A century ago the summer of 1917 was particularly discouraging for soldiers in the trenches. The European Civil War (also known as World War I) that began in August 1914 still had no end in sight.

It wasn’t clear who would win, but the death toll was growing and would be close to 10 million when the war ended on Nov. 11, 1918. William Jennings Bryan, Woodrow Wilson’s first secretary of state, resigned in 1915 when he could see Wilson edging the United States toward war and more death: Not on my watch, the Great Commoner declared.

In 1925 Bryan had his last hurrah at Dayton, Tennessee’s “monkey trial,” where he opposed Darwinism for theological reasons but also cultural ones: He thought a “survival of the fittest” doctrine prodded Germany and other countries toward war. When Bryan died five days after the trial concluded, those who loved him raised funds to open Bryan College in 1930 as a “lasting memorial” to him.

Academic civil wars, particularly at small Christian colleges, are of minor importance compared with conflagrations, but they also have their casualties. Bryan College’s civil war began in 2014. The latest career fatality came at 10 a.m. on July 19, 2017, when Bryan College math department chairman Phillip Lestmann entered the office of academic vice president Kevin Clauson.

Bryan finance vice president Rick Taphorn was also in the office. He handed Lestmann, who had taught at Bryan for 38 years, a copy of a June 2 email stating, “We need everyone to know about the crooks running Bryan.” When Lestmann admitted he had written that email, the next piece of paper he held was a You’re Fired notice.

The grounds: “violation of multiple policies including our Community Life Standards and Disparagement Policy,” which states, “Public disparagement of the college, its policies, mission, purpose, personnel, and/or doctrine is not acceptable.” Bryan’s Faculty-Administrative Guide says tenure is no protection against “gross insubordination.”

Bryan administrators offered Lestmann severance pay of a half-year’s salary, on condition that he say the separation was by mutual agreement and not say anything disparaging about Bryan. He refused “hush money” and told others what had happened. By the end of July a change.org online petition calling for the firing of Bryan President Stephen Livesay and board chairwoman Delana Bice had 1,800 signatures—impressive and depressing for a school with only 634 students on campus.

If the story were only about Bryan, it would merely be a local item—but the conflict is a cautionary tale for Christian schools generally. How had relations become so uncollegial at a college where the unbelieving world should know us by our love? Relations between administrators and faculty members at many institutions are jagged—and tensions are likely to grow at some as enrollments decline and finances tighten.