The new language “is in no way a change to the Statement of Belief. It is the current and historical position of Bryan, an institution founded and existing on a strong Creationist position,” according to the college. John Carpenter, a journalism professor at Bryan, told the Times Free Press that the updated language could be seen as “the narrowing of a position that doesn’t need to be narrowed.”
Bryan College faculty overwhelmingly issued the first no-confidence vote against their president in school history after trustees clarified the creationist nature of the school’s Statement of Belief.
The statement, which all faculty and staff (and some student leaders) must sign, includes a point about human origins, which trustees on Feb. 23 clarified to highlight the historical and particular persons of Adam and Eve.
The faculty outcry, focused more on how the change was done rather than what was changed, is the latest sign of how the creation-evolution debate has shifted to the search for the historical Adam, prompting a resulting crisis of faith statements.
The student newspaper, the Bryan Triangle, broke the story. World reports more details.
Bryan College was notably founded in honor of William Jennings Bryan, the lawyer who opposed evolution in the high-profile Scopes trial.
The clarification, which highlights the college’s stance toward the Genesis story,reads: “We believe that all humanity is descended from Adam and Eve. They are historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life forms.”
The current statement of beliefs reads: “[We believe] that the origin of man was by fiat of God in the act of creation as related in the Book of Genesis; that he was created in the image of God; that he sinned and thereby incurred physical and spiritual death[.]”
Faculty supported the no-confidence vote against President Stephen Livesay 30–2, with six abstentions. At that Feb. 25 gathering, the faculty also voted 38–1 to ask the board of trustees for a one-year moratorium on signing contracts that include the clarification.
A related student government petition was signed by about half the student body,reports World.
[Editor’s note: Some of the original URLs (links) referenced in this article are no longer valid, so the links have been removed.]
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