Comments on: The Eichhoefer Case at Greenville: A Tenured Professor Fired for Anti-Establishment Agitation

By: Anonymous

Anonymous — Wed, 05 Nov 2008 17:48:27 +0000

I am a former Greenville College student too. I was a Math and CIS major and took several classes with Dr Eichoefer, one of the sharpest men I met in my lifetime. In my last COR 401 class for seniors, I was given a “D” by Dr Manoia (the former president of GC) for writing a paper that stating similar ideas and fact about Greenville College. Greenville College is a hypocritical place filled with fake Christians…

By: admin

admin — Fri, 22 Dec 2006 23:02:13 +0000

Those who subvert Christianity rarely admit what they are doing. Rather, they claim they are just restating Christianity in new language, even when it is clear they are abandoning its historical tenets. Do the religion professors make people stay as Christians who would otherwise repudiate the faith? A common tactic of religious liberals is to encourage young people to repudiate the tenets of Christianity, but not openly– to, instead, still claim to be Christians. You can disbelieve, and still please your parents. You might, for example, disbelieve in miracles and think that therefore you couldn’t be a Christian, but the liberal will say that such disbelief is no obstacle to calling yourself a Christian or being a pastor. Even– or perhaps, especially– when they are doing so, liberals undermining Christianity complain mightily if someone reveals their dishonesty. They aren’t willing to come out straightforwardly and say that they think the Church is built on lies.

I don’t know that that is what happened at Greenville, and perhaps it didn’t. But what is quite clear is that the College was (a) suppressing academic freedom, and (b) lying about it. That’s what the AAUP, not known for any special affection for Christianity, found.

Eric Rasmusen

By: Jack Chism

Jack Chism — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 19:05:00 +0000

I was involved in the Eichhoefer case, and the AAUP referred to me as Jerry’s “staunchest supporter.” I’m not sure if that’s true, but I was certainly a visible one whether I wanted to be or not. Many of his other supporters were afraid to be publicly identified because of fear of retaliation. I suspect that this will put some restraint on comments that they might post here, in his support. (unless you were to provide a way for their names to be withheld)

The religion department’s hostility to evangelical faith at Greenville did not occur just recently; I’ve seen evidence of it for decades. Not all members of the department shared it fully; and individual members adjusted their views as time went by. But the dominant position came to be one of condescending ridicule toward evangelical faith and toward Christian exclusivism. Many of us were pleased to see someone with the courage to criticize it, even if some of us thought that Jerry may have swept too wide a stroke. This was unfortunate, because his subsequent termination has solidified the fear of saying anything at all critical of GC’s program of faith development.

One discouraging symptom of these deep troubles has been the complete inability to set up a courteous dialog about the issues involved. Dialog is what Jerry pleaded for in every one of his public communications. In the midst of the angry reactions to Jerry’s first couple of mass emails, both Dr. Rick McPeak of the religion department and I tried to set up conciliatory meetings between the aggrieved parties. Rick and I had understandably different reactions to Jerry’s positions (understandable because Rick had come under criticism in Jerry’s paper, and Rick believes that the criticism was both inaccurate and unfair) But both of us were troubled by the outpourings of hateful rhetoric that were occurring, and wanted to help find peace.

What might have helped would have been this: Numerous people, reacting to Jerry’s emails, were heard to say that he had said false things, or had committed logical errors. But it was impossible to get those people to list what the falsehoods and errors were, at least within Jerry’s hearing, so that he could respond with whatever evidence or reasoning he might want to offer.

It may be that Jerry said things that were incorrect; but we could not find out. His accusers insisted on working entirely behind his back, and on attacking his character rather than challenging his specific assertions. One of the earliest, angriest, and most repeated accusations against him was that “Jerry claimed in his first email that members of the religion department did not believe in the physical resurrection of Christ.” But that email is now part of the public record, so that anyone can read it and search for such an accusation. They will not find it, or even an implication of such. His critics apparently had given it an angry, hasty misreading.

This is the kind of fact-issue that I wish we all could have confronted together. If Dr. Eichhoefer said things that were unfair or untrue, he should have been confronted with them in detail so that he could retract them and apologize. On the other hand, if some of his complaints had value, those deserved to be addressed by the faculty. None of this was allowed to happen.

I genuinely believe that Greenville could have profited and grown if we had honestly sat down and talked through the various complaints–his about the college’s program of faith development; and his accusers’ about the fairness or accuracy of his criticisms. I pleaded with numerous people of influence to bring about such dialog, but failed totally.

Now the faculty tries to get along, but with some key subjects totally taboo. I’m so sad for the demise of the loving, collegial, Christian spirit that once prevailed here. Many are now afraid to make spontaneous comments to each other.

By: Dan Coulter

Dan Coulter — Wed, 19 Jul 2006 14:03:02 +0000

First off: during my time as a student of Computer Science at Greenville College, Dr Eichhoefer was my advisor. I enjoyed his CS classes. I have nothing against him. When he wrote those emails to the whole campus, however, he attacked the Religion department and said things that are just not true about them. Many of the professors in the religion department considered his emails libelous. Dr. Rick McPeak is misrepresented in this article. He has done more for the faith of countless students that anyone else. I doubt that I would still attend church if it weren’t for him and other members of the Greenville College religion department. In Eichhoefers email, he said that McPeak was “stealing students’ faith.” Also, none of the religion professors replied in an email to the entire campus. They sent their concerns directly to Eichhoefer, even the threatening email above (written by Dr. Boyd who later accepted Eichhoefer’s partial apology). Eichhoefer then forwarded their comments to the whole college which I consider to be a large breach of email etiquette.

I don’t think that the college treated Eichhoefer entirely fairly when they fired him, but I’m not sure that I can be very sympathetic with him. There was a lot more history here than the article suggests. It gives a very simplistic one-sided view of things.

Also, the religion department is not the largest. The music department employs at least seven full time professors (by my count).

Feel free to contact me if you would like to discuss this further.