The student newspaper at Belmont University,
The Belmont Vision, recently posted
a story on the university's response to the law suit filed by the
Tennessee Baptist Convention against the university.
Dr. Todd Lake, the university's Vice President for Spiritual Development had this to say about the ideological aspects of the conflict:
This conflict is between “Baptists who believe that we become a stronger school by including other Christians and those who think we stay truer to our mission by excluding other Christians,” he said.
“Usually we Baptists can see clearly enough to see that our mission is enhanced by including other Christians,” he continued. “It is unfortunate that in this conflict, some see that our mission is better served through exclusion.”
Lake said he also sees the conflict as fueled by the inherent struggle between tradition and progress.
“Belmont is moving ahead, and we need a Board of Trustees that reflects the reality of the school…We want to be more robustly and vibrantly Christian, and so [after breaking with the TBC] we can widen our trustee selection.”
Those who fear that this is a step leading to the secularization of Belmont should realize that this is a fear without basis, Lake added, saying that universities that become secular do so as a conscious choice, not just because they drop an affiliation with one denomination. Lake said he believes it likely that after the conflict has blown over, little of Belmont’s core nature will be changed.
“I’m sure that in the long run, people will look back and wonder what the big deal was,” Lake said.
The graphic on the left appears in the sidebar on the same page with the Belmont Vision story. It gives a clear indication on how the students feel about the conflict. While this mess is being cleared up in the courts and back room meetings, it looks to me like this is still a
big deal to some
students.
The student newspaper at Belmont University, The Belmont Vision, recently posted a story on the university's response to the law suit filed by the Tennessee Baptist Convention against the university. Dr. Todd Lake, the university's Vice President for Spiritual Development had this to say about the ideological aspects of the conflict:
2 comments:
How can Belmont's affiliation with Curb records be seen as anything less than a SECULAR move?
I suppose that receiving funds from anything other than a denomination or religious group could be viewed as a secular affiliation.
Mike Curb is a member of a Baptist Church here in Nashville. I doubt that any gifts he gave to the university came with strings that meant the university had to buy records exclusively from his record label or adopt his company's mission and vision statement.
Let's not confuse affiliation with generousity.
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