Spotted: Ohio Players concert
Spotted: H.S. football Week 2
Ohio Players at Fraze
Cedarville firings worry fundamentalists
School says theology had no role in firings of Bible profs; others not so sure
Related:
> Cedarville firings worry some
> Secret recording suggests plan
> Blog | Comment
Sunday, March 30, 2008
CEDARVILLE — The firing of two tenured Bible professors at Cedarville University last summer has disrupted the ordinarily peaceful campus and created what critics say is an identity crisis for the Baptist institution.
The university terminated the professors amid a brewing abstract theological dispute known as the "truth and certainty" debate. The issue is between fundamentalists who hold that truth of the Bible can be known with certainty, and "emergent" believers who hold that Christians can only be assured of the truth because only God can know with certainty.
Extras
Cedarville historically has been fundamentalist, or orthodox, since becoming a Baptist institution in 1953, and requires all its students to minor in Bible. But the new emergents' views on truth and certainty had crept into the Bible department, according to students and faculty, creating a schism.
The fired professors, David Mappes and David Hoffeditz, were on the fundamentalist, conservative side of the divide. Their supporters believe they were fired because they openly challenged other faculty members' more liberal interpretations of the Bible in the classroom.
Mappes and Hoffeditz were fired in July despite receiving new contracts just a few months beforehand.
The university has a different explanation, saying the firings were not the result of doctrinal debate.
The department's attention had been "distracted" and trustees took personnel actions "in order to restore a healthy team spirit" within the department because they had behaved in a less-than-collegial manner, it said.
In January, a group of prominent current and emeritus faculty called the Coalition of the Concerned wrote an open letter to administrators and trustees that described a "climate of fear" regarding tenure and raised concerns over "the perception that Cedarville University is drifting away from its historic conservative theological position and identity as a Baptist institution."
"This is a historic change, much as the administration may try to deny it," said Cedarville Emeritus Professor Raymond Bartholomew, a fundamentalist and member of the coalition, who authors CedarvilleSituation.com on the issue. "We've never had a glimmer of any controversy like this before."
"The issues at hand do not reflect a change in the university's mission... Our commitment to God's Word as inspired, infallible and inerrant is unwavering," it said in an e-mail Friday, March 21.
Hoffeditz continues to pursue a grievance against Cedarville, drawing the attention of the American Association of University Professors, a faculty advocacy group, which is investigating the firings.
