Academic freedom, Baptist principles, and Christian behavior.

Many Baptists have long valued education. They have built Baptist colleges, universities, and seminaries, sent their sons and daughters off to those Baptist schools, hired ministers trained in Baptist seminaries, and given and continue to give money to Baptist educational institutions.

Yet, other Baptists have long feared education. They have been suspicious of educational institutions and their faculties, kept their children from obtaining degrees from educational institutions, refused to hire educated ministers, and declined to participate in financially supporting colleges and universities.

The response of Baptists to education over the years has indeed been one of ambivalence and has resulted in conflicts and controversy. Many of those conflicts have centered on the issue of academic freedom. Baptists, like all other denominations, have struggled with finding the correct formula for successfully protecting academic freedom while at the same time maintaining doctrinal and denominational integrity. Finding the perfect formula has not been and will never be an easy task.

Throughout the twentieth century, the American Association of University Professors (AAUP) provided guidance for Baptist colleges and universities as they dealt with this difficult task. In 1970, the association, in commenting on academic freedom within religious schools, offered these guidelines: "Teachers are entitled to freedom in the classroom in discussing their subject, but they should be careful not to introduce into their teaching controversial matter which has no relation to their subject. Limitations of academic freedom because of religious or other aims of the institution should be clearly stated in writing at the time of the appointment." (1) Clearly, the AAUP recognized the dilemma faced by denominational schools.

The AAUP also made note of a truth that all Baptist educators should take to heart. In that statement issued in 1970, the association offered these words of advice:

   College and university teachers are citizens, members of a learned
   profession, and officers of an educational institution. When they
   speak or write as citizens, they should be free from institutional
   censorship or discipline, but their special position in the
   community imposes special obligations. As scholars and educational
   officers, they should remember that the public may judge their
   profession and their institution by their utterances. Hence they
   should at all times be accurate, should exercise appropriate
   restraint, should show respect for the opinions of others, and
   should make every effort to indicate that they are not speaking for
   the institution. (2)

Baptist administrators, professors, and other educational professionals, as they live out their calling to educate men and women, must always remember that the freedom they have been given is accompanied by a heavy responsibility. Baptist educators have a calling to uphold the highest standards of scholarship, to be accurate and truthful in their speaking and writing, and to be respectful in all their dealings with students, other scholars, their community, and the Baptist family.

Baptist educators must be fervently committed to academic freedom, ardently devoted to Baptist principles, and passionately dedicated to live and behave as authentic and committed Christians. Each of these three responsibilities is an essential ingredient in maintaining the health of Baptist schools, and the administrators, professors, and staff members of Baptist schools must take all three responsibilities seriously. Baptists should accept nothing less from their Baptist schools.

(1.) American Association of University Professors, "1940 Statement of principles on Academic Freedom and Tenure with 1970 Interpretive Comments," http://www.aaup.org/statements/Redbook/ 1940stat.htm (accessed 30 October 2003).

(2.) Ibid.