- Faculty Commons
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This article is about a Campus Crusade for Christ ministry. For other uses, see Faculty commons (disambiguation).
Faculty Commons (known until 2007 as Christian Leadership Ministries, CLM[1][2]) is the faculty ministry of the Campus Crusade for Christ. Its aim is to "disciple and mentor Christian professors" with a goal of 500 "Faculty Affiliates" (faculty members promoting CLM aims) and at least three Faculty Affiliates in each of the 100 largest universities in the United States of America, to enable these professors to "continually saturate [their] campus with the gospel, and fully integrate their faith into their academic discipline and culture".[3][4]
Through its Leadership University website, Faculty Commons maintains "Virtual Faculty Offices" for Christian professors affiliated with it, including a number of members of the intelligent design movement (for whom it also maintains archives of their writings[5]), most prominently Phillip E. Johnson and William Dembski, and Roe v. Wade plaintiff turned pro-life advocate Norma McCorvey.[6]
Contents
Rationale
According to a poll cited by the CLM website, "only 30% of the entire student population is being exposed to the gospel of Jesus Christ even once in an academic year", which led CLM to conclude "[a] Christian professor sharing a brief Christian testimony the first day of class may be the ONLY Christian witness that many students will hear while they are in college."[3]
National Faculty Leadership Conferences
CLM has sponsored the National Faculty Leadership Conferences since about 1982.[7] The 2008 conference included J. P. Moreland, Richard Pratt, and William Lane Craig as plenary speakers.[8]
Involvement in the wedge strategy
See also: Wedge strategyCLM is one of the most prominent religious organizations aligned with the wedge strategy of the intelligent design movement. The CLM chapter at the Southern Methodist University, Dallas Christian Leadership, was a co-sponsor of the 1992 wedge conference,[3] that intelligent design movement founder Phillip E. Johnson later described as the movement's "public debut" which "brought together as speakers some key wedge figures, particularly Michael Behe, Stephen Meyer, William Dembski, and myself."[9] CLM were also the sponsors of the Mere Creation conference held at Biola University in 1996,[3][10] which their director of research and publications, Rich McGee, directed[3] and presented a paper at.[11] The papers presented at it were later published as an anthology of the same title,[12] and CLM devoted a special edition of their webzine The Real Issue to a special report on it.[3] McGee also directed the 'Consultation on Intelligent Design' at the Discovery Institute in 1997[13] and CLM was co-sponsor (with Ravi Zacharias Ministries International) of a Wedge conference on 'God and the Academy' in 2000.[14]
CLM also sponsored a lecture by intelligent design advocate Michael Behe at Princeton University on "Intelligent Design: Implications for Science and Belief in God", which was apparently later released as a videocassette by the Access Research Network.[15]
Accusation of unconstitutional proselytization
In With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military, Michael Weinstein and Davin Seay accuse CLM of engaging in unconstitutional proselytization at the United States Air Force Academy. This included placing an advertisement in 2003 in the academy newspaper Academy Spirit. The advertisement, which included 200 signatures from Academy officers and spouses declared that "belie[f] in Jesus is the only real hope for the world" that "there is salvation in no one else" and directing students to contact them to "discuss Jesus" was described as having the potential to be perceived by students as "a suggestion, an order or a non-too-subtle-hint" from "some of the most important and influential authority figures at the Academy" who were among the signatories. Weinstein concludes "In one fell swoop, their role at the Academy became a means to further their missionary objective."[16] The Academy also, as an explicitly officially sponsored event, presented a talk on 'Why We Cannot Let You Have Your God While We Have Ours' in coordination with CLM.[17]
See also
Notes
- ^ The Two Tasks of the Christian Scholar: Redeeming the Soul, Redeeming the Mind, William Lane Craig, et al., p20
- ^ The organisation is however more widely known under the name 'Christian Leadership Ministries'. See, for example, Forrest and Gross (2004), Weinstein and Seay, and their own web pages at http://www.leaderu.com/msu/chapter17.html Chapter 17 Christian Leadership Ministries Involvement, Going Native in Ministry, Part Four: Regrets, Chapter 6: the World at Your Door
- ^ a b c d e f Forrest and Gross (2204) p 268, quoting Christian Leadership Ministries: Affiliate Program at the Wayback Machine (archived November 7, 2001)
- ^ Thayer Notes (Alumni News), John Walkup, Dartmouth Engineer, Summer 2008
- ^ Forrest and Gross (2004) p177
- ^ Virtual Faculty Offices of Christian Professors, Leadership University
- ^ Chapter 17 Christian Leadership Ministries Involvement
- ^ Christians in Engineering and Technology Newsletter
- ^ The Wedge Breaking the Modernist Monopoly on Science Phillip E. Johnson. Touchstone magazine.
- ^ Intelligent Design Creationism and Its Critics: Philosophical, Theological, and Scientific Perspectives Robert T. Pennock. MIT Press, 2001. Pages 10-11
- ^ Forrest and Gross (2004) p59
- ^ Mere Creation: Science, Faith & Intelligent Design
- ^ Forrest and Gross (2004) pp 196, 278
- ^ Forrest and Gross (2004) p196
- ^ Forrest and Gross (2004) p71 and footnote 76 (p329)
- ^ Weinstein and Davin Seay (2006), pp 58-59
- ^ Weinstein and Davin Seay (2006), p 60
References
- Barbara Forrest and Paul R. Gross, Creationism's Trojan Horse. Oxford University Press, (January 8, 2004) ISBN 0195157427
- Weinstein, Michael; Davin Seay (2006). With God on Our Side: One Man's War Against an Evangelical Coup in America's Military. Thomas Dunne Books. ISBN 0312361432.
External links
- Faculty Commons CLM website
- CLM Leadership University website
Categories:- Evangelical parachurch organisations
- Intelligent design organizations
- Student religious organizations in the United States
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