Thread by @BenjLesLantz

I’ve been thinking. A few people at least have accused me of slandering @BCS_MN via Twitter. So here are some thoughts re: claims of “slander,” and re: a thoroughly inadequate institutional response on the part of BCS over the past years. 1/

Overall I had a terrible experience over four years at BCS. It climaxed in April 2020 in a confrontation with a prof in a Zoom classroom, in front of my cohort. At the end of this confrontation (which I had tried to de-escalate, and which my prof had insisted on escalating), 2/

This prof had told me that my opinions and words were “sinful to the core,” and that I needed to “stop blaming others” for the escalation in class, that I needed to “reach out to him” with an apology later, because he sure as heck wasn’t going to reach out to me to reconcile. 3/

Again, this happened *in a live class.* In front of my entire cohort. And the prof took absolutely *no* responsibility for the situation. None. I was “sinful to the core,” and literally the only way I could talk to him was if I came with an apology. 4/

Fast forward to October 2020. I tweet about what a crappy experience I had at BCS, and how @scotmcknight and @laurambarringer’s book on Tov helped me see the toxicity there for what it was. People cry “slander!” How could I say those things in good conscience? 5/

I’ll tell you.

I spent essentially all of April- October seeking some sort of respectful resolution. I was in countless hours of talks with the interim academic Dean, with other members of the faculty (including the counseling profs), 6/

with faculty at other colleges, with current and former pastors, and with current and former students at BCS. I even had an email exchange with the abusive prof, which proved to me very quickly that he was not willing to own any wrongdoing. 7/

Alongside all of this, I spent days in tears, stunned at the reaction of my prof, but even more so at the reactions of my cohort mates, who were only too ready to stab me in the back for the sake of the prof and the organization. 8/

I lived with PTSD symptoms for weeks after the classroom incident. I was always on adrenaline, I was so numb I couldn’t care for my kids, I woke up in the middle of the night with flashbacks and the line “sinful to the core” running incessantly in my head. 9/

My wife and I felt like pariahs at the school, and felt like we’d lost “friends” left and right that we had walked through 4 years of studies and sweat and tears with. 10/

In response to a therapist, I reached out to students and alumni to see if they had concerns about the prof similar to my concerns. I found that in a period of four years, nearly 25 students (at this very small school this is about 15% of the student body over four years) 11/

had almost identical confrontations or experiences with this prof. Some had more horrific experiences than mine. Several students had come to the faculty of the school with these concerns in the years before I graduated. And their concerns were “sympathetically” dismissed, 11/

by people high on the admin/faculty, and *nothing* was done with the prof. I began to realize that the prof wasn’t the problem; the institution was the problem. 12/

I had dragged tooth and nail to try to get the faculty/admins to even take my story seriously and take *any* step to hold the prof accountable. 13/

Long story short, my testimony was “sympathetically” swept under the rug because what happened in the classroom “did not qualify as spiritual abuse.”That was the last straw. I had taken my concerns through all the proper channels. 14/

I had spoken to faculty of the College & Seminary, as well as to elders at BBC (where the prof was *also* an elder. I had come with other students sharing the same experiences and the same concerns. All the avenues had failed. 15/

And at that point, to be honest, I was done. I’d graduated with my M.Div. I was getting therapy and my wife and I were recovering from the past four years. BCS was getting farther and farther in the rear-view mirror. I get free to speak the truth. 16/

At this point if my skeptics are still reading this tweet, they’re probably decrying this whole thing as slander. But here’s the deal: Matthew 18 (however we apply or misapply it) isn’t the only text on conflict resolution. Acts 16 is paradigmatic too. 17/

When Paul is falsely accused by magistrates and thrown into a Philippians jail, and when the low-level jailer is sent to smooth it over, Paul doesn’t take the deal. In instances of widespread institutional failure, escalation is in order. 18/

Paul knows the jailer can’t fix what the magistrates broke. And I know that a one-on-one conversation with any individual at Bethlehem College & Seminary cannot undo the tremendous damage that the institution has exacted on me, my wife, our relationships, 19/

and on the many students and alum who share the same trauma. You’ve had your turn to respond, @BCS_MN. And you’ve failed. And at this point I’m just going to speak up about my experiences and hope that it gives a voice and a clarity to those who haven’t had it until now. 20/