Thread by @BenjLesLantz

I’ve said several things about @BCS_MN recently on Twitter. And yet, I still have so many memories and thoughts. And I’m still processing through some of the hurt.

In one thread, I claimed that BCS has a toxic, “power through fear” culture. 1/

In another, I claimed that the faculty/admins were complicit in this culture (i.e., the problem isn’t an individual; it’s the institution). In this thread, I want to give substance to those claims. 2/

I want to do that by recounting some of my experiences in class with a specific prof, and by underlining how the Deans at BCS responded when I brought these troubling experiences to light. 3/

Experience 1: Early in my M.Div program, this prof once made the remark in class that “the NT does not give any precedent for us to say we ‘go to church.’” I did a quick Logos search and found an example in 1 Cor that I thought countered his assertion. 4/

I brought that up to him briefly and privately during a break or at the end of the class. He literally responded to me, “Oh, don’t go there. I will *destroy* you!” 😬😳

And then he carried on with an extensive rebuttal of why that counterexample was invalid. 5/

Ex. 2: There seemed to be an unwritten rule that you couldn’t interrupt the prof in class. He had little patience for students who would try to verbally process in class.
Once, a student tried to verbally process in the middle of one of the prof’s pauses, 6/

and the prof literally began to “shh” him, like you might “shh” a child.

When the student continued for several seconds even after the prof’s “shh-ing” got increasingly louder, the prof raised his voice, and only semi-jokingly shouted, “Shut up!!!” in front of my cohort. 7/

Ex. 3: How the prof talked about those who disagreed with his theological opinions. Case in point: egalitarians. He once cracked a joke about how egalitarians were not “faithful Bible readers.” The class laughed, I think.
I didn’t. I didn’t find the joke honest or helpful. 8/

I can’t underestimate how effective those types of actions were in maintaining a culture of fear. During many of these experiences (and there were many, many more I could recount here) I was a baby seminarian at John Piper’s seminary, and still a little infatuated with Piper. 9/

And this prof’s tone and actions in class made it very clear that I’d better not step out of line if I wanted to succeed. That set the tone for all the classes in the following 4 years. It affected how I walked into *all* of my classes at BCS. 10/

I also can’t emphasize enough that the Deans at BCS *knew* about the prof’s actions. I submitted a pdf with a dozen of these incidents occurring over four years. They read (and probably re-read) about the specific things the prof had done and said in class over four years. 11/

They *knew.*

But how did they respond? They refused to see or acknowledge how wrong the prof’s actions were. They refused to be transparent with me in how they would hold the prof accountable in the future. Rather, the *most* they said to me was “I’m sorry you were hurt,” 12/

and strongly implied that I was harboring bitterness toward the prof and should have brought these concerns to him personally years ago.

But it took me four years to be able to put the pieces of the puzzle together! It took me four years to see the patterns. 13/

When in retrospect I saw what happened over four years and submitted the pdf, the Deans essentially accused me of being too sensitive and harboring bitterness. And the prof continues to roam free. Yes, there’s a culture of power through fear at BCS. And yes, the admins know. 14/

If you are a student @BCS_MN or at another Christian organization, and you find yourself saying “something’s not right” all the time, then trust your instincts!

Read “Something’s Not Right” by @wademullen, or “A Church Called Tov” by @scotmcknight and @laurambarringer, 15/

or “Redeeming Power” by @DianeLangberg.

And reach out to me or @TheSwedishIvy via DM. We’ll listen and help find you resources.

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