More Baptist Battles
According to the current issue of the Chronicle of Higher Education, the president of Southern Baptist-affiliated Louisiana College has resigned after a book-banning battle initiated by the college's board of trustees:
President William Rory Lee angered some alumni and professors last year after he removed two books from the college's bookstore in response to complaints from a student and a member of the college's Board of Trustees. At the time, Mr. Lee said that the books, The Road Less Traveled, by M. Scott Peck, and A Lesson Before Dying, by Ernest J. Gaines, clashed with the Christian values espoused by the college.
The board then adopted a rigid textbook-screening policy that required all professors to receive approval for their textbook choices from both their department head and the vice president for academic affairs. Professors complained that the new policy infringed on their academic freedom (The Chronicle, January 9).
More reason for me to avoid applying to religiously-affiliated colleges, I guess. There are enough political landmines in academia without adding the overhead crossfire of feuding religious factions demanding that "undesirable" books be banned from campus.
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Pablo @ 8:44PM | 2004-03-17| permalink
I don't consider The Road Less Traveled to be an irreligious book. At one point in the book, he talks of suggesting that a patient give up his or her belief in God, which the patient eventually did. His defense was that this patient's view of God was so villianous that he or she would be better off not believing in such a God. I do not consider this inherently anti-religious, but Mr. Peck clearly subordinates relgion to psychology. So I concede that many people would disagree with me on it.
I glanced through his later book The People of the Lie. It seems to be about the psychology of sin. It could be worth reading.
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Trebor @ 2:12AM | 2004-03-18| permalink
Speaking of "The People of the Lie" - I'm just about to start "The Dishonest Church." Hm. ~ Trebor
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Felix @ 12:57PM | 2004-03-19| permalink
I haven't read any of Peck's books, although I vaguely recall reading the Gaines book for a library book club several years ago.
I do recall that the volunteer librarian at the First Baptist Church in Plano hated Peck's books for some reason which was never clear to me.
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