Louisiana College’s Litmus Test for Professors

All prospective professors must answer this questionnaire:

Christian Worldview Questionnaire

Please answer each question in as brief or as great detail as you feel necessary to appropriately present your views. You may use a faith language or a vocabulary with which you are most comfortable as you articulate your responses.

1. Please describe your personal commitment to Jesus Christ and how it began.

2. Please briefly describe your faith journey thus far and how you currently facilitate the growth of your faith, including where you worship, your pattern of church attendance and your involvement in your church.

3. How will you use your faith to benefit your students both in and out of class?

4. What is your personal understanding of or how would you describe a Christian world view?

5. Summarize your perspective on:

(a) The sanctity of human life, and

(b) The sanctity of marriage and family,

(c) human sexuality,

(d) the creation of life, and

(e) the inerrancy of the Bible.

6. If you disagree with any parts of The Baptist Faith and Message, please state your areas of disagreement.

——————————————————————————————————————————
Please read and answer the following.
I have read the full text of The Baptist Faith and Message statement.

Yes____   No____

2.      I agree to teach in harmony with and not contrary to this Baptist Faith and Message Statement.
Yes____   No____

3.      I will meet with the Academic Affairs Committee for a question and answer session if requested by the President, Vice President of Academic Affairs, or the Academic Affairs Committee.

Yes____   No____

Signed_____________________________       Date__________________________

Responses

alexcenla

October 20, 2009

I am afraid I would not teach at Louisiana College.
Thats just a wee bit to much for me.
Alex.

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Drew Ward

October 20, 2009

I actually applied for a non-academic staff job with them once in their IT dept. I had to fill out a similar questionnaire for that job. So what they really mean is if you aren’t Southern Baptist you’re not getting a job here at all.

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1. Ace Midnight
  
  October 21, 2009
  
  I don’t think that’s completely true – the Southern Baptist requirement. I know at least one faculty member who is not.
  
  Personally, I think it’s close-minded and wrong-headed to ask these questions and make staff decisions based on the answers to these questions. However, as a private institution they have a right to do so (and they are certainly doing so – to the institution’s detriment).
  
  This is in stark contrast to the systematic shutting out of conservative opinions and conservative professors, done by the far left in public universities, particularly in the humanities. I do not think that institutions have a right to do that.
  
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Mung

October 22, 2009

When qualifications, credentials and ability matter not, the only important thing is blind allegiance to a particular person, faith or credo. Boy, that reminds me of some other administration…thinking…

I can remember when La College was considered to be an excellent liberal arts college, and a great bargain in education. What happened?

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Mung

October 22, 2009

Also note, if this test is required of the professors for the anticipated Law School and Medical School, they are going to have a severely hard time finding teachers. No backsliding Methodists allowed(that’s a dig on myself, btw).

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Drew Ward

October 22, 2009

Well I can’t say I would ever trust a doctor who graduated from a school that teaches that evolution doesn’t exist and that genetics is only relevant when it doesn’t disagree with Pat Robertson.

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Jason Bell

October 24, 2009

Back in 2004 LC got into trouble for this exact type of behavior (in addition to selectively screening textbooks and course materials) and was placed on probation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools (http://tinyurl.com/LC-SACS-probation) . One would hope that they would learn from their past mistakes. Did you know that ~45% of the LC faculty doesn’t have their PhD (which I determined by a decidedly unscientific survey of their faculty list on their website)? Since they only have about 75 faculty members, that doesn’t put a whole lot of academic clout in their institution. But with these sorts of practices, its amazing that they’ve managed to find the few dozen or so ‘academics’ that they do have. You simply cannot teach biology from the Book of Leviticus and retain intellectual credibility.

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Paul

October 27, 2009

Hello, this is a recent LC grad, class of 07.

Personal tests of faith like this one are completely normal at Christian colleges. I recently applied for staff positions at over 20 similar institutions through the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, of which LC is a member.

Things first started to get truly ugly in 2003, my freshman year. Since then I’ve had deep personal involvement in these conversations, and was an active protester for years. So I have no problem with people who disagree with the direction of the school on reasonable grounds, but I do not appreciate cheap caricatures.

The lack of terminal degrees is a problem. The college has suffered a mass exodus because of the turnover (not entirely unintended), and will have to rebuild. I for one wish they would leave the law school and med school for another day and focus on strengthening the core curriculum. That was always the heart of the LC experience, even before the turnover. All great colleges have that element of immersion. It has not ceased to be an atmosphere where critical questions and dialogue are welcomed. I know this firsthand because I converted to Eastern Orthodoxy while I was there.

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Captain

May 10, 2010

I believe that LC certainly retains the right to ask prospective employees these questions. As a grad of LC, I can without any doubt say that not every professor at LC is affiliated with a Southern Baptist faith. There are Pentecostals, Catholics, Methodists, Presbyterians, as well as Baptists. the point of this questionaire is to ascertain the spiritual groundedness of professors as well as other employees, to insure that the Christian values LC was founded upon are being upheld. As one poster said, LC is in thier right to do so. While the lack of terminal degrees is prominent, the education level of the students seems to not be affected. From the most recent graduating class, practically all of the premed and prept students have been accepted to med and pt schools throughout the state. LC has a vision. The science department does not teach macro-evolution because it disagrees with the Christian faith. In fact, in many cases evolution disagrees with itself and has yet to be one-hundered percent proven. Last time I checked they were still using textbooks over there, not the Bible. So unless you yourself have been to LC, sat down with a professor or two, and experienced class, I would venture to say your opinions are inaccurate and irrelevant.

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1. Lamar White, Jr
  
  May 10, 2010
  
  Captain, the only editorial comment I made in this post was that the questionnaire represents a type of litmus test. Considering your comments, I assume that you agree. I did not make a value judgment or anything of the sort; however, as you see in the comments, LC alums- people who have themselves attended LC, sat down with a professor or two, and experienced class- are not comfortable with the questionnaire. Are their opinions inaccurate and irrelevant?
  
  Science is a method, not a theology. A “science” department is not “scientific” if it rejects science on theological or hermeneutical grounds.
  
  Reply
Captain

May 10, 2010

*their

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