Calvin & Joe

As some of you may know, I spent two years of my life in the garden spot of the South, Pineville, Louisiana.  I attended Louisiana College and met some great people that still respond to my e-mails and Facebook postings. My roommate there was the great Bill Wade. In fact, Bill and I still talk about “LC”. The following is almost an exact transcript of a conversation we've had                                    

Bill: “I met this guy, Landry Beaux Beaudreaux. He said he was at LC when we were.”

Me: “He was our next door neighbor."

                                              The Great Bill Wade   

While Bill has moved on with his life, I still keep up with my other Alma Mater. They now have a pretty good NCAA D-3 football team. Both Dad George Bush and Barbara Bush have spoken there.  However, there is a fly in the gumbo. Apparently, there are “Calvinists” on the faculty and they are trying to Calvinize the students, I guess.

For those of you (pagans) that don’t know what Calvinism is, I will give you the short version. Calvinism is a major branch of Christianity that follows the theological tradition and forms of Christian practice of John Calvin. Evidently, tulips are involved.

                                       

“TULIP” is the acronym that helps everyone remember what Calvinism is about, just in case there is a test. T  is for total depravity. (Think of a fraternity at Georgia Southern University). U is for unconditional election. L is for limited atonement. I is for irresistible grace. P  is for perseverance of the Saints.  This helps me to remember that when anybody wants to discuss Calvinism, I am predestined to have a headache.

[By the way, how many humor blogs do you know of that would cut and paste the explanation of TULIP from Wikipedia would use Calvinism as a topic? Top that, Dave Barry!]

Anyway, the President of Louisiana College, Dr. Joe Aguillard has sacked three professors who are “Calvinists” and considers Calvinism a threat to the College’s identity. He places it with: having a heart attack, open heart surgery, cardiac rehab, Obamacare forcing faith based employers to pay for abortifacient drugs, cultural attacks, economic woes, and being sued by several former professors as one of the challenges of the past year. I tend to see having open heart surgery as more of a challenge than Calvinism, but maybe I'm naive.  Exactly why it is a threat and what it would mean to the College’s identity, he doesn’t say. He refers to a couple of sermons by the late Dr. Adrian Rogers and calls it “the certain sound” and that it continues to be his position.  He says, “My love for all Baptists including Calvinists, does not constitute our approval of its being advocated at Louisiana College”. http://www.lacollege.edu/reformedtheology

Of course, eating worms, twice, in two separate chapel services does nothing but enhance the College’s identity.  Or the various infrastructure issues around the school, including a dilapidated roof of the girls’ dorm that had a hole. (It has recently been repaired) There’s nothing that sells a college like that!  How about being placed on warning by SACS a mere 8 years after you got off of probation from SACS? That’s a school people dream of sending their kids. “Sure, I know she could have gone to Harvard, but LC has that worm eatin' President. Maybe they’ll get their accreditation yanked. That would be great.”

                              

            These two issues have been repaired. But still.....

Like a lot of small colleges, Louisiana College has many intense intramural battles over the direction of the school. The college business game is very competitive and small colleges struggle to find a niche.  The problem comes when they forget who they are supposed to serve. When that happens, they are predestined to fail.