c. 2006 Religion News Service

WASHINGTON _ A Christian college focused on shaping home-schooled students for careers in public service will lose about one-third of its faculty after several professors at the young school charged their academic freedoms were violated.

Administrators at Patrick Henry College in Purcellville, Va., which opened in 2000, called the professors’ claims “patently, categorically false” and said the school’s vision for classical liberal arts remains intact.

“Contrary to insinuations by departing faculty, PHC has been, and remains, zealously committed to a rigorous study and debate of all ideas, and all schools of thought, as the success of our students in every realm of the public square dutifully attests,” the college said in a Saturday (May 20) press release.

Departing faculty, on the other hand, say administrators have questioned their adherence to the Bible in writings and class discussions.

“It comes down to a number of issues _ academic freedom, due process and antagonism to the Reformed faith,” said David C. Noe, an assistant professor of classics. Noe and four other faculty decided during the spring semester that they would not return to the college in the fall.

Noe, who was hired in 2000, will be a visiting professor at the University of Iowa.

The school’s mission is to “prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values.” Eighty-five percent of the student body was home-schooled and students often spend a semester in prominent internships, including the White House.

The college’s blended focus on liberal arts and biblical principles has led to disagreements about how to fulfill its mission.

Noe and J. Kevin Culberson, a departing assistant professor of history and literature, wrote a March article published in a Patrick Henry publication, the Source, in which they declared: “While it is true that the Bible contains all we need to know for reconciliation with God, it does not include all the information we need to live happy and productive lives.”

College chaplain Raymond Bouchoc, in a response endorsed by college President Michael Farris, said their article left the reader with “some harmful implications.”

Arguing that Scripture is sufficient for providing “universal guiding principles for all of life,” Bouchoc said: “It may not provide the particulars of how to repair the door jamb, but it does provide universal principles applicable to fixing it.”

Erik Root, a departing instructor of government, said the issues at the school centered on “the ability for not only students to ask questions but professors to ask questions of the class.”

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He cited an example of his class discussion about philosopher Thomas Hobbes’ state of nature, in which he asked his class about a situation in which two people were out on the ocean with a lifeboat that would hold only one. When Root asked the class what they would do, one student responded with the biblical verse about laying your life down for another.

“I said, `Great. That’s simplistic. But why is that the case? … What is God saying here about that?”’ Root recalled.

Root said a parent sitting in on the class objected to his teaching approach, and he was later questioned by Farris.

“If you’re going to convince somebody of your position, you can’t just walk around shouting Bible verses,” said Root, who is looking for a new job. “You have to give them a reason for what you believe.”

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Asked about instances cited by professors as examples of mistreatment, Farris said he has never limited what could be discussed.

“It’s the most bizarre claim of academic freedom I’ve ever heard,” said Farris, who was ordained by a church affiliated with the Baptist General Conference. “Basically, they demonstrated that they couldn’t stand the crucible of debate.”

The five departing faculty _ including one who was fired _ were part of a total of 16 faculty at the start of the year. Before their plans not to return were announced, Farris declared that he was moving to the role of chancellor. In April, the college announced that Graham Walker, a vice president and dean at Oklahoma Wesleyan University, would be the school’s second president effective in July.

On Saturday (May 20), 49 of the school’s 303 students graduated. David Halbrook, the college’s director of communications, said 92 percent of remaining students currently plan to return in the fall.

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Farris and others say the recent controversy has only reinforced the mission of the school.

“We’ve gone through a period where we’ve had to make it very clear what we mean by a Christian liberal arts education,” he said. “The regular use of Scripture is an integral part of our Christian liberal arts education. It’s not enough just to simply assume that the Bible will be remembered without ever talking about it.”

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