Dear Mr. Moderator,

I am writing you as a fellow brother in Christ concerned for the Gospel of our Lord and Savior Jesus Christ. Colossians 1:18 says, “He is the beginning, the firstborn from the dead, that in everything he might be preeminent.” As a follower of Christ who is concerned with Christ being preeminent in all things, including academics, I am voicing the concerns I have about Erskine College.

On the whole, I am concerned that Erskine College is leaving the Christian roots the institution was founded on. Although I have only been at Erskine for one year, I have noticed this in many aspects of the school and campus life. The direction the Admissions Office is heading is changing many of the Christian aspects of Erskine. There appears to be a strong push by particular members of the administration to change the type of institution Erskine is now. Also, there has been a failure by the faculty to effectively integrate faith and academics. The movement away from Christ as the center of Erskine College can be seen in a wide variety of parts of the school…

I believe that the Administration as a whole is causing the college to depart from Christ-centered community. This was extremely evident in the student-led forum that was held several weeks ago. There was a group of roughly seven students, including myself, who asked questions about integrating faith in Christ and learning. These questions were combined into one general question and asked during the forum. There was not a direct response from any in the Administration or faculty about our concerns. It seemed as though they were directly avoiding the question altogether. The only vague response given was that the hardest school to be is a Christian Liberal Arts College.

While this is true, it does not mean that Erskine is a second rate school because it is a Christian school. At another point in the forum, a student posed a question about a lack of true questions about Christian faith in interviews during the Presidential Scholarship interviews. The Vice-President for Enrollment responded by saying that there were questions about faith but there was no “Christian Meter” to test students. The problem, however, was that the questions asked, “What does faith mean to you?”, instead of looking in to how faith affects the person’s whole life.

Also in the forum, there was a question asked about why there has been a large turnover rate for professors. A professor responded by bashing the ARP Church’s requirement for a belief in the inerrancy of Scripture. Here is a quote from what he said:

They are leaving because of the atmosphere. There are four people in here who have been at Erskine longer than I have. There will be an even smaller pool of applicants if inerrancy is part of the application process. We will get few academics that will buy that, which means that for the people being recruited here — we don’t choose from pool of the best, but from those who agree with doctrinal statements. This has many implications, and Dr. Ruble admitted that. As long as we try to comply with ARP standards, we will be lowering our standards for academics. And we have to think of religion and faith as a lifelong journey, and at 16, students won’t have what C.S. Lewis had. We are dooming this school to a second-rate status; we don’t recognize this though. We say that all truth is God’s truth, until we recognize that in science, these aren’t all ‘God’s truths.’ The school’s reputation will continue to go down with a loss of professors to other schools. And the atmosphere here will become poisonous.

The bigger problem is that no one in the administration, including Dr. Ruble, defended Erskine’s commitment to the inerrancy of Scripture. The only person who did stand up for the requirement for professors was the Philosophy professor. He strongly defended this by saying:

I am thankful for this and think it is necessary. We must have faculty that respect the authority of Bible. No doubt we get smaller pools. We would get hundreds more applicants if it were open for anybody. That doesn’t necessarily mean the academics will decline. If the filter was imposed for 10 or 20 years it would not necessarily mean lesser academic faculty.

There has also been a change in the advertising statement of the school. It used to say, “Christian Commitment and Excellence in Learning.” The new statement is “Forever Connected.” In response to questions about this, several administrators said “Forever Connected” is something that will be more attractive to perspective students. They also said it incorporates three aspects; Christ, life, and learning. I would not have a problem if these three aspects were displayed with the part about being forever connected. However, the only thing displayed is “Forever Connected.” My first thought in response to this marketing statement was forever connected to what? That is the response I have gotten from many other students I have talked to. If we have no idea what it means, how are perspective students going to know what it means and then be interested in Erskine? It appears that this is an attempt to pull Christ out of the slogan so that Erskine is more appealing to high school students. This only leads to students realizing Erskine is not what they expected and then leaving. As long as the institution tries to ride the fence, student enrollment is going to be down and the rate of students leaving Erskine will increase. It is clear that there is something going on in the administration, and there is a desire for change in the institution.

Another concern I have is with the lack of integration of faith in the classroom. Since Erskine is a Christian school, I believe that Christ should be at the center of every class. The only classes I have taken where Christ was strongly emphasized were my Old and New Testament Survey classes, and this should be a given. Not a single other class I have taken has had Christ or even God incorporated into the material. I have a problem with this because there are so many opportunities for this to happen in history, English, science, and even math classes. It is sad that Erskine does not have professors drawing connections from what we are learning to the Gospel of Christ. As a Secondary Education minor with a desire to teach in a public school, I want to learn education from a Christ–centered approach. I do not only want to learn to love students like Christ, but also to be able to include gospel truths into lessons as much as possible. Through the education classes I have taken so far, there has not been an emphasis on this and it is a little frustrating. The main response given to this question at the student forum was the idea that the hardest institution to be is a Christian Liberal Arts college. I agree that it is not easy, but that should not mean we separate faith and learning into two distinct categories. It appears that the Administration believes that faith and academics cannot be integrated unless one wants to have a second-rate school. This makes me very upset and raises a lot of concerns.

Student life in general has shown a lack of emphasis on Christ being the center of everything. Since Erskine is a Christian school, I believe that the spiritual well-being and nurturing of students should be as important as academics. There is no emphasis for campus ministry except what students spread by word of mouth. I realize that this usually is the best means of communication, but still I think the school should encourage students to get involved and promote the Christian groups on campus. During orientation week, there was no specific mentioning of the particular Christian groups or an encouragement to get involved. Rather, there was one meeting where the majority of the campus organization had a representative present to share very quickly what their group did. This lack of care about the spiritual growth is a major concern to me as a Christian who wants to grow in my relationship with Christ while in college.

In a wide variety of aspects, Erskine is leaving the Christian roots it was founded on. Christ should be the center of everything we do, and I believe that is not the case anymore at Erskine. From the Admissions Office, the Administration, faculty, classes, and student life, Christ is not being emphasized the way He should be at a Christian school.

If you have any questions about what I have written or if I can do anything, please do not hesitate to contact me.

In Christ,

Jon Oliphant
Class of 2012