“Aguillard had said that he suspected Hankins was fomenting an anti-Calvinism controversy at Louisiana College and that he had heard a rumor that Hankins wanted his son, Eric Hankins, currently a pastor in Mississippi, to replace Augillard as the college’s president.”

A Baptist college president has apologized for comments about a state convention executive director made in conversations secretly recorded by one of the college’s former vice presidents.

Joe Aguillard, president of Louisiana College, issued the apology to David Hankins, executive director of the Louisiana Baptist Convention, the Baptist Message state newspaper reported March 28.

Aguillard had said that he suspected Hankins was fomenting an anti-Calvinism controversy at Louisiana College and that he had heard a rumor that Hankins wanted his son, Eric Hankins, currently a pastor in Mississippi, to replace Augillard as the college’s president.

Hankins had publicly supported Aguillard during extended controversy over Aguillard’s leadership of the college involving various issues, from its accreditation to alleged financial irregularities. Aguillard survived a close no confidence vote by trustees in April of last year.

Several secret recordings were made in 2012 by Charles “Chuck” Quarles, former LC vice president for the integration of faith and learning and dean of the college’s Caskey School of Divinity. Quarles now is professor of New Testament & biblical theology at Southeastern Baptist Theological Seminary in Wake Forest, N.C.

In the recordings, Aguillard was speaking with Quarles and, at other times, other members of the Louisiana College administration at the Pineville campus. A local newspaper, The Town Talk in nearby Alexandria, first reported in early March on recordings it said Quarles had provided.

The secret recordings are among a number of issues that have festered at the college in recent weeks, including:

— A potential investigation by the Southern Association of Colleges and Schools.

— A lawsuit filed by a former executive vice president of the college. Timothy “Tim” Johnson, the VP, and Quarles had filed separate whistle-blower complaints against the college in December 2012 over alleged misappropriation of funds for the divinity school.

— A Town Talk report citing “multiple” anonymous sources March 26 that Aguillard has been asked to resign as college president.

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