Keith, as usual, you miss the point. I don’t know if that is purposeful or not.

The ‘whiplash’ I refer to is the “now you’re fired, now you’re hired” back and forth. The Mickey Mouse operation I criticize is the Patz family over-ruling the board and showing their school to be little more than a family play thing, not really a serious attempt at providing an educational institution.

But by all means, continue on in your obfuscation. It’s what you do best.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

PS: Keith, just an additional note, I’ve given you one comment, you are just being argumentative as usual, and I’ll not give you any additional comments. I’m not interested in an argument. If you want to say more, get your own blog. It’s easy enough to do.

And, if we’re going to talk about whiplash well then I’m not sure how the prize for that goes to any place other than BJU. Let’s see, Interracial dating is wrong — oops no it’s not; Women need to wear hats to worship on Sunday — oops, no they don’t; Beards represent rebellion and association with the world — oops, no they don’t; Intercollegiate sports are bad — oops, no they aren’t; And, the list could go on.

Institutional change is inevitable and often good. The key is how do institutions implement change. I do agree with you that there’s a lot of spinning and institutional amnesia in how “our schools” implement change (who can forget Bob III’s “this rule that we never talk about” reference to a rule he fought for all the way to the Supreme Court?). They ought to just speak straight.

Of course, when you are working with a subculture that has been taught that change is always compromise and will always result in liberalism, it’s pretty tough to implement any change at all without arousing all kinds of shooting from the peanut gallery. That being the case, if any of “our schools” are going to travel the road from sham to legitimate, they may just find that the road looks a lot like this pot hole infested trail that NIU’s been navigating.

Matthew,

Thank you for commenting. I haven’t been on the campus for some time, but the “spirit” of the students is no measure of a school and its spirituality.

In this piece I am expressing my opinions about what the recent shenanigans in Dunbar mean. However, I think I will now follow my friend Jeff’s advice and give it a rest. I am quite confident that bizarre things will continue to occur in the woods of Wisconsin.

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer 33.3

Fair enough Jeff. I assume that means you will no longer be commenting on any of the NI”U” threads on SI, right?

Maranatha!
Don Johnson
Jer33.3

Note: this poster used a fake email address. Who knows whether his/her name is Robert or Robin?

Well, I am not a fan of the intercollegiate sports, but I think they have done a few similar events prior to that one. We need to hold the leaders of the schools accountable, however, as alums and supporters. It isn’t a matter of being cranks, but being vocal. Schools are lost when their supporters remain concerned but mute.

Speaking about trial balloons, I wonder if BJUs “one-time-only” athletic game with Furman several years ago was a trial balloon for the start of its intercollegiate sports involvement. I remember that, at the time, the school strongly insisted that its Thanksgiving game with Furman was “one-time-only”. Apparently not.