[Vision2020] A Response to NSA's Roy Atwood

[nickgier at adelphia.net]

Greetings:

This is a longer version of a letter I intend to send to the two local papers.

To the Editor:

In his letter (Feb. 20?) Roy Atwood, President of New Saint Andrews College (NSA), claims that he once constructively engaged me on the issues of NSA accreditation and Doug Wilson’s slavery booklet. I have saved all my e-mail correspondence with Atwood and I beg to differ about the nature of his response.  It consists mainly of name-calling and ends with a promise never to communicate with me again.

The logical fallacy of “poisoning the well” is one that I’m certain that NSA “senior fellow” (but MA only) Doug Jones teaches in his logic classes.  Ironically, this is a fallacy that NSA faculty commit on a regular basis. 
Instead responding directly to the issues, Wilson, Atwood, and Jones try to discredit the source of the objections.  They do this by some pretty ferocious name-calling.  I’ve been called slanderer, God-hater, and banshee (my favorite).  They chose to poison the well rather than answer the charges.  

Early on I urged Atwood to clarify his statements about NSA accreditation, but he refused to do so. In April 2003, NSA attorney Greg Dickison testified before the Latah County Commissioners that the college was duly accredited. You can hear Dickison's voice at http://www.tomandrodna.com/temp/NSA_Accred.mp3.  In a letter to the Daily News on May 23, 2003, Atwood made the same claim.  The problem of course is that NSA did not receive its accreditation until November 29, 2005.

Tom Garfield, principal of Wilson’s Logos School, also charged me with untruths.  A friend helped me find an image of the portrait of Robert E. Lee in a Logos classroom, a picture Garfield said they did not own.  A local band and former church members confirmed the display of the Confederate flag at school functions, something that Garfield also denied.

It seems to me that the fallacy “poisoning the well” is not well formulated.  It really is a form of argument ad hominem, “against the person” rather than the issues at hand.  The Well of Truth cannot be poisoned, and I challenge Atwood and his colleagues to follow their savior’s advise that acknowledging the truth will set them free.

Atwood concludes his letter with a threat of legal action.  In 33 years of handling faculty grievances I’ve been threatened with libel several times, but I always reminded my accusers that truth defends itself and those who tell it are safe within its walls.  

When Atwood was at the UI, he was known as a good scholar and able administrator.  His former colleagues are really puzzled about what happened to this professor who used to be such a good academic citizen.

There are well-qualified students at Logos and NSA and some competent faculty, just as there are good, decent people who attend Wilson’s Christ Church.  One can usually spot these people because they frequently speak of Wilson’s goal of achieving “truth, goodness, and beauty.” These fine folks need to be reminded that their leaders have not always told the truth, that condoning slavery is not good, and that calling for the execution of homosexuals is just plain ugly.

Nick Gier