Thursday specials:
WHAT DID MR. BEAVER SAY?
The official script of The Chronicles of Narnia: The Lion, the Witch and the Wardrobe isn’t easy to get. But fans have put one together, if you’re willing to read their version…
BRAD AND ANGELINA’S BABY NAMED SEXIEST FETUS ALIVE
Borowitz strikes again. (via Mark Shea.)
CATHOLIC PROFESSORS, YOU’RE FIRED!
Wheaton, which proudly houses papers by the Catholic writer J.R.R. Tolkien, fired a popular professor recently for converting to Catholicism, says The Wall Street Journal.
As a recent Wheaton graduate I have sympathy for the position that the College takes. From my perspective it would be very difficult to be a Catholic faculty member and maintain your integrity to the doctrines of the Catholic Church. How could you teach to students under the presumed context that the community at Wheaton is in “communion”, when your church says that you are not (at least at some level)? If you deny the church’s doctrine then are you really being faithful to the context of your church (Rom 14?). I don’t think it is an easy question to answer and perhaps Wheaton has it wrong, but I think they are right in thinking that it would put that professor in a irreconcilable position.
The official response from Wheaton is here:
http://www.wheaton.edu/news/news/response.html
Re: the Wheaton prof, apparently he thought he could still sign the statement of faith (including saying the Bible was the supreme authority) & Dr. Liftin thought he couldn’t if he was really Catholic. I had an online discussion with a die-hard Catholic who said that he would not agree with that wording b/c there is no mention of interpretive tradition. So that whole situation is a bit messy.
But then there’s the issue of whether Wheaton should be exclusive in their hires (or maintain evangelical distinctiveness to use Dr. Litfin’s language), or inclusive like a secular college, or have a declared preference like Baylor apparently does (e.g., “First we look for evangelicals, then other Protestants, than Catholics, etc.”).