We have updated SAFE to provide some further resources to provide further clarity and information. To begin, please read our editorial comment. For answers to some frequently asked questions, cf. “Who and What is SAFE?”; “SAFE, the petition letter, and Synod”; and “SAFE’s goals and positions.”
For further explanation of the ARP position on the Christian liberal arts that is supposed to be normative at Erskine, cf. the ARP Philosophy of Christian Higher Education. Also worth reading is our re-posting of former Erskine Professor of Philosophy Dr. John Wingard’s 2007 convocation address on the Christian liberal arts.
For some clarifications of issues that have been the focus of much recent discussion online, cf. the following series on the Christian liberal arts, SAFE, and the petition by William Hunter, Class of 2008: Part I (Integration of faith and learning, with a test case in science), Part II (Facing the challenges of the world), Part III (the Christian liberal arts and evangelism), and Part IV (What about Christian unity and Matthew 18?). Brandon Oberle, Class of 2012, addresses several misconceptions about SAFE in an article here. Finally, Ashley Waldmeyer, Class of 2009, clarifies her comments on Admissions and her rejection of a closed admissions policy here.
For some outside perspectives, a good place to begin is Joel Belz’s article in World magazine entitled “Looking for a miracle” (see our note on this article here). A website presenting perspectives on Erskine that are (in many cases) in opposition to those presented on this website may be found here; with the contributors to that website and with others who disagree with us, we love Erskine, although (as William Hunter points out) “many of us disagree on what it should look like.” Many of the concerns raised by those who disagree with the petition and with some of the positions presented by the SAFE contributors are dealt with in our FAQ pages as well as in the articles by William Hunter and Brandon Oberle.
Finally, for blog coverage of Synod, cf. ARP pastor Tim Phillips’ coverage of Synod in the following posts: ARP Synod as Reported by the Christian Observer, ARP in National Spotlight, Synod Update, Part I, Synod Update, Part II, and Synod Update, Part III. ARP pastor Brian Howard presents a slightly different perspective than Rev. Phillips in his posts here (although Rev. Howard did vote for the commission in the end). Lastly, for blog coverage of the petition and SAFE before Synod, see former PCA moderator J. Ligon Duncan’s blog post here.
-The Editors