Harding appoints a conservative….
Hello All:
What I’m currently reading:
Harding in the Balance - Radical Congruency Blog.
I can’t comment about the appointment, as I know nothing about either Bruce McLarty or Monte Cox. I will say though that it seems rather harsh to state that Bruce McLarty is unqualified to be the dean of a middle school, much less the dean of the school of Biblical Studies.
Deans hold many responsibilities, many of which are administrative in nature. Unless McLarty is a horrible administrator, I would hazard a guess that he probably is qualified. Being a preacher, he should know something about the bible.
Personal attacks of this fashion are often the tools of liberals who can find nothing else to use to fire off a salvo at others.
Second of all, reading section #2, it sounds as if Justin has a problem with free enterprise, and equates it with conservatism. Believing in free enterprise does not a conservative make. Socialism doesn’t work, and its end result is the strangling of freedom. Christ came to liberate us, not remove our free will.
And, what is wrong with receiving donations from conservative businesses and people? Justin, if you have a huge problem with conservatives contributing to the college, why don’t you donate yourself, and encourage your “progressive” liberal friends to do the same.
Harding has the right to keep an eye on the “progressive” faculty it has. The liberal faculty at institutions such as ACU are helping to create even more division in a church that has had too much to begin with. It is noble of Harding to attempt to prevent their faculty from contributing to the same.
-Clarke
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August 23rd, 2005 at 10:58
Mr. Clarke,
I am the author of a number of the posts Justin linked to. As someone who takes seriously the acadmic, intellectual pursuits as an integral part of my spirituality, I am interested in how Harding, as an institution of higher learning can appoint someone with little to no academic experience, little or no academic administrative experience, and no terminal degree in any field.
There are doctoral programs in higher education administration, and to expect a preacher to simply “possess” the skills needed to run a program successfully is not a wise assumption.
Apart from the actual running of the school, this appointment does nothing but harm to Harding’s reputation in the larger Christian and Christian academic community. Those not of our fellowship already see little Harding College (some still call it that) in rural Arkansas as a dinky little faith-based school. Installing a minister with inadequate academic credentials only perpetuates the idea that Harding does not take academic preparation seriously.
August 23rd, 2005 at 12:06
Greg:
Thank you for your comment. I can appreciate your thoughts on McLarty’s lack of a higher degree or experience
administering a program such as Harding’s.
The question I have for you is this: Why do you care how the “large Christian academic community” views Harding? Let them think of Harding as a “dinky little faith based school.” It is better than it be a dinky faith based school than a school like Pepperdine which has attempted to deny its heritage in the church.
Harding has a great academic program and is known throughout our brotherhood as a good place to go to get a solid college education. If the methodists and the UCC and others want to ridicule our colleges, let them. Our universities exist to serve our brotherhood, not others.
Also, please just call me Clarke. I hate the prefix “Mr.”
-Clarke
August 23rd, 2005 at 13:38
Clarke,
One reason I care about the perception of Harding’s academic reputation (as well as that of the Churches of Christ), is because I believe, like the founders of our brotherhood, that we are Christians only, but not the only Christians. I think that to be taken seriously in discussions with other groups (even if we only expand our circle of contact to a few Disciples of Christ or Independent Christian churches), we must have the credentials to back up our arguments.
I feel like Churches of Christ has a lot to offer the world. Like the lepers who discovered the abandonded camp, it would be foolish, and wrong, for us to keep our beliefs and thoughts to ourselves, and not share them with the larger community. Our views on Scripture, baptism, communion, etc. are very valuable and are worthy of sharing with others.
So, we need to be able to “speak the language” of the people we are trying to talk with. Those people respect academic credentials, and might ignore the comments coming from what they perceive to be dinky, hick-ish country folks who don’t care about the academic world.
I’m not saying a man has to have a PhD or a Masters, or even a Bachelors to be a good preacher, minister or Christian, but to fill the role of an academic dean, in an academic department, we should still play by the accepted rules.
~gkb
August 26th, 2005 at 13:03
Greg:
Sorry I took a few days to respond. I’ve moved to a 12 hour schedule that has played with my life.
If you’ve done any deeper digging into my blog, you will know that I believe in the old slogan you referenced above as well, although I probably apply it quite differently. Even so, I would disagree with the statement that if one of our brotherhood’s colleges has a dean without a higher academic degree that it endangers the credability of our entire brotherhood.
If this was the case in all of our colleges, I would probably have a different opinion.
While I can accept an argument such as yours at the face, there seems to be much more going on here than a few people worrying about the fact that he does not have an advanced degree.
The blogs I have read indicate that the real reason people are upset is because McLarty is a conservative appointed to be a watchdog over the Bible Department. The fact that he does not have an advanced egree is secondary, and is the point of attack.
While you may or may not feel differently, this appears to be the real issue. My guess is that if McLarty was a liberal installed to create sweeping change on the campus, that most (not all, but most) liberal members of the church who blog would keep quiet about his lack of an advanced degree and pray for his success.
-Clarke
August 31st, 2005 at 9:22
Clarke,
Thanks for the reply.
I think you are right in summarizing the issues. Most of the outcry IS because McLarty is a conservative watchdog, but that’s not necessarily something easily argued against. Anyone who knows harding knows that it is a conservative place. No bones there.
But, that does not detract from the fact that he does not have a terminal degree (neither does the Dean of the School of Business for that matter). I hope that, were McLarty a liberal change agent installed to promote change, I would be intellectually honest enough to critique his hiring, because he has no terminal degree.
Just like with the Ann Coulter thing, there is the ISSUE in the universal sense (what is a University, what should it do?) and then the personal issues (I don’t think Harding should be in bed with the right-wing). I hope that merely having a preference for one view or the other doesn’t necessarily blind us or unduly bias us.
Thanks for the conversation,
~gkb