The Purge of Righteous Minds in Christian Higher Education

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The Purge of Righteous Minds in Christian Higher Education

The following articles remind me that professors who work in Christian colleges and universities must be very careful about what they say, write, and do.

2022 March 24, The Christian Chronicle

"O’Keefe and his attorney, Kevin Jacobs, a former Oklahoma Christian president, claim the firing was the result of the longtime professor including an openly gay guest speaker in his senior-level “Business of Branding” course."

2021

Cornerstone University’s new president is under fire. His former colleagues see a pattern.

Former Regent employees named at least 40 faculty, staff and administrators

who were forced to exit during Moreno-Riaño’s tenure at Regent University.

Read more in RNS 2021

"In March 2012, Katy Attanasi, then an assistant professor of religion at
Regent University in Virginia, was at home feeding her newborn son when
she heard a knock at the door. On her stoop, she found a snow-dusted
FedEx envelope from the university. Inside was a letter informing her
that her faculty contract would not be renewed. "

**********
“The cuts that I saw were where they used the budget to justify
getting rid of people whose scholarship was not seen as being
extreme-right enough, fundamentalist enough,” said Kimberly
Alexander, a former associate professor of the history of
Christianity at Regent’s School of Divinity who resigned last year.

Alexander said administrators questioned her about her scholarship,
which she described as being “conservative” but involving some
“feminist language.”

2021

Pastor Says He Was Fired From Religious Broadcasting

Group for Promoting COVID Vaccines

"Evangelical pastor Daniel Darling said he was let go from
his position as National Religious Broadcasters (NRB)
spokesperson this past Friday for advocating that
people get a COVID-19 vaccine."

Read more in Newsweek 2021

2020 James Spiegel fired from Taylor University (Dailynous)

2020

Southwest Baptist University President Resigns

Barely two years after being unanimously elected by trustees,
Eric Turner resigned Tuesday (Oct. 20) as president of
Southwest Baptist University. His resignation, made during
an executive session of a contentious Board meeting,
comes amid a two-year conflict over theology and control
at the school in Bolivar, Missouri.

Read more wordandway 2020

2015

Bethel professor resigns after college stance on
human origin

Stump resigned in the wake of the statement, a move
that has attracted widespread attention because of the
connection to the ongoing creation/evolution debate,
while also raising questions about academic freedom
at some Christian colleges.
.......

This year, the board of trustees added specific language on
the creation/evolution debate. On June 9, the board adopted
an "Educational Philosophy Statement on Origins." The
statement references that "The Article of Faith on Creation
states, 'We believe that the first man, Adam, was created by
an immediate act of God and not by a process of evolution.'"
It adds that "this doctrine is a corporate commitment on
Adam and all humanity."

Read more in South Bend Tribune 2015

2008

Bible professor suspended over teachings

Plagued by questions about the divine truth of the Bible,
today's young Christians are doubting their faith as never
before, says Peter Enns, professor of Old Testament at
Westminster Theological Seminary in Glenside.

See The Philadelphia Inquirer 2008

Comments

Something’s happening in American Christian Higher Education.

It’s never been a place of unbridled academic freedom.

Evangelicals are now divided more fiercely than ever along political,social, and biblical fault lines.

The dividing lines leave little leeway as they are more brightly marked than in recent memory.

Christian college and university professors cannot teach critical thinking beyond a certain point...that point where you suggest a point of view contrary to the doctrine of your school and/or its parent denomination. I realize that sometimes there's more to the story than revealed in news stories above. Nevertheless, there is a strong movement toward more conservative interpretations of biblical texts.

As I’ve written before, research supports the inevitable division between
Righteous Minds along moral foundations in general and even within conservative Christian groups.

Christian Moral Foundations- Liberal Conservative Divide

THE RIGHTEOUS MIND by Jonathan Haidt Book Review

The Problems with Evangelical Ed Stetzer's Day of Reckoning

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