Cenlamr has a good blog post up about some rather important events that happened at Louisiana College this past week.
See Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard’s Vainglorious (And Terrifying) Attempts To Stifle Dissent.
There is much controversy at Louisiana College and as a non Baptist I walk carefully in commenting on how a faith community runs their school. For instance there are some issues dealing with academic freedom at Louisiana College that deal with the Calvinism issue that I view as an internal theological matter.
However Louisiana College is an asset to the State of Louisiana Baptist and non Baptist alike. Thus what appears to be an increasing level of incompetence , mismanagement , and perhaps well lying by it's President seems to be a concern. The list of grand promises , plans , and grants that Cenlamr list that have been made but never seem to materialize is not an exclusive one.
The question is does the average Louisiana Southern Baptist ( lay or pastor ) outside the Alexandria area seem to care. The Louisiana Southern Baptist Convention has some degree of oversight and influence over the college. Over the past few years when I have engaged Baptists over the issues at Louisiana College I just get vacant looks. There does not seem to be a connection , a sense of pride , or indeed ownership between the average Louisiana Baptist and their " State " College . This seems different than some other states.
If this disconnect is indeed widespread that probably does not fare well for the future of Louisiana College. Still it is an asset that Louisiana Baptist might want to take advantage of in the future and the need to listen to the students there seems to be becoming more compelling .
The issue does come up sometimes with people I know, some of whom are LC graduates. For years I felt "alienated" from Southern Baptist life in this state but in the last few years have actually become involved once again (long story - basically the local Baptist association has treated me warmly). I semi-followed LC for a while. Always had a poor impression of Aguillard, and that has nothing to do with scuttlebutt via LC alumni, just my read of his own words and openly stated agenda.
ReplyDeleteThe state Baptist paper has covered LC, and what they reported often didn't match up with what my LC alumni friends were telling me. Who is right? Hard to tell.
It's possible that Aguillard has pulled the wool over everyone's eyes, including Louisiana Baptists, but now are even his most ardent supporters starting to see a problem? In which case there are a lot of people who need to answer for how they enabled this farce to continue for so long. Just because Aguillard uses all the right "God talk"!
In my opinion Louisiana Baptists should wonder about whether it is worth maintaining this "asset". And this is whether or not LC is in dire shape. State conventions are struggling enough without having to maintain colleges and universities. Although that raises the obvious question about the religious identity of a school when the institution cuts it loose. I could be wrong about this, but am somewhat skeptical whether it is wise for state conventions to maintain such schools.
Thanks for your input ! I do think its good for Religious bodies to perhaps try to maintain these schools in light of perhaps future 1st amendment problems on campuses in the secular realm But I get the real concern about expense
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