Erskine College...

As a few readers may know, Erskine College, in Due West, SC, has been deeply mired in controversy as of late. A brief summary of the situation: Erskine College is a small college (aprox. 600 students) that is owned by an evangelical denomination, the Associate Reformed Presbyterian Church (ARP). The denomination has not always been conservative but recent years have seen the church as a whole, drift counter-culture towards the conservative side of the evangelical movement. An example of the conservative stance: the denomination presently affirms both the inerrancy and infallibility of Scripture and rigidly adheres to the Westminster Confession of Faith.  Apparently, therein lies a major difference between the denomination and the denomination owned college and seminary.

There has been a growing concern on the part of some students and several faculty members about the departure of key Christian teaching, a teaching that integrates the principles of the reformed Christian faith with reason. Many students have expressed concern in regard to this departure, some going so far as to assert a fear of voicing reformed Christian principles in the classroom. These students have testified to having their faith attacked and their Biblical standards torn down by the very professors that are entrusted to educate them with a Christian worldview. Consequently, a number of students began the Students for a Faithful Erskine (SAFE) and composed a letter requesting action from the highest leadership of the ARP, the Synod.

The situation could easily be construed as isolated incidents happening to students who live in rebellion of the system. However, this is not the case. Examples of students who attest to the lack of Christian teaching are found in the student president of the Society of Physics Students and Judicial Council Vice-Chairman (Hudson Smith), a member of the Student Christian Association cabinet and Hands for Hope President (Ashley Waldmeyer), a Student Life Assistant [basically a dorm prefect] and Student Life Committee chair and editor of the Erskine Mirror (Joshua Grimm), and finally the student president of the Erskine chapter of Young Conservatives (Kathleen Smith). Many, if not all of the students displaying concern are not poor students, nor unpopular participants in college life. They are upstanding young people who have been placed in leadership roles, both by peers as well as college administrators. Surely this cannot be the work of miscreants.

The ARP Synod responded to the requests of SAFE and certain faculty members and last year opened an investigation into the conduct and teaching of the faculty and college as a whole. The investigation panel was comprised of highly esteemed lawyers, various church ruling elders and other upstanding church members who met specific requirements. It was not dictated as a witch-hunt nor judgment day reckoning but rather with unswerving commitment to establishing the truth of the matter.

They recently concluded their investigation and held a series of hearings where they reviewed, with the Erskine College Board of Trustees present, the findings of the investigations. Interviews were made of the board members and the conclusion was made to remove from office 14 of the 33 member of the Board of Trustees. In their place, an interim board comprised of other church leaders, pastors and elders, would begin restructuring the college and instituting the changes recommended by the ARP Synod.

That was the plan, until some alumni composed a deposition that they supplied to the South Carolina courts. They alleged an overstepping of authority on the part of the ARP synod and several other claims. The courts enacted a temporary injunction against the ARP Synod for a period of 10 days, during which time the judge would consider the supplied arguments. (The Synod also filed a deposition asserting its right to act according to its status as owners and governors of Erskine.)

The legal action taken by the alumni flies in the face of Biblical teaching. 1 Corinthians 6 begins with this thought:

“When one of you has a grievance against another, does he dare go to law before the unrighteous instead of the saints? Or do you know that the saints will judge the word? And if the world is to be judged by you, are you incompetent to try trivial cases? Do you not know that we are to judge angels? How much more, then, matters pertaining to this life! So if you have such cases, why do you lay them before those who have no standing in the church? I say this to your shame. Can it be that there is no one among you wise enough to settle a dispute between brothers, but brother goes to law against brother, and that before unbelievers? To have lawsuits at all with one another is already a defeat for you. Why not rather suffer wrong? Why not rather be defrauded? But you yourselves wrong and defraud- even your own brothers!”

The scriptures could not be more painfully clear. There is a place for legal action, as evidenced in other passages regarding church discipline. However, that place is within the confines of the church, furthermore, within the fellowship and love of the body of Christ. The action taken by the alumni demonstrates a deeper issue than the direction that Erskine College will travel in the future; it demonstrates an unwillingness to submit to church authority, an inability to recognize the leadership God has set in place, and a heart that desires to incorporate more of the secular world in the Christian faith.

If the court rules in the favor of the Erskine alumni, all hope is not lost. Nothing happens outside of the good, pleasing, and perfect will of our Father in Heaven. Ultimately, the course of Erskine is in the hands of a higher judge, an omnipotent Judge, the Judge who gives the responsibility of justice to men. While it may be difficult to view presently, there is indeed hope for the situation.  Faculty members who have taken a stand for the inerrancy of Scripture may find their positions untenable, but this could just be the beginning of a beautiful new chapter in their lives. Romans 8: 28 says, “And we know that for those who love God all things work together for good, for those who are called according to his purpose.”