This news comes to us from one of Tennessee’s major newspapers — the Chattanooga Times Free Press of Chattanooga, Tennessee. That state is often mentioned in our humble blog for two different (but not unrelated) reasons: (1) it’s one of two states in the US crazed enough to adopt a version of the Discoveroids’ Academic Freedom bill; and (2) Dayton, Tennessee was the location of Scopes Trial.
Dayton is also the proud home of Bryan College, founded after the Scopes trial and named in honor of William Jennings Bryan. Bryan was not only the Scopes trial prosecutor (which is glory enough for one man), but in his earlier political career he championed the income tax, alcohol prohibition, debased currency, and several other idiocies. He was essentially opposed to free enterprise, always favoring increased regulation and government control over the economy. In all his political campaigns, he was supported by the Ku Klux Klan. We regard him as the Great Populist Blowhard and an all-round crazy man.
Now that we’re all oriented, let’s turn to the news from the Chattanooga Times Free Press. They have this headline: Bryan College takes stand on creation that has professors worried for their jobs. Egad — the professors are worried that they might be Expelled! Here are some excerpts, with bold font added by us:
Bryan College was founded on the back of the country’s most famous debate over creation and evolution. And the biblical literalists, the stalwarts, the six-day creationists flocked here even when society began tipping toward a more scientific understanding of human origins, when Darwin, not Genesis, became the more convincing explanation for many.
Thank heaven for Bryan College! What’s going on there now? We’re told:
But over the years, more diverse views on Genesis 1 and 2 crept in. Some professors, staff and students didn’t just identify as young-Earth creationists. Their views became more nuanced. They called themselves progressive evolutionists and theistic evolutionists and old-Earth creationists; they found ways to reconcile faith and science.
That ol’ Devil — he manages to creep in everywhere! What’s being done about this outrage? You’ll be thrilled to learn that the college administration isn’t letting things drift:
Now the administration is making a statement against these aberrations. The board of trustees is requiring professors and staff to sign a statement saying that they believe Adam and Eve were created in an instant by God and that humans shared no ancestry with other life forms. If they don’t sign, they fear that jobs could be on the line.
BWAHAHAHAHAHA! Ooops, please forgive that unseemly outburst. The news continues:
Students say professors have seemed visibly depressed and upset since the announcement was made. Some staff, who wouldn’t give their names out of fear of retaliation, said their consciences may not allow them to sign the clarified statement, and they are unsure what action the administration might take against them. They have a few weeks to decide whether to sign.
Even the students are involved:
Nearly 300 of the school’s 800 students signed a petition within a few days asking the trustees to reconsider the change. Joseph Murphy, in a Student Government Association letter to the administration, said the decision was made without faculty input and that the president and trustees were threatening academic freedom. He called the move unjust, uncharitable and unscriptural.
These upheavals rarely occur in a vacuum. They are often tied to outside events and that may be the case here. Let’s read on:
Many members of the Bryan community are confused over the timing of the change. Why is this happening now, just as next year’s contracts are being delivered? But some recent events may explain the move.
In 2010, Ken Hamm [sic], a nationally known creationist who runs the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., wrote a scathing article criticizing Bryan College [because of] a graduate’s book. … Hamm [sic] also criticized biology professor Brian Eisenback, who was quoted in USA Today saying that he taught all origin views and theories — including Genesis and evolution — without revealing his own beliefs.
Good ol’ Hambo! If only godly people like that were in charge of everything! Then, truly, the world would be perfect. The first thing that needs to be done is to crush the ungodly spirit of the Enlightenment.
The news article is rather long, but we’re going to stop here. You may want to click over there to read it all. We’ll leave you with this little thought:
When a science teacher is teaching science, the creationists want their beliefs to be included. But when a professor at a place like Bryan College wants to teach a little bit of science — the keepers of the faith are ready with torches and pitchforks, the rack and the flame. How they must long for the days when heretics were burned at the stake!
We’ll also leave you to ponder a question: In matters like this, why don’t we hear from the Discovery Institute? Aren’t they the self-declared champions of academic freedom? Why don’t they demand that Bryan College should teach the controversy? Come on, Discoveroids! Get involved!
Copyright © 2014. The Sensuous Curmudgeon. All rights reserved.
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The Sensuous Curmudgeon 
William Jennings Bryan was not YEC.
Maybe they should changing the name of the school.
Why now, in 2014, is such a drastic rule needed? Fear.
TomS: “William Jennings Bryan was not YEC.”
Unless I missed additional requirements not in the above excerpt, it only requires one to agree that “Adam and Eve were created in an instant by God and that humans shared no ancestry with other life forms.” That’s completely consistent with OEC, both old-life and young-life versions.
The real irony is that most Discoveroids would refuse to sign it.
Our Curmudgeon demands an answer:
I don’t think it’s too early to write to Mr. Klinghoffer to nominate Bryan College for the coveted Censor of the Year 2015.
And–on an altogether trivial but nonetheless irresistible note–a little sidebar note on Dayton, Tennessee.
It just so happens, there is a substantial clan of the Darwin family settled in the USA–in fact, settled since Colonial times in Virginia (from 1742)–with some thousands of living descendents (I am myself a scion thereof). One branch migrated, in the early 1800’s, to Rhea County, Tennessee, which has been home to some Darwins ever since, including a batch who, no doubt with some bemusement, sat in on the the Scopes Monkey Trial.
The oldest house in Dayton (though not that old–built in 1861) is in fact the Broyles-Darwin House home of local merchant James Robert Darwin (1866-1939)
Funny old world…
I should have noted in above post, the clan of American Darwins are only distantly related to the celebrated Charles R. Darwin, FRS. And, until the 20th century, almost none had dared move beyond the Mason-Dixon line.
With the result that I can count among my Southern US relations plenty of cousins who proudly proclaim kinship to Darwin whilst denying kinship to monkeys. Go figure.
Bryan College motto: Come in stupid, leave stupider.
They should eliminate the science department altogether. Clearly it’s not needed.
Charles Deetz: “Why now, in 2014, is such a drastic rule needed? Fear.”
Yes, and specifically, fear that mainstream science is right. And I strongly suspect that in many cases it’s not just fear, but private agreement to boot.
Just imagine if there were the slightest evidence for a literal Genesis origins account, YE or OE version. These clowns – and the Discoveroids – would be falling all over each other touting the positive claims, that obsessing over “Darwinism” would be the last thing on their minds.
No True US college worries about any news article that doesn’t mention one of their coaches.
Megalonyx claims: “I can count among my Southern US relations plenty of cousins who proudly proclaim kinship to Darwin whilst denying kinship to monkeys.”
Olivia doesn’t know your American kin, but she thinks you are far more closely related to monkeys than to Charles Darwin.
SC quotes the article: “In 2010, Ken Hamm [sic], a nationally known creationist who runs the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., wrote a scathing article criticizing Bryan College a graduate’s book.”
I couldn’t make sense of that, so I checked the article in the Chattanooga Times Free Press —
“In 2010, Ken Ham, a nationally known creationist who runs the Creation Museum in Petersburg, Ky., wrote a scathing article criticizing Bryan College because of a graduate’s book. The graduate, Rachel Held Evans, wrote about how she had questioned the nuances of her evangelical upbringing and had come to new realizations about the world, including the belief that evolution was part of God’s creation plan.”
It appears they corrected their original omission of the bolded part, as well as the spelling of Ham’s name.
Ahh, the ‘living as a woman per the bible for a year’ person. I found this choice quote from her book that Ham hates:
Love the name of that book.
Yes, my initial reading of SC’s article didn’t make sense regarding “… a graduates book… ,” but this correction helps to clarify, somewhat. But perhaps Bryan College and Ken Ham are working in cahoots with and supporting each other. So if Bryan College deviates from Ken’s message, then his creationist message is in trouble standing alone in the wilderness.
Megalonyx: “I don’t think it’s too early to write to Mr. Klinghoffer to nominate Bryan College for the coveted Censor of the Year 2015.”
Nice try, but apparently only “Darwinists” can be censors. In fact most “Darwinists” themselves implicitly agree with that whenever they respond to the bogus charge of censorship with mere denial. No matter how solid a case they make against that bogus charge, unless they also make it clear that, if anyone is censoring anything it is the anti-evolution side, they are unwitting accomplices to the most outrageous lie of the entire “debate.”
That said, of course by all means nominate BC, and make sure to follow up on it, and save every communication, because you can bet the ranch and the dog the DI will censor it.
Bryan College will censor ID, too. As the Tooters tell us over and over, they aren’t Biblical. Well, just from Klinghitler and the Gerbil’s actions we know that.
(Hey, that could be a catchy cartoon show: Klinghitler and the Gerb. About a megalomaniac sociopath and his clueless sidekick.)
In other news, I read in that article that Todd Wood lost funding for his “research” on origins and seems to be associated with another organization, although perhaps still on the BC faculty, according to their pitiful website. Apparently, God is great at designing cats and dogs, but lousy at websites.
@docbill1351:
That’s what makes this so much fun. Recall the Freshwater case. The DI, never known to miss any opportunity to whine, had to bite their tongues for years. They did eventually offer some vague, but worthless words of support, but taking pains to avoid any hint of agreement or disagreement with Freshwater apparent, and long-falsified, alternate origins account. The DI desperately wishes these people would shut up and let them do the scamming, but that is not to be, and they know it.
“The board of trustees is requiring professors and staff to sign a statement saying that they believe Adam and Eve were created in an instant by God and that humans shared no ancestry with other life forms.”
A simple solution:
Everyone signs it…
…and 99 other statements also based on Biblical texts.
I wil leave it to readers to select the 99 most outrageous.
Alan(UK): “I wil leave it to readers to select the 99 most outrageous.”
My choice is the least outrageous statement in the Bible, which is “the letter killeth, but the spirit giveth life.” Like nearly everything else in the Bible, it has multiple interpretations, but the obvious one is “take these stories in spirit, not literally.”
In his book Why I believed, ex-missionary Ken Daniels completely dismantles Archer’s book, showing that he does more explaining away than explaining. And, of course, he points out that it is indeed interesting that such a large volume should need to be written to address the “apparent” (wink wink, nudge nudge) discrepancies in the bible.
Suggested Bryan College ad: “Send us your kids so we can turn them into first-class thirteenth-century thinkers.”
@waldteufel:
Better make that 3rd century, because St. Augustine only ~2 centuries after that warned not to take it too literally. Then again, my quote above from the Bible itself suggests that too! Note: I did google it, as expected, found a few people, apparently with a direct hotline to God that most of us lack, insisting that it does not mean that.
As late as the mid-20th century, committed Biblical literalists, like Bryan himself, were far less cartoonish than the have been since, conceding mainstream science’s chronology, if not common descent, and dismissing it as “God’s years are different than ours.” Then “scientific” creationism changed all that, and turned a book into a joke that would probably horrify its authors.
So ironically, today’s radical, paranoid authoritarians want their audience not to go back, but bravely forward into a wondrous postmodern age where everyone can believe whatever they want, as long as they say only the politically correct things approved by their “thought police.”