{"id":2407,"date":"2011-11-14T09:04:41","date_gmt":"2011-11-14T14:04:41","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/www.tmatt.net\/?p=2407"},"modified":"2011-11-14T09:04:41","modified_gmt":"2011-11-14T14:04:41","slug":"education-wars-among-georgia-baptists","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.patheos.com\/blogs\/tmatt\/2011\/11\/education-wars-among-georgia-baptists\/","title":{"rendered":"Education wars among Georgia Baptists"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<\/head>

When it comes to higher education, Georgia Baptists are of two minds these days.<\/p>\n

On Oct. 21, the trustees of Shorter University in Rome, Ga., approved a covenant<\/a> requiring faculty and staff to support the \u201cmission of Shorter University as a Christ-centered institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention.\u201d Then they asked employees to \u201creject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality.\u201d<\/p>\n

A fortnight latter, Baptists learned about a \u201cfall update\u201d email from leaders at Mercer University in Macon, Ga., announcing a policy extending health care and other benefits to the \u201cdomestic partners\u201d of faculty and staff, regardless of sexual orientation.<\/p>\n

The Georgia Baptist Convention cut its historic ties to Mercer in 2005. Now, the school\u2019s strategic shift brings it \u201cinto line with other leading private universities \u2026 including Emory, Duke, Vanderbilt, Wake Forest, Tulane, Furman, Rollins, Elon and Stetson,\u201d noted Mercer President Bill Underwood, in a statement quoted at EthicsDaily.com, a progressive Baptist website. \u201cIt is also consistent with our established policy of not discriminating against employees based on sexual orientation.\u201d<\/p>\n

While this divide may shock outsiders, these decisions are \u201ctotally logical\u201d in light of trends in Baptist life and higher education, stressed Lutheran scholar Robert Benne of Roanoke (Va.) College, author of \u201cQuality with Soul<\/a>: How Six Premier Colleges and Universities Keep Faith with Their Religious Traditions.\u201d<\/p>\n

\u201cThese schools are headed in opposite directions because their leaders want them to become radically different kinds of institutions,\u201d he said. Shorter wants to \u201cbecome a \u2018Christian\u2019 university in terms of its approach to education and campus life. \u2026 Mercer is trying to become what its leaders see as an elite institution, the kind of place where if you tried to talk about \u2018Christian education\u2019 the faculty would raise all holy hell.\u201d<\/p>\n

In some ways, these Baptist conflicts resemble those among educators in other religious groups, he said. For example, many American Catholic colleges and universities have become highly secularized, while their leaders insist that they remain rooted in \u201cCatholic\u201d values or some specific educational tradition, such as the legacy of the Jesuits. Meanwhile, a few other Catholic schools publicly stress their loyalty to the Vatican.<\/p>\n

With that in mind, it\u2019s significant that Mercer\u2019s Internet homepage states<\/a>: \u201cFounded by early 19th century Baptists, Mercer \u2014 while no longer formally affiliated with the Baptist denomination \u2014 remains committed to an educational environment that embraces intellectual and religious freedom while affirming values that arise from a Judeo-Christian understanding of the world.\u201d<\/p>\n

Benne noted that few well-known schools can accurately be labeled \u201cfundamentalist,\u201d as would be the case with the independent Bob Jones University in South Carolina. Meanwhile, most conflicts in Southern Baptist academia involve debates about accepting some explicitly \u201cChristian\u201d approach to education, often referred to as the \u201cintegration of faith and learning.\u201d<\/p>\n

Thus, it\u2019s symbolic that Mercer leaders openly say they want to go the other direction, following in the footsteps of universities such as Vanderbilt and Duke, and historically Baptist institutions such as Furman and Wake Forest. The Mercer student handbook, for example, contains no moral code covering student conduct on premarital sex, adultery and homosexuality.<\/p>\n

At this point, Shorter accepts non-Christian students. However, Benne said Shorter\u2019s new doctrinal and lifestyle code for faculty and staff suggests that it will soon ask its students to sign a similar covenant of faith and moral conduct. If so, covenants of this kind are common on Christian campuses, including famous liberal arts schools such as Wheaton College, Calvin College, Biola University and numerous other members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (the global network in which I teach).<\/p>\n

Many of these schools retain ties to the denominations that founded them, but they are reach out to recruit other evangelicals or traditional Christians as students, faculty and staff. Some of these schools now openly appeal to Catholics, as well.<\/p>\n

The problem for many Baptist academics, stressed Benne, is that they place such a strong emphasis on \u201csoul freedom\u201d and the \u201cpriesthood of every believer\u201d that they struggle to find ways to separate themselves from the \u201clukewarm people who are not really committed to the their school\u2019s vision.\u201d<\/p>\n

The result is a perfect Baptist Catch 22.<\/p>\n

\u201cHow do you defend specific doctrines and convictions,\u201d he said, \u201cwithout daring to list these specifics, which means you have committed the sin of having a creed?\u201d<\/p>\n<\/body><\/html>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

When it comes to higher education, Georgia Baptists are of two minds these days. On Oct. 21, the trustees of Shorter University in Rome, Ga., approved a covenant requiring faculty and staff to support the \u201cmission of Shorter University as a Christ-centered institution affiliated with the Georgia Baptist Convention.\u201d Then they asked employees to \u201creject […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":610,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"closed","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[13],"tags":[1529,95,1532,189,1534,439,1540],"class_list":["post-2407","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-godbeat","tag-academia","tag-baptists","tag-catholics","tag-christian-colleges","tag-evangelicals","tag-homosexuality","tag-marriage"],"yoast_head":"\nEducation wars among Georgia Baptists<\/title>\n<meta name=\"description\" content=\"When it comes to higher education, Georgia Baptists are of two minds these days. 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