Shorter University, a relatively small Georgia Baptist institution, is leaking faculty and staff at an astounding rate. According to the “Save Our Shorter” website and the Associated Press, the school had lost nearly 40 employees by mid-May and will most likely lose more by the end of the summer, potentially reducing its existing faculty and staff by 50 percent.
WeathersWhy? Have university officials embezzled millions in funds? Has a rogue virus been released from the biology lab that threatens to decimate all human life on the campus? No. The trustees voted last year to require employees to sign a personal lifestyle statement.” The brief statement, easily accessible on SU’s website, asks employees to adhere to conduct and beliefs in keeping with the university’s Christ-centered mission. For instance, to “reject as acceptable all sexual activity not in agreement with the Bible, including, but not limited to, premarital sex, adultery, and homosexuality,” to abstain from drinking alcohol in the presence of students, and never to encourage the use of alcohol.
The “Save Our Shorter” website was launched in opposition to the new policy. Students, present and former, along with other interested parties and parting employees, visit the site to protest the changes at SU, and they make many good points. Yet, the site claims that the lifestyle statement is actually a “straw man,” designed to distract from the real issues, especially academic freedom at the university.
But shouldn’t a university that explicitly claims a Christian worldview assume that its employees adhere to that worldview? Of course. The lack of such principles and accountability is the reason many universities that began with Christian ideals drifted from those moorings and today barely resemble anything Christian, while perhaps still remotely affiliated with a particular denomination. Protestors renounce the changes at SU as the destruction of academic freedom. But this misses the point. Academic freedom is not the same thing as academic independence.
Paul and Barnabas once wrangled over the failure of John Mark (Acts 15:36-40). They parted company for a time. Barnabas restored Mark to ministry. But Paul had made his point. He knew what many Christians forget: The only thing worse than risking the loss of good people is letting them remain on board with no accountability for what is expected.