Author and Episcopal Priestess Beth Maynard was recently featured at Cedarville University to present “The Goal is Soul: The Work and Witness of U2.” Ken Silva provides information, analysis, and YouTube clips at Apprising Ministries.
HT: Christian Research Network
Technorati Tags: Cedarville University, Beth Maynard, U2, Icons, Emerging Church
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Here is Cedarville’s response to my inquiry on this issue:
Dear Brian,
Thank you for contacting us. We’ve learned of the blogs over the past few days.
This event did take place and it was a co-sponsored event between the Student Life Division and the Department of Language and Literature. It was pre-approved by the university Administration.
The university invited Beth Maynard to come because she is extremely knowledgeable about the topic of U2, theology and culture, and the university thought it would be a service to our students to hear an informed, academically oriented presentation on a topic of considerable interest to both our culture and the church.
Mrs. Maynard is an author, a respected cultural critic, and holds a Master’s degree from Boston University. She did not speak in a chapel service and students were not required to attend her evening event. Students could choose to attend or not attend this free and open lecture.
We often have our students reading, watching, or listening to intelligent people who have thoughtful ideas to share or an informed critique to offer on a given topic. This is, we’ve found, not only a good way to create a healthy learning community and train our students to participate in this academic culture, but also a good way to prepare them to engage our culture upon graduation.
Our Baptist doctrinal convictions do not, of course, support the ordination of women. We do not see having an academic presentation by an ordained woman on a topic she is well-qualified to speak on - U2, theology, and culture - as being at odds with our doctrinal statement or our mission as a university.
I appreciate your inquiry and your invitation to us to allow us to explain our rationale.
Please don’t hesitate to contact me further,
Scott
Dr. Scott Calhoun
Associate Professor of Language and Literature Cedarville University
Thank you, Brian. This adequately explains their rationale. However, I would still have a problem with her appearance on campus. My concerns remain as they were previously.
I got the same response from Dr. Bill Brown himself. Sounds like a pat statement. Brown’s response was worded a little differently saying she spoke to a small literature class of honors students that included my nephew.
However, I later saw that she was there for 2 days and spoke in the auditorium which holds around 1,000 people. Don’t know how many were there but it had to be more than a small group.
Brown also said having speaker’s from the “other side of the issue” helps prepares them for the real life.
However, they break one of the first rules of fundamentalism which is separatism - do not be part of the world.
The Baptist Bulletin of the GARBC will not let Cedearville publish any artciles or post ads in their magazine.
Brown spoke with a fork tongue claiming to fight post modernism and the emergent church while providing a safe haven for it’s speakers and proponents.
My nephew said they even brought in a gay group last year to speak after Bob Jones U rejected them. He said we brought them in and fed them and put them up.
Brown says one thing and acts the other way.
TRAP
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