{"id":9891,"date":"2012-10-09T15:20:15","date_gmt":"2012-10-09T19:20:15","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/?p=9891"},"modified":"2012-10-09T15:20:15","modified_gmt":"2012-10-09T19:20:15","slug":"in-support-of-christopher-rollston","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/10\/in-support-of-christopher-rollston.html","title":{"rendered":"In Support of Christopher Rollston"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

\"\"Thom Stark<\/a> and others have blogged about the unfolding events related to Christopher Rollston, a widely-appreciated and well-known Biblical scholar and epigrapher, who is facing disciplinary action and perhaps even termination at Emmanuel Christian Seminary<\/a>,\u00a0because of an article he wrote for the\u00a0Huffington Post<\/em> about the marginalization of women in the Bible<\/a>.<\/p>\n

I have said before that there is a fundamental tension between schools having statements of faith (which aim to decide matters in advance), and encouraging research (which ought to mean following evidence where it leads)<\/a>.<\/p>\n

But in this case involving Chris Rollston, a direct contravention of the school\u2019s statement of faith doesn\u2019t seem to be the issue. And so I want to avoid all potential side issues, and focus on one central point: If Chris is\u00a0wrong<\/em> about the marginalization of women in the Bible, as those who are seeking to have him disciplined or fired surely think,\u00a0why not just disagree with him<\/em>? There are plenty of Christians who agree with him, plenty who disagree, and no classic creed of the Christian churches takes a stance on this issue (not that that should matter to an institution connected with the Stone-Campbell tradition). Nor does\u00a0the position statement of Emmanuel Christian Seminary as found on their web site<\/a>\u00a0takes a stance on this particular matter.<\/p>\n

If Emmanuel Christian Seminary has failed to communicate to its students, some of its faculty members, and its board of trustees how to disagree constructively as Christians, and that it is possible to disagree as Christians without punishing, firing , expelling or otherwise using authority in an attempt to silence the person you disagree with, then they have failed to engage in the most fundamental mission of any educational institution, and have failed to live up to their identity as a Christian institution.<\/p>\n

An action like this can only ever be self-defeating. For surely if your own stance were self-evidently true, a simple correction or pointing out of the error would be sufficient. Resorting to the use of power and exclusion indicates fear, not confidence. Rest assured that the views you fear will get increasingly more attention as you try to silence those who articulate them.<\/p>\n

Here is a round up of\u00a0letters<\/a> and blog posts<\/a> that I have come across by others in support of Christopher Rollston, from elsewhere around the internet:<\/p>\n

Bob Cargill<\/a>,\u00a0James Bos<\/a>,\u00a0Joe Zias<\/a>,\u00a0James Tabor<\/a>,\u00a0Jim West<\/a>\u00a0(twice<\/a>, and he also shared more on academic freedom<\/a>),\u00a0Thom Stark<\/a>\u00a0(twice<\/a>),\u00a0Nathaniel E. Greene<\/a>,\u00a0Duane Smith<\/a>,\u00a0Tom Verenna<\/a>,\u00a0Joel Watts<\/a>\u00a0(who also replied to Paul Blowers<\/a>\u00a0more<\/a> than once<\/a>), and\u00a0Jim Linville<\/a>.\u00a0Timothy Michael Law<\/a> has recommended that some of the bloggers who\u2019ve commented on this topic take a moment to think about whether they are doing more harm than good. See also Brian Le Port\u2019s thoughts at Near Emmaus<\/a>.\u00a0Now there\u2019s also a Bible and Interpretation<\/em> piece by Paul Blowers<\/a> on the topic.<\/p>\n

UPDATE: Since I first posted this, Joel Watts<\/a> has commented on the topic again, as has the blog Unreasonable Faith<\/a>.<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Thom Stark and others have blogged about the unfolding events related to Christopher Rollston, a widely-appreciated and well-known Biblical scholar and epigrapher, who is facing disciplinary action and perhaps even termination at Emmanuel Christian Seminary,\u00a0because of an article he wrote for the\u00a0Huffington Post about the marginalization of women in the Bible. I have said before […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":136,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[5,139,43],"tags":[318,1140,1835,1865,3036,3446,4552,6989,10271,11931,13825],"class_list":["post-9891","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-bible","category-fundamentalism-religion","category-inerrancy","tag-academic-freedom","tag-bible","tag-christian","tag-christopher-rollston","tag-emmanuel-christian-seminary","tag-firing","tag-heresy","tag-marginalization","tag-restoration","tag-stone-campbell","tag-women"],"yoast_head":"\nIn Support of Christopher Rollston<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"Thom Stark and others have blogged about the unfolding events related to Christopher Rollston, a widely-appreciated and well-known Biblical scholar and\" \/>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/10\/in-support-of-christopher-rollston.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:locale\" content=\"en_US\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:type\" content=\"article\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:title\" content=\"In Support of Christopher Rollston\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:description\" content=\"Thom Stark and others have blogged about the unfolding events related to Christopher Rollston, a widely-appreciated and well-known Biblical scholar and\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:url\" content=\"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/religionprof\/2012\/10\/in-support-of-christopher-rollston.html\" \/>\n<meta property=\"og:site_name\" content=\"Religion Prof: The Blog of James F. 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