Statement of Faith divisive, censorious
By Christopher Corbin · Contributing Writer
Almost a year has passed since Grove City College’s Board of Trustees instituted the statement of faith. This was the first such statement in our college’s history. Previously, as President Lingo put it, “faculty members were required to affirm that they would ‘fully support’ the college’s commitment to ‘biblical doctrine, ethics and practice,’” but not sign their names to any particular statement of belief as to what those “biblical doctrines, ethics and practices” were.
The time has come to measure the effects of this monumental decision and decide as a community whether it has indeed strengthened us, as the administration claimed it would.
The effects of the statement of faith on the faculty of the college were immediate and detrimental. It was first introduced to faculty in a meeting without debate and at which an effective ultimatum was issued — those the college hired under the old affirmation system had to sign the new statement or cease to be hired to their positions again in the coming years.
To add insult to injury, the meeting was held mere weeks before the school year began, providing even less time for meaningful comment or reasonable disagreement.
The ultimatum divided faculty into camps, namely, those who were in favor of the new statement and those who were not. Those who were in favor of the statement split into two groups: the staunch partisans of the particular theological and political views espoused by the statement of faith, whose only complaint was that it didn’t go far enough, and those who agreed with the statement of faith but disliked the way it was being implemented.
Similarly, those who didn’t agree with the new statement also split into two groups: those who couldn’t in good conscience sign the statement, and those who disagreed but would sign anyway out of fear, financial need, hope for its repeal and other personal reasons.
As those who couldn’t sign have begun to resign or retire — fired by another name — what are we left with? A faculty divided between those who refused to see the suffering of their fellow faculty members, and who at times aided in it, and those who saw their fellow faculty’s suffering and did nothing, or little, to stop it.
The statement of faith has created a situation in which the empathy and kindness of Christ is denied to our brothers and sisters in the faith by the actions of the administration and apathy on the part of Grovers.
The statement of faith has not even succeeded in establishing the conformity of beliefs the administration hoped for. As one member of the last faculty subcategory put it, “If the college wants to make me wear a clown nose to teach, I’ll do that too.”
Those who disagree with what they believe is a nakedly denominational and politically divisive statement of faith continue to teach at the college, and the college will hire new detractors of the statement in the future.
So then, what have we obtained through this course of action? Nothing. In short, we are left with a divided faculty community, now made to teach through strict doctrinal conformity, even if many do not truly believe in it.
This begs the question: what was to be gained by shielding ourselves from differing viewpoints? Again, nothing. Teaching is meant to instill in a person the ability to think for themselves, not to tell a person what to think.
In creating an atmosphere where teaching is based around political and theological conformity, we stifle the very point of education. Those whose faith and political creed cannot survive contact with others have weak faith and unfounded or unsupportable political views.
If we must stoop so low as to stifle beliefs that aren’t our own, even within our very faith, to justify our worldview, then we show our faith and politics to be just that: weak, unfounded and unsupportable.
The dividing of our faith and community further weakens our ministry to the world. Take, for example, the case of Sean Rowe. Rowe, a Grove City College alumnus, is the Presiding Bishop of the Episcopal Church. This man, who was the officiant of the funeral of President Jimmy Carter and is the acknowledged leader of a major Protestant church, would not be allowed to teach at Grove City College, as his beliefs go against the statement of faith.
We divide ourselves from parts of the Christian faith, all while steadfastly maintaining that we are non-denominational.
What then is the statement of faith? The statement of faith is an exercise in hypocrisy, tearing down the very community it claims to strengthen and breaking the very principles we claim to hold as sacrosanct. We cannot continue to claim to be an institution that supports “faith and freedom,” while censoring those ideas we find distasteful and shunning those denominations we don’t prefer.
