How were the Fourteen Chosen? pt. 1

“The heart of him that hath understanding seeketh knowledge: but the mouth of fools feedeth on foolishness."  - Proverbs 15:14

As you know, I stands 100% behind my Synod and against the lecherous spit of land called Erskine College. However, Synod failed miserably in taking over the school from “doctrinal drift,” as I explain below.

Reasons to selectively fire fourteen board members are so bizarre I am having a difficult time sorting everything out. There is the issue of fiscal mismanagement that keeps being brought up, and sometimes people mention a “culture of intimidation.” Inerrancy of scripture is a huge issue, according to some, while to others the biggest problem is “integrating faith and learning,” whatever that means. Maybe the board was too large (though equivalent in size to the boards of other schools in the region). The Board actually agreed to reduce in size over six years; not fast enough, said Synod, and acted immediately.

Maybe the Board was incompetent, though Synod bent over backwards to congratulate the dismissed Trustees for their good service. Maybe it was too liberal. Maybe the board was patently divided on the issues – the Commission report said as much: “There are irreconcilable and competing visions about the direction of the college and seminary among the members of the Erskine Board of Trustees.” I have no doubt this last point is true. But isn’t that rather to be expected? Or should we expect each member of the Board of Trustees to think – and vote – exactly as Synod demands?

Well, yes, we apparently demand that.

If the size of the board was truly a problem, the members would have been fired at random. If members were incompetent individually, they would have been individually dismissed after due process for just cause. But neither of these legal recourses were taken; instead, Synod fired the fourteen people who disagreed with them. Goaded on by the Commission and Mr. Wingate’s testimony that should Synod fail to act, “the proper ‘due influence of Synod’ will appear to be diminished and the status quo of many years will continue,” Synod acted out of passion and without due consideration. A lawsuit is the fruit of our labors.

What I am trying to say is this: imagine the most boneheaded and misguided way to take over Erskine from “doctrinal drift.” Now, imagine all the different subtleties Synod could use, all the forward-thinking and slow transformations they could enact that would result in complete takeover of Erskine without anyone realizing it had ever happened. Selectively firing half the Board of Trustees is surely not one of these “subtleties.”

It would be difficult to enact a more blatant, aggressive, and angering trajectory. There is almost literally nothing Synod could have done that would be more sure to enrage and mobilize the opposition, divide the ARP Church, guarantee a lawsuit, and damage Erskine’s financial security for the next few years (at least).

Selectively firing fourteen Trustees out of thirty does not sound fair, and nothing we can say will ever make it seem fair.

We were foolish, and we may lose a great deal because of it.