This letter by Scott Culpepper to Kelly Boggs of The Baptist Message will be published in next week’s Message but is released here first since it will not be published until after the Louisiana College Board of Trustees.
Mr. Boggs,
I wanted to respond to the article you recently published on the situation at Louisiana College (Situation at Louisiana College Unfolds, March 12, 2013). The article implies that my expression of concern about the issues at Louisiana College was motivated by a desire to see Reformed theology dominate Louisiana College. It is impossible for me to state in quantifiable measures how little I care about seeing Reformed theology become dominant in any Baptist school, including Louisiana College.
This debate over “Calvinism” is a ridiculous sideshow distracting from more important issues that should concern us all. I believe Joe Aguillard should go because he is an incompetent, vindictive, and divisive leader. I want to see him replaced with a competent academic who has a genuine faith, a humble attitude, a cooperative spirit, and a keen intellect. I am not concerned with whether he is Reformed or Arminian. The thing about the Calvinism debate that concerns me most is that both sides are so strident in their opposition to the extremes of the other side without understanding the center. And so we have the glorious spectacle of trustees burning the midnight oil debating Reformed theology while Louisiana College implodes. People, particularly students, who are observing this fiasco are not just rejecting Reformed theology and Arminian theology. They are dismissing our Lord Jesus Christ and His gospel because they are not interested in the abstract theological prognostications of people who have not mastered the basic ethical practices that one would expect of a carnal five year-old, much less adult Christian leaders who are supposedly indwelt by the Holy Spirit. I pray that Louisiana College and the Louisiana Baptist Convention will rediscover integrity before more lives are ruined.
In Christ,
Dr. Scott Culpepper
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