Dear Mr. Moderator and Mr. Vice-Moderator,

Through the four years that I have spent at Erskine College I have grown in my Christian faith. God blessed me with friends, roommates, and a fiancée who share in the same faith and love for Him, and we have helped each other grow in our faith and love for Christ. Through the Bible Department at Erskine I also learned a lot about what God’s Word teaches, and it has encouraged me to have a faith that seeks understanding. However, I cannot say that Erskine College as a whole has done much to nurture my faith.

As a Biology major at Erskine, I learned much about the amazing design of God’s creation. From the atom, to molecules and cells and all the way up to the human body, it is fascinating to see how everything works together to give us bodies that can function the way they do. What a beautiful and complex universe God has created! If only that were emphasized in our studies of science at Erskine that God is the Creator and sustainer of life. There was never any emphasis on God being the Creator. In fact, He was hardly mentioned in the science classes I took at Erskine. Instead there was an evolutionary emphasis that gave no acknowledgment to God as the Creator. I understand that we need to be rigorously studying the theory of evolution, as it would be foolish and fundamentalist to simply ignore it, but we should be studying it from a Biblical perspective. While I do appreciate my science professors and much of what I learned from them, I do feel that I could have received a much deeper and more full-orbed understanding of biology had the professors taught from a perspective that acknowledges God as the Creator of the universe. The more I study biology and see the unbelievable complexity of the world at so many different levels, the more I cannot help but praise God for his wonderful and beautiful creation. I long for a Science Department at Erskine that encourages its students to do the same.

I also experienced frustration with my education at Erskine in the sociology department. In my sociology classes, ideas about social interaction, human relationships, and marriage were explained as if God did not exist. Furthermore, in learning about human sexuality, there was not a strong Christian perspective. Sex is a gift that God designed for a husband and wife, and this ought to be emphasized in a class that attempts to educate students about human sexuality. I understand that these issues will obviously be studied from a sociological angle, but conclusions that are reached should be in line with God’s Word. When talking about issues such as homosexuality, adultery, and marriage, God’s Word should be the foundation underlying all that is taught and discussed. However, this was not the case. Instead, Scripture was treated as an afterthought. A guest speaker even handed out condoms to our class full of unmarried students. What is that teaching Erskine students about sex outside of marriage? Once again, I think that these sociology classes failed to present material in light of Scripture, treating God as a mere afterthought if even mentioning Him at all. I realize the benefit of studying human life from a sociological angle, but believe that the teaching I and my classmates received was greatly lacking. Without God as the foundation of this teaching, how can one even make sense out of human relationships and sexuality?

One further example of the lack of Christian perspective in the classroom at Erskine comes from my English class. In this class, the professor taught with an extremely low view of Scripture. In trying to convince students of the veracity of the evolutionary theory, he spoke out against those who let their faith govern the way they do science. He claimed that the religious dogma taught by the Bible Department at Erskine or by the Church was corrupting our minds and thwarting our ability to gain knowledge. He even gave evolution text books out to all the students in my English class in an attempt to persuade them to accept theories of evolution. In class discussions led by the professor people could easily be led astray. I am thankful that by God’s grace, I am mature enough in my Christian faith to not be swayed by this professor’s Bible bashing. However, I fear that other students who are less mature in their Christian faith and those students who may be searching for truth could easily be led astray by his incessant and seemingly convincing arguments. At a Christian liberal arts institution this should obviously not be the case! I would consider this class a great hindrance to the nurturing of a Christian faith.

Apart from my Bible classes, the education I received at Erskine did not offer me knowledge from a Christian perspective. Instead, I had to take much of what I was taught and learn it in a way that was not offered by the professors. I imagine this approach to learning is similar to what I would receive education at a secular institution. I long to see Erskine College truly become a Christian liberal arts institution, one that encourages its students to be in the world but not of the world.

In Christ and for His glory,

Caitlyn Slattery

Class of 2009