“Christian love has its claims, and divisions are to be shunned as grievous evils; but how far are we justified in being in confederacy with those who are departing from the truth? It is a difficult question to answer so as to keep the balance of the duties. For the present it behooves believers to be cautious, lest they lend their support and countenance to the betrayers of the Lord. It is one thing to overleap all boundaries of denominational restriction for the truth’s sake: this we hope all godly men will do more and more. It is quite another policy which would urge us to subordinate the maintenance of truth to denominational prosperity and unity. Numbers of easy-minded people wink at error so long as it is committed by a clever man and a good-natured brother, who has so many fine points about him. Let each believer judge for himself; but, for our part, we have put on a few fresh bolts to our door, and we have given orders to keep the chain up; for, under colour of begging the friendship of the servant, there are those about who aim at robbing the Master.” – Charles Spurgeon
The Louisiana College board of trustees, led by the undue influence of David Hankins, has decided to remove scandal-ridden Joe Aguillard and to bestow upon him the title of Emeritus, while at the same time keeping him employed as a tenured professor (and receiving his president’s salary until August of 2015 and then a salary of 133k as a professor after that). Hankins’ Aguillard’s misdeeds include forgery, misappropriation of funds, continued deceit and dishonesty and – most atrociously – firing professors for a fake plot he knew was contrived (in his own words) by David Hankins and firing the whistleblowers alerting the proper authorities of his misdeeds.
The board of trustees chose to ignore all this evidence last May, and now that it has been brought the attention of Louisiana Baptists via the press, has chosen to reluctantly remove Aguillard from office, while salvaging his income and what’s left of his reputation (although the latter is a futile ambition), and they have chosen to do as little as possible to make an appearance of hearing our concerns while lifting the proverbial middle finger to Louisiana Baptists, their oath of fidelity to the institution, and to their responsibilities as trustee. In short, saying the trustees “failed” is inaccurate. In reality, the Board of Trustees succeeded in showing their contempt for both truth and for Louisiana Baptists.
Demanding an airtight gag-order that forbade the trustees from speaking of what transpired in today’s proverbial smoke-filled back room from even their wives, these men paved the way to do insurmountable deeds of darkness without having to explain the details to those to whom they are accountable. Telling the trustees that SACS required such a new confidentially statement was proven a lie by the secular media before their meeting was even over – and still the majority of that board decided to cover sin and then reward it.
Showing the undue influence of David Hankins continues, they selected disgraced and proven liar, Argile Smith to replace Joe Aguillard in the interim. Keep in mind, Argile Smith was the one who was caught on audio threatening a student for speaking truth. Smith was caught again in a lie that ended the employment of three innocent professors as he lied about Chuck Quarles demanding he teach Calvinism – audio of that meeting was released that proves the very opposite. And yet in spite of this man’s bullying and repeated dishonesty – nay, because of this man’s bullying and dishonesty – he was chosen to replace dishonest bully, Joe Aguillard.
And before I’m done with this brief history, let me put it into public record – I believe the man they’ll find to replace Joe Aguillard (after a year-long search) will be…Joe Aguillard.
Louisiana Baptists, it’s time to come out of Babylon. The system is broken. Write ‘Ichabod’ above the door and find a new home.
