[Vision2020] Lesson (Gier's New West Article)

[Nick Gier]

Note:  I'm posting this with my UI e-mail.  For some reason the Vision is 
not accepting my adelphia e-mail.

Greetings:

As anyone can see from the column appended below, it is exactly the same 
article
on NSA's phony ranking that was published on New West.  I've also appended my
first response to Crabtee, which somehow did not get posted.

This is my second response to Crabtree. Given that it was posted here on 
August
7, there is no excuse for you or Courtney to be confused about its 
attribution.

Furthermore, where is Crabtree's evidence that Courtney "withdrew his
criticism"?  These are Crabtree's words, which I translated accurately as a
concession.  But there is no record of Courtney withdrawing or conceding. The
only time I remember Courtney conceding anything is when he withdrew from the
Vision because he admitted that he could not control his temper.

Finally, I repeat the challenge of one of the commentators on my New West
article.  Why doesn't Courtney dispute my charges against NSA?  Is it because
they happen to be true?

Nick Gier

Greetings:

A correction for Crabtree.  My name was always on the article in question 
(NSA's
phony ranking), so there was no excuse for Courtney to level any charge at 
all.

Furthermore, Courtney has not conceded anything, because that is not permitted
in Wilson's "top male" theology.  Only sissy liberals concede or try to be
intellectually honest.

Crabtree, did you read actually the thread at New West or did you just wing 
this
one?  It looks to me as if you did the latter.

Nick Gier

NEW ST. ANDREWS COLLEGE: AMONG THE TOP 40 BIBLE COLLEGES
Radio Commentary for KRFP's "Morning Mix," August 8, 2006
Posted on Vision2020 on August 7

Moscow's New St. Andrews College (NSA) was recently listed among the top 50
conservative Christian schools by the Intercollegiate Studies Institute. This
institute is supported by the conservative "National Review" and the right 
wing
Heritage Foundation, and its evaluation of schools is based on faculty and
student self reports.

NSA President Roy Atwood is now ranking his school with three other 
colleges on
this list:  Hope College, Calvin College, and Aquinas College.  I submit that
there is no comparison between these schools and his.

Hope, Calvin, and Aquinas are accredited by the 1,303-member North Central
Association of Colleges and Schools, which requires all permanent faculty have
PhDs, while NSA is accredited by the 41- member Transnational Association for
Christian Colleges and Schools, which allows their colleges to get by with 
only
one third PhDs and the rest MAs.

I have met faculty from Hope, Calvin, and Aquinas at scholarly conferences 
and I
have heard their excellent professional papers.  Since 2003 I've extended
personal invitations to NSA faculty to attend our annual regional theological
meeting, but Atwood has declined saying they have "better things to do."

Calvin College boasts that it is the first evangelical school to have an Asian
Studies program.  Hope College has three professors who specialize in Asian
philosophy and religion.  Don't hold your breath for news that NSA will offer
any courses on non-Christian thought.

Aquinas College even has a feminist philosopher on its faculty, but NSA 
founder
and senior fellow Douglas Wilson believes that only propertied males should 
have
the vote.

A sign of a good college is whether or not other institutions would hire its
faculty.  After teaching 30 years at Calvin College, Nicholas Wolterstorff was
hired away by Yale Divinity School.

Here are some items where Hope, Calvin, and Aquinas fortunately do not 
compare:

•       Two of NSA’s senior fellows, presumably equivalent to full 
professors, do not
have PhDs. Generally, a PhD is required at the lowest rank of assistant
professor.

•       Wilson's brother, son, and son-in-law are on the NSA faculty.

•       NSA has demonstrated disrespect for its big academic 
neighbor—requesting, for
example, that two UI history professors be disciplined for criticizing 
Wilson's
views on slavery

•       Most of NSA faculty’s published books are from Canon Press, 
Wilson’s own
creation.

•       In 1998 Wilson wrote an article entitled “Why Evangelical Colleges 
Are Not.”
The hostility displayed against reputable evangelical colleges in this article
not only shows blatant disrespect for these fine schools, but it manifests
shameful disregard for the entire academic enterprise.

NSA's true peers are not Hope, Calvin, and Aquinas; rather, they are Word of
Life Bible Institute, Shasta Bible Institute, the infamous Institute for
Creation Research, Messenger College, and Jerry Falwell's Liberty University.

"Truth is the summit of being; justice is the application of it to human 
affairs."
--Ralph Waldo Emerson

"Abstract truth has no value unless it incarnates in human beings who 
represent it, by proving their readiness to die for it."
  --Mohandas Gandhi

"Modern physics has taught us that the nature of any system cannot be 
discovered by dividing it into its component parts and studying each part 
by itself. . . .We must keep our attention fixed on the whole and on the 
interconnection between the parts. The same is true of our intellectual 
life. It is impossible to make a clear cut between science, religion, and 
art. The whole is never equal simply to the sum of its various parts." 
--Max Planck

Nicholas F. Gier
Professor Emeritus, Department of Philosophy, University of Idaho
1037 Colt Rd., Moscow, ID 83843
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/home.htm
208-882-9212/FAX 885-8950
President, Idaho Federation of Teachers, AFL-CIO
http://users.adelphia.net/~nickgier/ift.htm

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