Bison for Sale
Please read Mike Cope's blog, the comments there and the links he posts, today regarding Harding Unversity's invitation to Ann Coulter to speak at the American Studies Institute Distinguished Lecture Series this year.
Here is my email today to our representative from Harding's development office:
I hope you're well today. I have a grave concern and wanted to raise it with
you.
I learned today that Harding's ASI series this year is featuring Ann Coulter,
and I am distressed. She is not a Christian and is not a loving person. Her comments are mean spirited and vile. I fear that Harding is selling its soul for donor-dollars motivated more by political activism than the cause of the Kingdom. I have disagreed increasingly with the political and public face of the university recently: from John Ashcroft, to advertising itself as one of the nation's most conversative universities, to ASI's constant right-leaning activism. All of this, yet I love Harding and have been willing to overlook political stances with which I disagree. Paying Coulter to come and blare in the Benson with her crass, mean, vapid bluster is too much. She does not promote the cause of Christ or loving reconciliation to the world. She defies the gospel, and I do not think she's coming to extol righteousness or godly politics.
I appreciate your devotion to the school and value our friendship. I write today to confide in you my astonished disappointment. Harding seems to be reacting only to the paycheck, to the pain of its mission. As you are in development and are responsible for accepting donations, I hope you have a voice in these decisions, and I hope you will communicate to the Administration that they will lose donations too, even as they threaten Harding's place in the church. My comments may ring hollow in that I have not contributed in the years we've been talking, but I have assured you that we would begin contributing next year when our student loans are paid off. I cannot make that promise now. In fact, unless or until the Administration and ASI repent of these action and change tack, I regret that we cannot, in good conscience,
support an institution that takes a public stance so counter to love, faith and reconciliation in the spirit of Christ.
. . .
I hope that we can discuss this candidly. I do not want to become alienated from HU or those, like you, who serve her selflessly. I love and admire the faculty and my friends who lead me always closer to the Lord and have prepared me for service in the Kingdom. The Administration and ASI, however, are thwarting their - and your - efforts to give glory to God and transform Harding into a tool for peace and loving power.
Please let me know what you think about these issues. I hope I am not the only alum from whom you're hearing.
May God bless us all,
JRB
Here is my email today to our representative from Harding's development office:
I hope you're well today. I have a grave concern and wanted to raise it with
you.
I learned today that Harding's ASI series this year is featuring Ann Coulter,
and I am distressed. She is not a Christian and is not a loving person. Her comments are mean spirited and vile. I fear that Harding is selling its soul for donor-dollars motivated more by political activism than the cause of the Kingdom. I have disagreed increasingly with the political and public face of the university recently: from John Ashcroft, to advertising itself as one of the nation's most conversative universities, to ASI's constant right-leaning activism. All of this, yet I love Harding and have been willing to overlook political stances with which I disagree. Paying Coulter to come and blare in the Benson with her crass, mean, vapid bluster is too much. She does not promote the cause of Christ or loving reconciliation to the world. She defies the gospel, and I do not think she's coming to extol righteousness or godly politics.
I appreciate your devotion to the school and value our friendship. I write today to confide in you my astonished disappointment. Harding seems to be reacting only to the paycheck, to the pain of its mission. As you are in development and are responsible for accepting donations, I hope you have a voice in these decisions, and I hope you will communicate to the Administration that they will lose donations too, even as they threaten Harding's place in the church. My comments may ring hollow in that I have not contributed in the years we've been talking, but I have assured you that we would begin contributing next year when our student loans are paid off. I cannot make that promise now. In fact, unless or until the Administration and ASI repent of these action and change tack, I regret that we cannot, in good conscience,
support an institution that takes a public stance so counter to love, faith and reconciliation in the spirit of Christ.
. . .
I hope that we can discuss this candidly. I do not want to become alienated from HU or those, like you, who serve her selflessly. I love and admire the faculty and my friends who lead me always closer to the Lord and have prepared me for service in the Kingdom. The Administration and ASI, however, are thwarting their - and your - efforts to give glory to God and transform Harding into a tool for peace and loving power.
Please let me know what you think about these issues. I hope I am not the only alum from whom you're hearing.
May God bless us all,
JRB
posted by JRB at 12:59 PM
3 Comments:
JRB,
Thanks for speaking out.
Greg Kendall-Ball
http://www.kendallball.net
I am probably still a little too angry to blog on this topic so I will keep this short.
Mostly I am just dissappointed with this decision. It makes me very sad. I am not, of course, suprised by Harding's right wing stance. That has always been clear to me and something that has really never bothered me that much. But this woman who promotes bombing and killing as a method of spreading Christianity has no place on the Harding Campus.
So many American Christians today have bought into the lie that it is okay to believe things against the teachings of Christ if it is in support of the Republican party or the conservative movement.
Ladies and Gentlemen we need to remember that turning the other cheek and loving your neighbor as well as your enemy are not feel good liberal philosophies they are the teachings of Christ. My opposition to Ms. Coulter have nothing to do with my political leanings and they have everything to do with my devotion to Christ.
For me this is not a political issue. While I might have rolled my eyes at John Ashcroft coming to speak I did not oppose the decision to invite him. But ANN COULTER, you've got to be kidding me. She is in the same category as Micheal Moore and Howard Stern. She is a shock jock for the right wing conservatives in America.
Whether you lean toward the right or the left you need to be angry about this decision if you care about Harding's Christian heritage and legacy.
Thanks for emailing HU, JRB. I hope many people join you in clearly and carefully expressing their opinions. I am optimistic that people like you may have a positive impact on a place to which so many people feel a strong attachment.
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