Ol’ ‘Gus responds to Rod Dreher’s article about the United Lutheran Seminary

Chris: Man, ‘Gus, this article by Rod Dreher about the Seminary made out of the seminary I graduated from really makes me mad!

‘Gus: Why?

Chris: I’m not quite sure… I mean, I still have really strong feelings about how everything went down—I mean it all shows how human we all are—but wow… I don’t even know, it feels like an outsider just poured gasoline on my house after part of it had already caught fire. I just… I just... I just wish he’d understand how meanspirited and unchristian he’s being.

‘Gus: Maybe he can, maybe telling a story could help him to repent and see how short sighted he is being.

Chris: I’m too angry to tell stories right now.

‘Gus: Let me see what I can do…

There once was a man named Dave. Dave impregnated his girlfriend his freshman year of college. They decided to have an abortion. Dave’s conservative parents disowned him for convincing his girlfriend to do this. He was so impressed with a family run fringe pro-life organization “White Shields for Choice” an Evangelical organization who, using all means necessary including violence, kept abortion clinic protestors from harassing people seeking those services. They welcomed him into their co-op and let him stay for free, and eventually he became their executive director.

              Later he had a “born again” conversion experience and left the organization. He was ashamed of working for an organization that he came to despise as baby killers and wasn’t sure how to reconcile his younger self with his new self.

              Dave ended up getting a Divinity degree and Ph.D. from Wheaton and became a successful, sane, evangelical pastor and academic. His focus was on reconciliation in South Africa and he advised Latino students, he was seen as especially equipped for that position due to spending 3 years in Peru after getting his M.Div.

              Two Orthodox seminaries a few hundred miles from one another, one in New Oreans that tended to have Greek Orthodox students (and a unique program that included a small population of often ignored Latino seminarians and professors) and one in Morgan City that tended to have Russian Orthodox students, decided to merge and function with a two campuses one Seminary model, seeing modern technology as a way to bridge the geographic divide.

              The initial merger was far from smooth. Many faculty and staff lost their jobs, or took major pay cuts, also the perk of campus housing for faculty was axed, in fact, they began to have to pay rent. There was much uproar, some of the discomforts with these major changes were masked by charges that the seminaries were becoming either too Greek or too Russian. The Latinos continued to feel like the whole thing was silly and they were being ignored, as usual.

              After the initial merger work, the seminary presidents of each seminary stepped down and a board made up of members of both seminaries was created. They looked for a president who was not beholden to either seminary and was neither Russian nor Greek. They also looked for someone who spoke Spanish and had some understanding of Latino culture. They find Dave.

              Dave only puts things on his resume that happened after receiving his M. Div. Does he do this as to not reveal his time as executive director of White Shields for Choice, or because that’s just what he does? Perhaps he doesn’t know his own motivations for making this choice.

              Eventually he comes clean and tells the Chair of the Board, Phil, who is the Orthodox Church representative on the board of National Right to Life, about his time at White Shields for Choice. He calls a few Evangelical friends and a member of National Right to Life and asks about White Shields for Choice. They don't really seem to know anything about the organization. Phil shrugs it off.

              Later two random Evangelicals show up on both campuses and asks a few faculty members “Why do you have a pro-abortion nut job as president?” They go to the board about this. Phil shrugs it off. Dave says he’ll tell everyone when he’s damn well ready to tell them.

              The Latino students and faculty in New Orleans feel listened to for the first time in a long time.

              Eventually a student googles President Dave and notices that near the end of the first page of Google there is a pro-choice page. The news about the President’s past involvement with White Shields for Choice breaks, the students feel betrayed, the faculty feels betrayed.

              Soon enough other conservative seminaries start to send letters saying they don’t feel comfortable sending their Orthodox students to a seminary where the President hides his pro-choice leanings. The faculty, still bruised from all the horror of the merger, takes a vote of no confidence.

              The Latino students point out that when Trump was building a border wall and deporting their families the faculty and students stayed silent or even silenced them… but now that it is an issue of abortion everyone has went nuts. They are largely ignored.

              There are protests, donations plummet. Dave calls a meeting where he discloses his past and the board describes who knew what when.

              Things get stirred up on social media, anti-abortion activist alumni put out petitions that many people sign. Dave responds with a set of steps for going forward that seem to include punishment of students and faculty who use social media.

              The next day the board fires Dave and removes a majority of its members. Phil is removed as Orthodox representative to National Right to Life.

              Dave responds by trashing the Seminary in the media.

              Bad press all around. Christian community hurting and bruised and in need of words of hope. The Orthodox church as a whole is wounded! My God!

              Then along comes Marilynne Robinson, on her book tour about her new book “What are We Doing Here?”. She pens an essay that does not describe the situation at the seminary in the best possible light, but instead insists that the whole episode proves that Americans don’t properly understand the Puritans. Liberals, both Christian and Secular, hold this essay up to complain about how Evangelicals, and Conservative Christians in general, are uniquely responsible for Donald Trump’s election and that these events expose the hypocrisy of the Right writ large. Ex-members of the Orthodox church see this as one more example of why they no longer are members of such a backwards faith. Other, more malicious folk, claim this article prove that Christianity is illegitimate.

Chris: Quite a story, you missed some point and embellished others and maybe even got a few facts wrong… but a good story. Do you think there is any change Rod Dreher will repent for his article?

‘Gus: Well, he is a Christian, isn’t he?