Al Mohler has more to say that I find representative of stuff to “be afraid, be very afraid” (in the sense that is used in the movie “The Fly”).

Today he lauds the efforts of the Baylor University President Robert B. Sloan, Jr. to move Baylor U. toward a “Christian worldview”.

Mohler observes:
Under his leadership, Baylor has added a number of scholars with international reputations for a serious embrace of the Christian worldview and its application to all areas of thought and research. These new professors–and the “Baylor 2012” plan promoted by President Sloan–have run into direct confrontation with many of Baylor’s older faculty members.

Taken in the most positive sense, a “Christian worldview” is certainly desirable. Taken as Mohler intends it, it is something to which I react with the “Be Afraid, be VERY AFRAID” warning. The “Christian worldview” that is forwarded here is a severely “neutered” one. I find it neccessary to my sensibilities about the Christian faith to forward an apologetic for these attempts to define Christianity in terms I find very irritating, embarassing, and , at worst, dangerous.

Case in point:

Speaking to the broader university constituency, Sloan sought to assure the Baylor family that, “while we respect the right of students to hold and express divergent view points, we do not support the use of publications such as the Lariat, which is published by the University, to advocate positions that undermine foundational principles upon which this institution was founded and currently operates.”

What doubletalk. the second part of that, the”however” that comes after the “while we support…..” , is the kicker. If you say you don’t want the newspaper to reflect such views, then you REALLY DON’T respect the right of students to hold and express divergent view points, with the justification that censorship of “positions that undermine foundational principles upon which this institution was founded and currently operates” is perfectly fine. This is the modus operandi of the fundamentalist police state. It’s laugable that they say “while we respect the rights of students to hold divergent views”….the real operating principle is that they DO NOT in any way RESPECT it. They reveal this by banning such from the “official” channels. I’s the way the SBC theological police have approached theological education in general.

That there are “older faculty members” remaining who resist efforts like Sloan’s and the kind which Mohler, Patterson, and other SBC “cleansing police” advocate, is something of a victory for Baylor Baptists (the REAL Baptists who oppose efforrts to remove the principles of soul competency and priesthood of believers and replace it with creedal requirements and widespread caving to cultural conservatism which is anti-environmental, hawkish, and in no way “pro-life” in any other area other than abortion (which I have often bemoaned; I also oppose abortion in just about any case — but I also oppose other forms of “violence against the innocent”.)

I have to shake my head and smile an embarassed smile when I read Mohler’s words like: The resistance of Baylor’s older faculty indicates that, for many at least, Christianity is devoid of specific intellectual content. NO, it seems to me that ‘s it the other way around. The emergence of leadership of the present SBC ilk is raising the ugly, clueless head of fundamentalism to the world and fouling up the “Christian worldview” reputation for the ones who remain at a distance from Christianity due to such LACK of compassion, lack of intelligent exploration, and rampant evidence that they are unaware and/or unwilling to do any sociological self-examination.