88% of Baptist University’s Staff Quit Over Mandatory Anti-Gay Pledge

[Ian David]

Shorter University stepped in it big time when they forced faculty members to sign a pledge vowing to swear off homosexuality, premarital sex and drinking.

In an anonymous survey in April, only 12 percent of faculty and staff said that they planned to stay at Shorter University, a 139-year-old Baptist school, reports Inside Higher Ed. More than 50 resigned before the new contracts were even distributed, and certain departments, such as science and fine arts, have been “eviscerated,” according to Michael Wilson, a tenured librarian for the university who’s worked there for 14 years.

“Through our policies, we seek to honor Jesus Christ,” the university said in a statement. “We understand that there are those who do not agree with our beliefs. We are not trying to undermine their right to those beliefs, but want to be transparent about our own.”

“Where is today’s American Taliban? At Shorter University,” tenured Shorter professor Sherri Weiler wrote in the Rome News-Tribune. “Religious fundamentalism in any form (Muslim or Christian) is sheer lunacy in today’s divided, fractured, and tormented world. True peace is only to be found in opening the doors, not closing the gates.”

Good luck collecting tuition from next year’s incoming class without teachers, Shorter!

More:
http://unicornbooty.com/blog/2012/05/18/88-of-baptist-universitys-staff-quit-over-mandatory-anti-gay-pledge/

[longship]

1. A Religio-Politico Virus

There has to be an inoculation for this disease in the US culture. It's going to be the end of us all.

The merging of religion and politics is always toxic. Always!

I'm gonna be sick.

[physioex]

2. I am soo amazed....

That soo many people are willing to put principal above their pay. Many of these people have children and elderly to support. I am not even sure I would have that much courage. Nor would I blame the ones that signed even if it goes against their principals....

[Warpy]

8. That part was really amazing to me, too

so I think there must have been some other unpalatable things in that contract that weren't mentioned in the article.

[n2doc]

19. The no drinking clause would get a lot of academics

and the no premarital sex clause would also get the single ones.

And I would be amazed if they can find a non-drinking Geologist. Those folks all love beer. It is a rite of passage in their field work.

[man4allcats]

28. Or a non-drinking biologist for that matter.

Same rite of passage.

[cbayer]

29. The drinking clause is rather bizarre. It doesn't prohibit drinking, just sets up rules about it:

I will not use alcoholic beverages in the presence of students, and I will abstain from serving, from using, and from advocating the use of alcoholic beverages in public (e.g. in locations that are open to use by the general public, including as some examples restaurants, concert venues, stadiums, and sports facilities) and in settings in which students are present or are likely to be present. I will not attend any University sponsored event in which I have consumed alcohol within the last six hours. Neither will I promote or encourage the use of alcohol.

[JHB]

30. Not so bizzare in context: Thou shalt not expose our doctrine as foolish

Nothing undermines a narrow cultural article of faith than ready counterexamples demonstrating that it's all wet. And when a "universal truth" is shown to not be quite as universally true as the authority figures say, it tends to encourage questioning of that authority.

And that's not the sort of school who caters to students('s parents) who want that sort of questioning going on.

[n2doc]

31. So if Jesus came back and turned water into wine for a big crowd

The employees at this University couldn't join in!

[cbayer]

32. They could, but they would have to do it in secret and not within 6 hours of contact with students!

[Manifestor_of_Light]

40. So do your drinking at home.

[provis99]

44. political scientists, on the other hand,

drink because we have to, to cope. After all, we study politics.

[Initech]

6. It's how the Taliban took power in Afghanistan.

I was sick when the Christofascists took over in 2004 but every election it seems they get crazier and crazier. If a Santorum or worse got power we'd be fucked.

[arely staircase]

38. sick? this is awesome news

This type of bigotry has been around forever. What's new is so many people are standing up to it.

[longship]

42. Sorry. I was commenting on the school, not the profs

Kudos to the staff who resigned.

[arely staircase]

47. and you are right the school is sick

And disgusting

[Ilsa]

3. They'll find some marginally qualified

staff to take those positions and call it a victory for Jesus that they drove out the heretics.

[msongs]

4. umm Jesus probably drank and he CERTAINLY made if for others along with their fish and loaves lol n

[jmowreader]

21. You'd be surprised...

The temperance "Christians" claim the word in the original texts that the whole world translates as "wine" really should translate as "grape juice." (If anyone can explain why the wedding guests at Cana were so happy about grape juice, I'd love to hear it.)

[TahitiNut]

24. I find it interesting that Jesus was never seen doing the "Brita" thing ...

... converting otherwise polluted or fermented fluids into Creation's Own crystal-clear water. I have to conclude that potable water was highly-valued in the desert and on the shores of the Dead Sea, but somehow the parables focused on eschewing even that in favor of "near beer"? Hardly. Undoubtedly, Jesus was lauded for his "rapid fermentation" talents. I'll drink to that!

[sofa king]

27. Water was poison.

You didn't dare drink water if you wanted to live, and that's still true today if you are unwise enough to start drinking it away from the taps. You couldn't carry pure water with you for any length of time because the containers you carried it in were filthy. All successful civilizations found some way to disinfect water, either by turning it to alcoholic beverages through fermentation, or boiling it to make tea (edit: and other ways as well).

Virtually any place that had a particularly clean spring took on some permutation of the name "sweet water" in the local language--around the world, not just in every US state--because it was such a rare and valuable find. And of course the spot was screwed up quickly as people flocked to it, pooped and peed in it, offered animal sacrifices next to it, and who the hell knows what else.

I think Alexander the Great even resorted to boiling particularly bad water at one point in his campaigns, but thanked the Gods for lowering the rate of cholera instead of institutionalizing the procedure two thousand years before Pasteur.

The point is that there was no temperance in Biblical times because the temperate died before they could convince anyone else to do something as suicidal as drinking water. These loons today will last about four weeks beyond any substantial breakdown in modern water purification techniques.

It is amusing to me that the more primitive and detached from reality a religion gets, the more dependent it is upon the modern society it hates to keep its members alive.

[arely staircase]

48. oh yeah i have heard that bs a lot

Fundies say every word in the Bible is to be taken literally except for wine.

[xfundy]

5. "Shorter" they can't help.

"Dumber" can be fixed. But they don't want that.

Finally some of the real, actual, "REAL Christians" are understanding that their eagerness to go along as a political party took them over and is dragging them through the dirt, rocks included, was a grave mistake. The church in America is dying, and the blame is entirely theirs.

I can forgive. But I won't forget. The "evidence" was never there to begin with, and most churchgoers go for the fellowship and sense of belonging but that feeling like they're somehow better than others is both toxic and addictive.

I grew up in that chosen lifestyle. I decided to CHANGE! There's hope! There's a way out! It's called Rationality, and truth, and science, and realizing you don't need the threat of hell to make you a good person--you just are, if you don't screw others over, and if you do, stop it.

Best way to make an atheist is to have him/her read the bible.

[kardonb]

7. shorter

Amen to that observation . I am a proud Atheist , brought up a protestant . But now I protest all these religious know-it-alls and would -be dictators .

[Ohio Dem]

9. Amen, indeed.

[tanyev]

10. Good for them, but the university will probably find even worse RW morons to replace them.

[skepticscott]

11. Kudos to the people with the courage

to walk away from this kind of nonsense. But I have to wonder why people like Sherri Walker were working there in the first place. If she really believes that “Religious fundamentalism in any form (Muslim or Christian) is sheer lunacy in today’s divided, fractured, and tormented world.", why would she take up with such a place, where they not only wear their lunacy on their sleeve, but try to spread it to as many others as they can?

[Zoeisright]

12. They do not "seek to honor Jesus Christ." What a complete lie.

They're mean, stupid, cruel, ignorant, and love love love to judge and belittle others. Pretty much the exact opposite of Jesus Christ.

[SnowCritter]

13. These are the people that worry about the institution of "Sharia Law"

in the United States.

They don't need to look that far to find the oppression that they're looking for - a simple mirror would do.

[xocet]

14. They should now change their name to Smaller University... n/t

[Mrs. Ted Nancy]

15. Look at the number of open faculty positions

http://www.shorter.edu/about/hr_employment.htm

[cbayer]

16. Yikes. They are in some serious trouble.

[Paulie]

43. Here's the last archive.org snapshot of the link

Mostly IT and help staff back in Jan 2011:

http://web.archive.org/web/20110106125157/http://www.shorter.edu/about/hr_employment.htm

[SDjack]

17. On the positive side, course exam questions just got easier.

The answers are variants of "because that how Jesus wants it to be."

[TahitiNut]

25. Even more simply, "Christ is the answer."

Cheat sheet:
Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ. Christ.

DC al fine

[dimbear]

18. Another obscure little backwoods school with a strict student/faculty code:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Brigham_Young_University_Honor_Code

Of course nobody quits there.

[AtheistCrusader]

20. I've noticed the Baptists standing up consistently for civil rights, even in North Carolina.

Respect, where respect is due.

[skepticscott]

22. Which Baptists have you been watching?

The Southern Baptist Convention, the largest Baptist Denomination, has been consistently and rabidly AGAINST full civil rights for gays and lesbians.

No respect due at all.

[AtheistCrusader]

33. Well, 83% of the employees of that baptist college gave their employers the finger

over that 'morals pledge'. (Granted it was not only about homosexuality, but also sex out of wedlock and drinking)

I've seen pro-amendment supporters grumping about the baptists leading the opposition, in North Carolina. They'll be 'naming names' on the baptist churches that fought it this week.

Maybe it's fewer than I thought, but at least some of them are coming down on the right side of this issue.

[skepticscott]

34. Well, don't forget that they were on board

Last edited Sun May 20, 2012, 02:06 PM - Edit history (1)

with the doctrine preached at that college and represented by that particular sect of Baptists enough to become employees in the first place. And I doubt very much that this incident was the first time that right-wing fundamentalism manifested itself in that atmosphere.

There are certainly some Baptists on board with this, but that's a long way from Baptists "standing up consistently".

[AtheistCrusader]

36. Correct, I certainly should have said 'some'.

[secondvariety]

23. I'm surprised they even have Science and Fine Arts departments.

Guess they don't now.

[47of74]

26. Somewhere, Jesus is doing this;

[a la izquierda]

35. I won't apply for jobs...

at universities that require faith essays or statements of any kind (and yes, there are schools out there that require these sort of things, which is sort of legally nebulous I guess). I do not want to feel boxed in, nor do I want to contribute to an atmosphere that I find highly problematic. Besides, my field of study is often critical of Christianity, so it's unlikely I'd get hired to begin with.

Good for the profs who resigned.

[cbayer]

37. In addition, the recent Supreme Court ruling about

exempting religious institutions from employment discrimination would make me avoid these places as well.

http://www.nytimes.com/2012/01/12/us/supreme-court-recognizes-religious-exception-to-job-discrimination-laws.html?pagewanted=all

[Manifestor_of_Light]

39. The Moral Majority's response

Shepherds of the Nation, The Kinks, Preservation Act II:

[Jpeepers]

41. Jesus Pipes

Many Christians for whatever reason seem to not accept anyone different than them. Hate and judgment does not need to be linked to religion. These people think they preach the word of God, but Jesus was actually very accepting of all peoples. His words just get twisted in malicious ways. Whoever preaches the word of God and has not experienced Jesus Pipes cannot possibly spout out anything besides lies and illusions.

[mwb970]

46. The Taliban Christians seem more interested in the Old Testament than the New.

Their hate and intolerance conflicts somewhat with the love and tolerance preached by Jesus, so his more extreme "followers" take their cues from the Old Testament, with its wrathful god and draconian laws. There they at last find the desired prohibition of homosexuality, clearly an example of God's Inviolable Word, just inches away from a law in the same list saying you have to kill your neighbor if he mows his lawn on Sunday, clearly an example of Something We Can Ignore If We Want To.

Crazy, man!

[eppur_se_muova]

45. Heh ... just got an email from HigherEdJobs.com ...

apparently Shorter has taken out a new ad for a position in my field ... I saw them advertising for the same position last year, but a quick trip to their HR Web site dissuaded me from applying.