Recognition for Excellence in Science -- Good or Bad for OBU?

Earlier this month, a U.S. Navy officer was on campus to invite OBU students apply for the Navy's Nuclear Propulsion Officer Candidate program.  The program recently designated OBU's physics and math majors as the only "tier one" undergraduate majors in Oklahoma and North Texas.  What a fine honor!

Or is it?

Not so long ago, it wouldn't have surprised me if certain administrators in Thurmond Hall were upset or embarrassed that a secular government institution like the U.S. Navy recognized OBU for excellence in science.  After all, most fundamentalists approach science with suspicion at best -- and usually with fear and loathing.  They like science when it offers solutions to problems or prolongs and enriches their lives.  But they are constantly having to figure out how to convince themselves and others that science poses no threat to cherished religious ideas like young earth creationism or the literal historicity of the miracle stories recorded in Scripture.

Fortunately, the administrators cited in the article affirmed the value of rigorous academic preparation in science and mathematics at OBU.  The Reverend Dr. Stan Norman, OBU provost, said:

"We are pleased the Navy has designated these academic programs as their one majors for the NuPOC Program.  The success achieved by our physics and mathematics graduates is evidence of the high level of academic excellence provided by our faculty in the Hurley College of Science and Mathematics . . . The recognition of these programs by the Navy is further validation of that academic quality."

Let's hope this attitude prevails throughout the university.  Especially in the College of Theology and Ministry, it will be important for students to realize that excellence in science does not threaten excellence in theology, philosophy, biblical studies, and ministry.  And, as news of OBU's continued excellence in science education spreads, it will be important to protect the Hurley College faculty from colleagues and BGCO pastors and laypeople who would prefer to replace them with fundamentalists.

There's a lot of credit to go around.  The students should be commended for their hard work in some of the most rigorous majors on campus.  Our thanks to the president and provost for their commitment to legitimate science education and for resisting what must be rather intense pressure from friends and colleagues in post-Takeover Baptist higher education to water it down.  Not lost in all this are the contributions of an administrator closer to the students and faculty -- a well-loved former chief academic officer who now serves as dean of science and math.  Finally, our deepest thanks to Hurley College faculty, old and new.  They are the best in the business!

OBU Winter 2013 Trustee Meeting: Joys & Concerns

Welcome
Now that the spring semester is well underway on Bison Hill, Save OBU will be returning to a more active blogging schedule.  We hope you saw last week's post on Tom Terry's OBU history speech in Raley Chapel.  Also, check out our story about J. Edgar Hoover's visit to OBU in 1938!  We've had a lot of web traffic in recent days, particularly from other evangelical colleges that are contending with fundamentalist encroachment.  Thanks to the friends and supporters who have sent emails, including a member of the Raley family!  And thanks as well to our new Facebook and Twitter followers.

Winter Trustee Meeting
Last Friday, OBU's BGCO-elected Board of Trustees met on campus.  There were no bombshells, and in our case, no news is definitely good news.  The university's P.R. writeup reports a number of exciting happenings around campus, which we celebrate.
Joy
We are particularly heartened to learn of an OBU anthropology professor being granted Senior Faculty Status (OBU's version of tenure).  Several insiders had been concerned that some administrator(s) may use the tenure as a weapon again, either against this individual or against the anthropology department.  After all, it's not a huge leap from "Philosophy leads to critical thought which leads away from fundamentalism. so let's get rid of philosophy and replace it with Christian apologetics" to "Anthropology leads to cultural relativism and anyway and all we need to know about other cultures is how to convert them, so let's get rid of anthropology and hire another missionary." So, we celebrate.
Concern
A widely-loved and long-serving OBU scientist was granted leave for next academic year to work on research for NASA.  Of course, we celebrate this, too.  But given recent history, we fervently hope there is no effort afoot to purge this scientist.  After all, gravity is just a "theory," and certain other scientific theories have fallen out of favor with some of OBU's newest administrators and faculty...

Moving Forward
While the bleeding seems to have subsided at OBU, at least for the moment, there are more problems elsewhere in evangelical academia than I can keep up with.  (See a brilliantly-titled Patheos blog post, "No one expects and evangelical inquisition.")  I am currently in talks with constituents of several of these institutions to find guest writers who will provide reports for us.  Later this week, I'll introduce an alumna of Cedarville University (OH) who happens to be a freelance journalist.  She's working on an in-depth series on Cedarville's Takeover.  It will be instructive to learn from CU's story and hope we can avoid some of the traps.  And, of course, this will help fulfill our mission to join in solidarity with other evangelicals who value academic freedom and ethical administration.

Why Is OBU Afraid of Science?

Almost all of my anger about encroaching fundamentalism at OBU concerns its religion department, where I studied from 1999-2002.  As a student of biblical studies and theology, and now as a Ph.D. student in social science, I tend not to get too worked up about issues in the natural sciences.  But the latest OBU press release about its newest science teacher was actually the proverbial last straw for me.  Within hours of reading about our new scientist "biology laboratory curriculum developer," I finally found the motivation to start this blog.

Given the sad state of the academic job market these days, I find it hard to believe that OBU is still hiring ABDs rather than PhDs who have completed post-docs.  The market is saturated with newly-minted PhDs, but maybe OBU is unable to find an actual scientist who is willing or able to answer these private, personal, invasive, irrelevant, and unethical questions in the job interview.  With these questions being asked of prospective professors, it's no wonder we can't find a real scientist:

• Who is God to you?   Do you affirm that He is omnipotent, omniscient, and omnipresent?
• Do you affirm the Trinity?
• What is the Holy Spirit?  What is the work of the Holy Spirit?
• What is the Church?   What is the Church’s role?
• If I were a pagan and you an evangelical Christian, what would you say to me as our plane was crashing?
• What experiences have you had leading people to Christ?
• Do you affirm the Bible as God’s Word as truth and without error?
• Do you affirm a literal Adam and Eve?
• What would you say to a student who asked you about the origins of man? (on creation, evolution, etc.)
• Would you ever advise a student to have an abortion?
• Do you affirm that there are only two genders, male and female?
• What is your position regarding homosexuality?  Do you affirm that homosexuality is a sin?

Did our new science teacher just finish his PhD in biology or physics?  No.  His degree is in instructional leadership and academic curriculum.  His master's degree is in education, not science.  Most alarmingly, his faculty web page indicates that his particular interest and expertise is in the controversy surrounding the teaching of evolution in high school biology classes.  This raises all kinds of red flags for me, especially as I remember my own biology professor at OBU, Mike Keas.

Thankfully, Professor Keas left OBU and now teaches in the undergraduate degree program at the Southern Baptist Theological Seminary (which purports to help its graduates "understand and engage the cultural climate of our day."  He began every class with a "science Bible verse of the day" and never tired of reminding us that he and his wife couldn't have children because "there is something wrong with her."  God forbid anyone doubt your virility, Professor Keas!  Anyway, he dodged the question when a student asked him point-blank whether he was a young-earth creationist.  "Intelligent design" was his preferred intellectual sleight-of-hand.  Once, in a lecture on the evils of homosexuality, he went into graphic detail about the physiology of anal sex.  So, I tend not to trust OBU when it comes to hiring science teachers.

On the other hand, I had an absolutely wonderful physics professor at OBU, who I believe is still there.  He managed to keep biblical literalism and fundamentalism out of the science classroom.  Let's hope his new colleague does the same.

This new hire is a) not a scientist, b) interested in (hopefully not obsessed with) "misconceptions held by public secondary school biology teachers" (the topic of his most recent academic conference presentation), and c) made it through the present administration's screening process to teach science at OBU.  None of these facts inspires much confidence.

How long until anatomical figures in the textbooks have fig leaves covering their naughty bits?