On June 10, 2011, three La Sierra University (LSU) faculty members and a board member resigned over a conversation that was accidentally self-recorded a month earlier and then published (Link, Link2). The faculty members (aka: “LSU-3”) then took their wrongful termination case to court.
Recently, the parties involved uploaded documents to support their arguments and they’re now part of the public record (including transcripts) that can be found at the Riverside Superior Court (Link, Link2). The particular transcript of the recorded conversation in question can be found on pages 61-92 and 137-168 of the document linked below (and in searchable MSWord Format). A few excerpts are as follows:
Jim Beach:
You know the evidence is in on most of the evolution stuff. You can part it the way you want but its’ evidence is in. You better figure how you’re going to take Genesis 1 and preserve the creating savior…
They have consistently said, “We are there to teach biology. We will tell the kids that there are other opinions. We will tell the kids that the church says this.” What we can’t do is explain why the church holds that position.
Lenny Darnell:
And Trueblood said that to him. He says, “I did um four years of college, two years in Masters, and six years in a PhD program.” He says, “I can explain my biology stuff because I know that stuff.” He says, “As far as Genesis 1,” he says, “I can tell my students what the Belief Number 6 is, but if you’re looking for me to do an exegesis, I’m not going to do that.”
Gary Bradley:
If I could communicate one thing to these idiots at the church hierarchy, it would be that I’ve watched for decades the traditional position. Tell kids that science has nothing to it and they go find out what the science is and they’re blown away. We present the science, in a context that is far more faith affirming, and they’re not going to get blown away, okay? This works better for [conning] kids in just stayin’ Adventist.
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Gary Bradley: Wisbey’s feeling good
Lenny Darnell: Well, I think the WASC thing has embolden him.
Gary Bradley: Yeah. No, I bumped into him at lunch today and he said, “How are you doing,” and I said, “Well, hey it ebbs and it flows. And he said, “Yeah, it does for me too and I’m flowing right now.” (Laughs)
Lenny Darnell: Yeah. I think he realizes that the, uh, Sisters of Satan, along with a couple of the other conservative people, are not going to be able to say anything and that the WASC will have made it abundantly clear that they have to stay out of this. I know we’re going to have a whole big discussion at the next board meeting, led by Kathy that says, “What does that mean? What is it that we can do ad what we can’t do? Can we, for instance, pass a bunch of learning outcomes that we want to see?” I guarantee you this is going to happen.
Church Defendants Opposition to Motion to Compel – With Exhibits:
V1 – Jim Beach
V2 – Gary Bradley
V3 – Jeff Kaatz
V4 – Lenny Darnell
