Clearly very few posters here have served on accreditation survey …

Comment on “Autonomy and Academic Freedom”: WASC’s 2010 Review of LSU by Phil Mills.

Clearly very few posters here have served on accreditation survey teams. I served as a surveyor for rehab hospital accreditation for several years. I observed that accreditation committees may occasionally respond to an internal request for help on a particular issue.

This item may have been generated by requests from administration or interviews with certain teachers. This section of the report may have been written as desired by administration or certain departments for leverage to “push back” against pro-creation forces.

Of course, academic autonomy and freedom is a “straw” man. There is actually no such thing. The Animal Farm with its final rule of “All animals are equal, but some animals are more equal than others” comes to mind. No teacher is unconstrained. No school is unconstrained. Far from it. Education, by its very nature, is intolerant. All answers on tests are not regarded as equally valid.

The very fact of an accrediting committee shows that academic autonomy and freedom is merely a pretense, an empty conceit. Does the accrediting committee want schools to be autonomous from them? Does the accrediting committee want schools to be free of accrediting control?

From the beginning of sin, there has been a continuous war between truth and error, righteousness and sin. The one cannot tolerate the other. Cain will slay Able, but Abel will not cooperate with Cain in his apostasy. They cannot harmonize. Nothing new here, this is simply more of the same. Shallow minds will be inclined toward harmony with the world. They will be in the majority. They will be confident, demanding, and demeaning toward different views. Those who are highly critical of Educate Truth and call it a critical site are unable to see their own attacks as critical. Those so dismissive of thoughtful arguments made here, are unable to see their own superficial thinking.

These things neither surprise nor alarm us. We desire to remain both calm and kind. Truth will always triumph. Our confidence is in the word of God and in the blood of the Lamb. When a case goes to court, victory seems to alternate from side to side as the case is appealed up the legal chain. But it is premature to rejoice until it is decided by the supreme court. The real Supreme Court is sitting now. The decisions are even now in process. The day hastens when teachers, administrators, “accreditators”, boards, will be suddenly humbled. And those of us writing are going to be suddenly humbled as well. Lying lips will be hushed into silence.

Recent Comments by Phil Mills

The Rise of Theistic Evolutionism – The Salvation of Christianity?
Those who seem to want to laud the love for the Creator by Theistic evolutionists and attack the motives of those seeking evidence for Young Earth Creation might well consider the following:

“God designs that men shall believe … because there is abundant evidence for faith.” ST 06/08/1882.

Satan blinds men to this abundant evidence. He sends men of pseudoscience to gravely pontificate that there is no evidence for a young earth creation and that all who suggest this are not scientific. If bold assertions could prove these skeptics case, the case is proved. But careful, thoughtful, scientific study shows a completely different case. However, the doubter is never disturbed by facts. Sadly, professed believers too often agree with the science “falsely so called.”


Former board member never talked with biology faculty
I wonder if “due process” was afforded those who were dropped, since that is very important for accreditation. I wonder if this is being explored.


Record enrollment for LSU
Why is higher enrollment “always wonderful news for a university”?

Often short-term, and short-sighted “success” is the prelude to long-term failure and collapse. This is seen in every type of endeavor, but may be easiest to understand in the financial world. Enrollment, like income, is only one measure of an institution. And academic enrollment, like all measures of convenience and popularity, fails miserably as a reliable predictor of outcomes. The drunk who is loudly rejoicing at the party, may be throwing up at tomorrow’s hangover. Our greatest danger is apparent success. When David was winning wars and at the peak of his popularity, he suffered his greatest shame with the fatal beauty of Bathsheba.

Universities with increasing enrollment (including Southern, by the way) would do well to ponder Christ’s warning, “Woe unto you, when all men shall speak well of you! for so did their fathers to the false prophets” Luke 6:26.

As Christians, we do not take a short-sighted view of success. Success is measured by faithfulness to God. How often today’s heroes are tomorrows villains.

For a time David failed to take a longer term view, “For I was envious of the boastful, when I saw the prosperity of the wicked” Ps 73:3 NKJ.

Daniel was shown a power that would be mighty, and “destroy wonderfully, and shall prosper” but would “destroy the mighty and the holy people” Dan 8:24.

The well-known and often quoted reference should never be forgotten:

“If you lower the standard in order to secure popularity and an increase of numbers, and then make this increase a cause of rejoicing, you show great blindness. If numbers were evidence of success, Satan might claim the pre-eminence; for in this world his followers are largely in the majority. It is the degree of moral power pervading the college that is a test of its prosperity. It is the virtue, intelligence, and piety of the people composing our churches, not their numbers, that should be a source of joy and thankfulness” 5T 31.3.


La Sierra University Resignation Saga: Stranger-than-Fiction
It looks like old error is still being recycled.

Bob&#032Orrick: To me this implies that an organized “church of God” will not exist. This also would mean that the SDA denomination will have been driven out of existence as a functioning unit or will have fallen away from following the Lord (because of item #3 above, this seems the most likely outcome).

No need to rely on mere speculation and twisted Scripture when we have the testimony of Jesus that couldn’t be more plain to anyone who loves truth more than some favorite error.

9T 258.1 Some have advanced the thought that, as we near the close of time, every child of God will act independently of any religious organization. But I have been instructed by the Lord that in this work there is no such thing as every man’s being independent. The stars of heaven are all under law, each influencing the other to do the will of God, yielding their common obedience to the law that controls their action. And, in order that the Lord’s work may advance healthfully and solidly, His people must draw together.


The Heroic Crusade Redux
A well known and oft quoted statement deserves to be heard yet again:

SC 105.2 God never asks us to believe, without giving sufficient evidence upon which to base our faith. His existence, His character, the truthfulness of His word, are all established by testimony that appeals to our reason; and this testimony is abundant. Yet God has never removed the possibility of doubt. Our faith must rest upon evidence, not demonstration. Those who wish to doubt will have opportunity; while those who really desire to know the truth will find plenty of evidence on which to rest their faith.