Faith on View

Alaska’s sole Hispanic church witnesses spiritual fruit

The Rescate Church is Alaska’s sole Hispanic Southern Baptist Church and it has witnessed spiritual fruit in the past few years. The members of the church are planning to grow their ministry by increasing the …

an auditorium with stage as seen from the back

Pastor Andy Wood of the Saddleback Megachurch has named his wife a pastor despite Saddleback’s affiliation with the South Baptist Convention (SBC). The official SBC stance is that only men can be ordained. Milton Quintanilla …

The front steps of the US Supreme Court are shown at dusk

The overturning of Roe v Wade may be the biggest story in Christian politics in the last 50 years. There is such a glut of information as we seek to navigate this momentous shift. We …

After several Black congregations associated with the Southern Baptist Convention left the United States’ largest Protestant denomination in recent months following denouncements of Critical Race Theory (CRT) by denominational leaders, Convention President JD Greear, the …

As the medical community has responded to the COVID-19 pandemic, a number of conspiracy theories and misinformation campaigns about the vaccines being developed have propagated. In some instances, some anti-abortion pundits have — perhaps mistakenly …

Joe Aguillard in a suit with his hand in his pocket

Rumors are flying that President Joe Aguillard has been given the choice of stepping down as President and being allowed to take medical retirement or being fired. For seemingly personal reasons, not ethical standards David Hankins has apparently removed his long-standing and important support of Joe Aguillard and that is proving to make the difference. A year ago, when it looked like Aguillard may no longer be president I wrote an article entitled Louisiana College…Moving Forward. That is an important article for people to go back and read. It explains why the wrongs LC has done over the last nine years can’t just be swept under the rug. But, I thought in this post it would be helpful to republish my thoughts about how LC can move forward.

Remove Aguillard from the Presidency. I don’t see any way around this. There is so much baggage with his presidency. As bad as what has been made public is…there is so much more. I pray that Aguillard will repent and turn his life around. But, whatever happens he should not remain as president.
Publicly Admit Wrong. There has been so much damage over the last decade that has been swept under the rug. People’s lives have been destroyed and students have been emotionally and spiritually scarred. There are serious trust issues with LC right now. The only way for LC to get past these issues is to admit they blew it. Anything else will simply look like more of the same. Public sins need to be dealt with publicly.
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Louisiana College, The SBC, Calvinism, and Ethics

Sadly, a war over Calvinism has been brewing in the SBC for a long time. Louisiana seems to have decided to be the main battle ground for this war. Last year, forces within the SBC that want to wage this war put forward “A Statement of Traditional Southern Baptist Understanding of God’s Plan of Salvation” to be voted upon at the national convention in New Orleans. The statement was introduced to the world at SBC Today by Eric Hankins who is a pastor in Mississippi and son of Louisiana Baptist Convention Executive Director David Hankins. Both David Hankins and New Orleans Baptist Theological Seminary President Chuck Kelly were signatories on the statement. There were fears among some that the statement would become a litmus test for employment of religion faculty at the state convention owned Louisiana College.

After the national convention, fervor over the issues subsided as there seemed to be a clear message of unity coming from the national SBC leadership. However, Louisiana College President Joe Aguillard has recently thrust the issue back into the spot light. Aguillard released a position paper on Calvinism in which he states, “My love for all Baptists including Calvinists, does not constitute our approval of its being advocated at Louisiana College.”