A Press Release On Soul Force Q From Louisiana College Where I Teach As An Adjunct

Press Release – From October 23, 2008

As of this writing, Soul Force Q has indicated that they will endeavor to hold a candlelight vigil in Pineville tonight but will not trespass on our campus property. We appreciate that commitment. Our position on such activities is listed below.

Louisiana College has long stood as a proponent of learning and free inquiry. The foundation for the college’s mission and policies is a shared set of beliefs and values that reflect our commitment to biblical authority and our deep respect for our Louisiana Baptist heritage. Our living faith is established upon sacred eternal truths, including the sacred relationship between a man and woman in marriage, and not on the winds of societal changes and the shifting sands of political social mores. Discussion of ideologies that are antithetical to our doctrinal beliefs is common on our campus and is appropriate under the wise teaching of committed Christian faculty. Discussion of competing views does not constitute endorsement of them.

Organizations such as the Minnesota-based Soul Force Q, a lesbian, gay, bisexual, and transgender group who wish to force their ideological framework upon our private campus, represent an infringement upon the personal privacy of students, faculty, and staff and are not allowed to choose our private campus as a public forum to express their antithetical views. While their cause will be the subject of much discussion at our College in the days to come, we will not allow the disruption they would bring by forcing their personal agenda on the day-to-day orderly pursuit of our educational mission.

We compassionately pray for them and we also stand firm upon our decision not to allow their anti-biblical worldview to be promoted as “acceptable” at Louisiana College. We further believe that this is highly instructive for our students in a day and age where a country once founded upon a set of diverse yet united beliefs has been rendered unrecognizable from those early days. We hold fast to the words attributed to James Madison, primary author of the constitution of the United States reported from the report, Forsaken Roots, “We have staked the whole future of our new nation, not upon the power of government; far from it. We have staked the future of all our political constitutions upon the capacity of each of ourselves to govern ourselves according to the moral principles of the Ten Commandments.” Those commandments and our position in regard to them have not changed.

Joe Aguillard

President, Louisiana College