“Geneva on the Red.” Never in a million years would I have dreamed that those words would be used to describe my alma mater, Louisiana College.
It seems that, along with the other controversies and troubles at Louisiana College over the past decade, there is now a controversy over Calvinism. Given the fact that many Calvinist professors have come and gone during the course of Dr. Aguillard’s tenure, I’m frankly surprised that it has taken this long for the issue to come to the fore. Many of the faculty in the theology department, past and present, are products of either Southern Seminary or Southeastern Seminary, widely regarded as the two hotbeds of Calvinism in the SBC. (One of them is Dr. Jason Meyer, who is John Piper’s successor at Bethlehem Baptist in Minneapolis.) That’s not to say that all of those fitting that profile are necessarily Calvinists, it would not come as a surprise to me to learn that Calvinists have always been in the majority among the theology faculty since 2005. My perception has always been that those who were responsible for putting Dr. Aguillard in his current office were largely opposed to Calvinism and that he was chosen in part because he is not a Calvinist, a fact and a process to which he alludes in his statement on Reformed Theology.
I do wonder if this “Geneva on the Red” perception was a factor in the composition and promotion of last year’s “A Statement of the Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation” Dr. Eric Hankins, the author of the document, is the son of David Hankins, the Executive Director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention. Calvinism would certainly be the minority report among Louisiana Southern Baptists. Calvinistic students preaching in non-Calvinist churches is almost always a recipe for controversy.
As I’m not currently a member of a Southern Baptist church and also do not currently have a lot of time in which to compose a lengthy post or series of posts, I’ll merely post some relevant links here and let the reader draw his own conclusions.
The President’s Pen-Dr. Aguillard’s statement on Calvinism and Louisiana College.
Pastor Jared Moore’s post–Some of the comments here seem to paint a fuller picture than most.
Ken Fryer–Untimely and Unnecessary Division at Louisiana College
Drew Wales has a couple of posts, one of which states that 60% of the faculty is Calvinist and the other re-posts another student’s thoughts.
These blogs by current LC and/or Caskey Divinity School students have several posts on this issue and you can expect them to continue to cover it: http://thedailybleat.com/ http://blowthewhistlelc.wordpress.com/
The latest appears to be this interview with Dr. Aguillard. (HT: Candy Moncada) Interesting that he relates that LC is perceived to be “Geneva on the Red” yet we’re told that there are no Calvinists on the faculty, and that his post was about “Hyper-Calvinism” even though that wasn’t mentioned.
I will leave it to others who are more familiar with the situation to opine on the current goings on at LC with regard to the longstanding issues regarding accreditation, administration/faculty relations, etc.
The comments are open.
I am a current student at the Caskey School of Divinity at Louisiana College. I am grateful that you pointed out just a few of the many contradictions found within the interview with the President. I do not perceive the ultimate controversy is over Calvinism but something else. I’m not quite sure what that might be, but many of the latest blogs have been making some mention to it. I can vouch for the professors who have been caught in the controversy. They are some of the godliest men I know, and for the 5 years I have been at L.C., I have never heard “Calvinism” mention within the classroom.
Cody,
I think you are right that the ultimate controversy is not about Calvinism. That’s not to say there’s not a controversy over it within the LBC of course.
Now, this is at least the second time I’ve heard a Caskey student (and recent LC alum) state that the word “Calvinism” has never been mentioned in the classroom. Since y’all are good Baptist boys and all, I have no reason to doubt this account. :) But if that’s the case, then it raises the question as to whether or not that word was deliberately avoided (perhaps to a fault) in an attempt to avoid controversy. It seems to me that such an approach doesn’t serve the student well. (Surely it must have at least been mentioned in a textbook here and there?) It seems to me that normal procedure with appropriate subjects would be to lay out the Calvinist view, the Arminian view, other views, etc. as applicable to at least give some historical perspective. Or one could say, “The following views have been held by various Baptists.” This is usually what you see in Systematic Theology texts. Perhaps this was done and the Calvinist term was not specifically used? I see no reason to avoid the term altogether. Saying “This is the usual Calvinist position” is not the same as forcefully saying “Calvinism is what the Bible teaches and you’re a heretic that doesn’t believe the Bible if you don’t believe it.”
I’m sure all would agree that it also doesn’t take Calvinist professors to produce Calvinistic students. I knew of LC students who embraced Reformed theology before the changing of the guard there, back when the Reformed quotient there was zero and there was nary an inerrantist to be found on the faculty to my knowledge. For some it was a phase and for others it was not. Like it or not, in general the popular authors and preachers today are Calvinistic, at least in a broad sense. So you’re going to see that influence in students of theology, (whether in a formal sense or not) just as you did with dispensationalism for much of the 20th Century.
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