New Year

Those of us in the academic profession feel that new year's day should be sometime in late August. That is the new beginning for us, when all things are made fresh. I have a good deal of responsibility with the the prelude to the new year--think of it as organizing the New Year's Eve party.

We had our new faculty on campus today after a meal at the president's house Sunday night. Lots of fun. Tomorrow starts the full faculty retreat. I have a pretty big speech/talk/sermon (I'm never sure what to call them) to give on Wednesday night. The theme will be the purposes of God in our generation which might be served by the Christian college.

Across my banner at the top, the first descriptor is education. This blog has been rather thin on that topic so far. I'll see if I can't do something about that in the future. I need to dig in now to this speech/talk/sermon. If you're inclined to such things, I'd appreciate your prayers; if you're not inclined... fight the inclination and give it a try. I'm pretty sure it won't hurt you.

Faculty Bias Against Evangelicals

My blog description includes "Education". I've done much with that yet. Here is an interesting piece of recent news in that arena.

A study released last month by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research finds that 53% of faculty in American colleges and universities have an unfavorable opinion of evangelical students. This compares to just 3% of faculty holding the same attitude toward Jewish students. The study was commissioned in order to root out a supposed bias against Jewish students, and the authors were shocked to find reaction to evangelicals. The study had more than 1200 respondents, from all disciplines, all kinds of institutions, and all regions of the country (so it can't be explained away by geography).

The rest of the unfavorable (prejudiced) attitudes of faculty against religious groups was as follows:

• 3% Jews
• 4% Buddhists
• 9% Non-evangelical Christians
• 10% Not practicing any religion
• 13% Catholics
• 18% Atheists
• 22% Muslims
• 33% Mormons
• 53% Evangelical Christians

There is a lot more in the study and worth of several exploration. A pdf of the study can be found here.

Christian Higher Ed

During the past two days, I was privileged to announce the names of just over 500 students (minus the few who didn't show) who graduated from Bethel. We had beautiful weather in Northern Indiana for the ceremonies, and good times were had by all.

Of course I get all reflective on such an occasion. Many of the students walking across the stage were so great to have as students. We're very proud of the kind of people they've become. And there were a few of the others... I like the metaphor of the gardener or farmer for education. We're beyond the days of indoctrination and forcing students to adhere to sets of dogma (both religiously and disciplinarily); but there is a desired outcome, the kind of crop we're trying to raise. And so we aim to create the kind of conditions where that particular sort of crop flourishes. Using this kind of approach, there will be the rogue weed that sneaks through. But also our crop of graduates is healthier for having genuinely come to own the values rather than us force-feeding them.