Save Our Shorter wishes to make clear its policy on posting comments to articles posted here. The purpose of this website is two-fold.
It was created to allow departing faculty, staff and students as well as supporters of the Shorter that we knew prior to the Dowless administration and the Fundamentalist take-over to have a place to give voice to their disappointment and opposition, because the current administration refused true dialog with them.
It was also created to shed light on the incidents that brought the changes espoused by the current administration to fruition. Our intent is to speak to the issues at hand as well as to relate those moves by the Georgia Baptist Convention Fundamentalists which brought us to this place. Much more will be posted on the issues in the coming weeks.
In the past few days, we have received comments to be posted which reveal the darker side of the Fundamentalist movement. Individuals with no knowledge of the players in this tragedy have attacked or attempted to attack faculty, staff students and alumni in a manner that is unacceptable.
Those individuals submitting comments are as follows:
I think it’s uplifting that dozens of un-Christian blasphemers are leaving a Christian university that is standing up for God’s Word instead of man’s.
Jay McHue – Nevada
It is sad to see you go, but then as a parent of a prospective student…I am glad to see those who should “know better” to leave. Practice your overt moral decline elsewhere.
Clive Smith
While your empassioned diatribe drips with the sentimentality of a life and career of a wandering, as well as wondering existentialist, it is a shame to see such a committment to the fallacy of a religion that has an appearance of godliness but denies the power of Truth.
I believe Shorter University has been done a great service by your departure and I am thankful that the students will no longer be subject to such an inaccurate representation of Christianity.
Chuck Swope
Any more comments of this type will not be approved for publication and the poster’s comments will be identified as spam and deleted.
If you wish to denigrate Shorter faculty, staff, students, alumni or friends, please feel free to start your own webpage.
SaveOurShorter
SaveOurShorter 
Good statement. Some of the comments remind me of the Lee Roberts assault on Kirby Godsey and Mercer 30 years ago. To the fundamentalist detractors, please read the Annointed.
How completely un-Christian and unloving these people are. Maybe if they read their bible a little more carefully, they would read where Jesus said “Love one another” and “Judge not, lest ye be judged”
Amen, SOS!
Who are you to think you know what God’s word is? You don’t speak for him. It is your interpretation of God’s word, a skewed and withered interpretation. One that hates instead of loves, One that judges instead of accepts. It is like a new employee undermining his boss. Who are you to know what’s best? God is the only one that gets to decide here, not you.
I would implore you to reconsider censoring comments that are simply distasteful or overtly critical of your views. No doubt, there have been comments that are demeaning and hurtful from both sides of the aisle. I’ve personally read the comments you’ve referred to in this posting, and have also been at the receiving end of personal insults and vulgar comments (which went largely unscrutinized by fellow readers). There is always risk involved in submitting our ideas and concerns to the public domain, and I applaud your courage and conviction. While positive feedback can affirm the validity and solidarity of our concerns…negative feedback, even when less charitable than we prefer, can provide meaningful accountability as well. It guards our hearts from becoming inflated with pride and prompts us to consider alternative viewpoints that we may have previously been less inclined to examine. As champions of academic freedom, I do hope you reconsider this policy, even if it means tolerating the intolerable at times, for the greater good of an open, honest, transparent, public discourse.
Actually, Mr Arnold, you have only read one of the comments we referred to, as the other two where never published in their entirety. As to the comments that may be distasteful or overly critical to our views, we have no problem with publishing those items. We will not, however, condone personal insults or vulgar comments here.
We clearly recognize that all may not agree with our stance, however you must remember that we read the comments and there is no fear of our hearts are, as you put it, inflated with pride.
If you care to discuss open, honest, transparent public discourse, I suggest first that you talk with your employers and the GBC. We do not mean this harshly, we simply are fighting for the truth about the current events at Shorter and more broadly, the GBC’s accountability to their constituency.
Again, isn’t it weird that a Christian University would want you to live by BIBLICAL and MORAL principles. Jesus told folks to GO AND SIN NO MORE! To bad the only scripture folks cling to is do not judge.
Jesus told many he healed and encountered to GO AND SIN NO MORE…you forget that God is a god of righteousness as well as a God of love.
I think God does not want anyone to be a marionette in the faith but it looks like that is what Shorter is trying to turn its faculty into. Jesus was never unwilling to talk to or explain things to people who had different opinions. Jesus does not give up on people even when they give up on themselves. Jesus never took the easy way out.
Is eliminating anyone who disagrees with them, the Shorter administration’s best way to follow Jesus’ lead and example? Is this really how they intend to try to win over and include all people who could come into the Kingdom of Heaven through the Grace of Christ?
The last time I read about a wall (metaphorical or otherwise) being built around a faith was the city of Theresienstadt…. not good.
So silly…this kind of “thinking” has already been perfectly described in Isaiah…”Woe to those who called evil good and good evil.” Formulating beliefs based on emotions almost always brings a smile to Satan’s face.
It’s very sad and pathetic that people let “what feels right” decide their opinions.
You claim that you want an open dialogue, yet you censor the opinions of your opposition. No doubt, some in support of the changes at Shorter have written distasteful, un-Christian things, but so have some in support of the SOS movement. They haven’t been censored, so why censor your opponents? Just a thought…
Shorter Student: I’m copying the saveourshorter comment from above:
“As to the comments that may be distasteful or overly critical to our views, we have no problem with publishing those items. We will not, however, condone personal insults or vulgar comments here.”
We all know there are ways to voice your displeasure or disagreement without using language that you wouldn’t use in front of your mother, pastor, or if Jesus were sitting next to you as you type – because he is.
Fun fact- shortly after SOS posted this reply to my comment, they deleted several other comments of mine on their site that were appropriate (were not personally insulting or vulgar), but generally unsupportive of their views. One comment, for example, encouraged SOS to embody Paul’s advice to the Corinthians when he suggested that “love is not easily offended” (1 Cor. 13:5) when they suggested that Betty Zane Morris was owed an apology because she wasn’t “treated like a southern lady” when criticized publicly in a recent interview (despite the fact that she has been among the most outspoken critics in the public sphere). Other comments that are viciously rude, insulting, and vulgar have been left unmoderated. For example, SOS seemed to have no problem w/an alum of the music program at Shorter making vulgar comments about my genitalia or calling me “dumber than a hamster.” Seems like the threshold for what is considered inappropriate is quite high for those who want to insult Shorter and its policies, but low for those who wish to scrutinize the SOS movement. Wish they would play by their own rules.
Mr Arnold – The two offending comments have been removed. Please be aware that we were publishing all comments prior to posting the comment policy, regardless of their content. Very negative comments toward those who disagree with the purpose of this website have been published. We found it necessary to restrict some of the comments that were submitted. We are not aware of a comment of yours which has not been posted, however you are subject to the same rules as are posted here. Thank you for your interest in Save Our Shorter.
Fun fact: Shortly after posting their reply to my comment, SOS deleted several of my comments. None were inappropriate (vulgar, personally insulting), but were generally critical of their views. I can provide specific examples, if necessary (the comments either never saw the light of day or were shortly deleted). Sadly, many comments that any reasonable person would think to be inappropriate, including vulgar comments about genitalia and remarks about how I am “dumber than a hamster” have been largely unmoderated. Seems as if their tolerance for inappropriate comments that are critical of Shorter is quite high, well the acceptable threshold for comments that scrutinize their opinions is quite low. Wish they would play by their own rules.
Dear Ms. Cordle,
Thank you for the reply to my earlier post. My argument is not that no one should be censored, but that if your opposition is censored for calling others “blasphemers” and “wandering and wondering existentialists,” that you also censor your supporters who hurl insults just as strongly. Choose to censor or choose not to censor. Don’t be wishy-washy about it. Kind of parallels your views on immorality in Christian education though, doesn’t it?
And let’s just go ahead and add a little more Scripture to the mix. I think you’ll all be familiar with this one. It comes from the Matthew 7.
“Do not judge, or you too will be judged. For in the same way you judge others, you will be judged, and with the measure you use, it will be measured to you.”
That is both the first AND second verse of that passage. In context the first verse is subordinate to the second, meaning that we are not to judge others unless we are prepared to be subject to that same judgment. Pair this with TGT’s comment below and you get a deadly duo: Christians are to hold each other accountable for their sins, and God holds the unsaved accountable. If a Christian holds his brother in Christ to a certain standard, saying, “You should not…” he must also be willing to adhere to this same judgement from the brother and from Christ.
So my comment is not that SOS censor no one, but everyone IF they censor at all. And IF they consider themselves Christians, I would argue that they be willing to be censored for using unChristian language and discourse too. We should all be held accountable for what we say on here, not a choice few.
“But now I am writing to you not to associate with anyone who bears the name of brother if he is guilty of sexual immorality or greed, or is an idolater, reviler, drunkard, or swindler—not even to eat with such a one. For what have I to do with judging outsiders? Is it not those inside the church whom you are to judge? God judges those outside. ‘Purge the evil person from among you’” (1 Corinthians 5:11-13)
Shorter is more than a school: as a Christian institution, the individuals who make up Shorter University make up part of the Church.
Dear Georgia Taliban (TGT),
I agree with the Scripture passage you decided to use. It is refreshing to see a passage of Scripture that addresses such hot button issues as homosexuality and other forms of immorality in a way that does not demean those who live the lifestyle outside of the realm of the Church. As Christians, we are to hold each other accountable to God’s standard, not the standard we set for ourselves. As a Christian institution, I believe that Shorter must ask its employees to agree with these instructions to the Church. All these and more changes should be made to strengthen the faith of the faculty and staff.
P.S. I realize that your name is meant to make a mockery of some of the names SOS members have called you, but I believe it may send a humorous, but still mixed message. I sincerely hope that you are not put on a watchlist.