comes up a tad short, I believe, with a discussion<\/a> of a new Christian college campus in Dutchess County, New York:<\/p>\n

For 20 years, the 80 brick buildings of what was once the Harlem Valley Psychiatric Center have lain fallow, their weathered faces hidden by untamed vines, their windows buckling, their emerald lawns turning to weeds.<\/p>\n

Local residents have long been dismayed at the waste of such a handsome rustic property set in a green valley between two ridges.<\/p>\n

Then in the summer, the lawns were mowed, the ivy and brush stripped away, and bulldozers cleared land for a soccer field. A sign appeared: Olivet Center. Townspeople learned that the mysterious new owner of most of the 900-acre property was Olivet University, a small evangelical Christian college of about 250 undergraduates based in San Francisco.<\/p>\n

Olivet wanted to open a campus 65 miles north of New York City, not exactly the evangelical heartland, but perhaps a new frontier for attracting believers.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Dutchess County may not be the \u201cBible Belt,\u201d but has there not been some growth in evangelical churches there in the past 20 years? I\u2019m fairly sure there has been, and it might have helped to put a little more effort into finding that out, such as locating and talking with some local pastors, perhaps.<\/p>\n

The Olivet University in this story is connected with controversy, however, and the Times<\/em> team is quick to point that out:<\/p>\n

<\/p>\n

But even supporters were surprised by what they discovered about the college after it bought the property.<\/p>\n

A publication reported that the university\u2019s founder, a Korean pastor named David Jang, was linked to the Rev. Sun Myung Moon, the founder of the Unification Church, whom critics labeled the mastermind of a cult; that some of the Dr. Jang\u2019s closest followers seemed to believe that Dr. Jang was a messiah-like figure; and that he did not directly contradict that belief.<\/p>\n

The claims were contained in a lengthy article last year in Christianity Today, a leading evangelical publication.<\/p>\n

In 1989, the article said, Dr. Jang had been an assistant professor of theology at a seminary of the Unification Church founded by Mr. Moon, who died last year.<\/p>\n

The article also claimed that Dr. Jang had given his followers the impression that he was \u201cthe Second Coming Christ,\u201d not Christ himself but a messianic figure who would complete Jesus\u2019 mission.<\/p>\n

\u201cI thought I\u2019d heard they\u2019re connected with the Moonies,\u201d Mr. O\u2019Neill [a 55-year-old plumber] said. But, he added: \u201cAs long as they clean up the site, I\u2019m all right with it. I get along with people.\u201d<\/p>\n

Olivet officials deny any connection with the Unification Church.<\/p>\n

Olivet leaders said that the article had misrepresented Dr. Jang and the college, and that Christianity Today<\/em> was envious of the success of a rival Web site, the Christian Post<\/em>, which was started by alumni of Olivet. Olivet\u2019s president, Tracy Davis, denied that Mr. Jang had ever told anyone he was a messianic figure.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

Jang isn\u2019t making himself available to the paper for an interview, and Berger reports \u201cChristianity Today<\/em> says it stands by its story.\u201d It might have been helpful to know who<\/em> at CT<\/em> said that, if only to get all sides on the record. (And, for what it\u2019s worth, should \u201cthe late\u201d precede Moon\u2019s name, given that he passed away 13 months ago?)<\/p>\n

The article also hints at possible questions concerning the denomination with which Olivet University is linked:<\/p>\n

Although the school says it is part of the Presbyterian tradition, it is not affiliated with the mainstream denomination, the Presbyterian Church U.S.A., which has 1.8 million members and represents over 10,000 congregations.<\/p>\n

Instead, Olivet is affiliated with the Evangelical Assembly of Presbyterian Churches of America, a smaller, more conservative group that broke off from the mainstream Presbyterians in the mid-1980s because of differences over issues like women\u2019s ordination. Olivet leaders said the denomination had 70 congregations, though some have only a small number of members.<\/p>\n

Olivet University also has no connection to Olivet College in Michigan.<\/p><\/blockquote>\n

There\u2019s no quote from anyone at the EAPCA, so we don\u2019t know what the denomination is saying, unless the Times<\/em> is asserting that Olivet University is speaking for that group.<\/p>\n

At this point, much about the Dutchess County campus is unknown, since the New York State Education Department hasn\u2019t authorized the school to operate programs there as yet; the Times<\/em> reports Olivet \u201c[a]dministrators are putting together an application.\u201d<\/p>\n

So we have a school where there\u2019s supposedly some controversy about its founder, connected somehow with a denomination that isn\u2019t quoted, and that isn\u2019t open for business yet. Am I the only one to see some holes here?<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana, has had a reputation as one of the toughest places for criminals to do time in this country. If you go in, and the crime is serious enough, you\u2019re not likely to come out. For years, decades even, the prison was a hotbed of violence and strife. While […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1629,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[9,27,7,12,1],"tags":[2405,2412,1269,234,2404,2408,2403,2406,2411,2407],"class_list":["post-111880","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-academia","category-evangelicals","category-journalism","category-religion","category-uncategorized","tag-angola","tag-chuck-colson","tag-education","tag-evangelism","tag-louisiana-state-penitentiary","tag-ministry","tag-olivet-university","tag-prison","tag-prison-fellowship","tag-southern-baptist"],"yoast_head":"\nNYTimes offers tales of two very different Christian colleges<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"The Louisiana State Penitentiary at Angola, Louisiana, has had a reputation as one of the toughest places for criminals to do time in this country. 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