The following is a transcript from the Pulpit & Pen Program earlier this week, regarding the corruption of David Hankins, Joe Aguillard, Argile Smith and Tommy French.
I’m trying to steer clear of all the problems in the SBC. Again, I don’t know how much I want to give the play-by-play of the sinking of the Titanic, but by a certain point you get the point; Leonardo DiCaprio is dying on an iceberg and it’s overall depressing. The SBC is a plane that is running out of fuel and is about to collapse into a mountain or about to have a head-on collision, whatever analogy want to use. This is depressing to talk about, when you see the rotting, bloated corpse of the Bible Belt and the the fact that it’s too late for CPR.
You can see from my post from last Friday posted on the Pulpit and Pen that LC tried to beat the Town Talk to the punch concerning the release of a SACS document. Now, let me give you the basic summary of what’s happening. Last Friday, on the program, I said that the Town Talk this Sunday was going to release an article that was going to have within it the letter sent by SACS putting LC on probation (now, just to remind you again, the Pulpit and Pen was talking about Louisiana college before Louisiana College was cool). I was talking about [Louisiana College] before almost any others were. You’re about to see a lot of people talking about LC in the coming days. Again, just to remind you, there were a few students – like Ken Fryer, Drew Wells, Josh Breland, Cody Kingham – and then of the former professor who was fired, [Rondall] Reynoso, and another professor who had left, Scott Culpepper and few trustees like Jay Adkins and Heath Veuleman. All of those men that I just named are men of extreme integrity (even Rondall [Reynoso] who is a bit of a social liberal; he has been blameless in all of this in my opinion, has been speaking truth longer than almost anyone). These men have been talking about [the Louisiana College scandal) but it kind of died down – and then, SACS dropped the probation and gave full accreditation back Louisiana College earlier this year.
This was shortly after the Pulpit and Pen Program began and one of the things that the LC said in a press release is that SACS had “exonerated Joe [Aguillard]; that all the charges brought against him by the whistleblowers (being Timothy Johnson and Chuck Quarrels). That’s the history. That’s when Ken Fryer posted something on the Pulpit and Pen and then we went to work. I began to report on this and people sent me documents and the first thing that I brought to the public’s attention – which no one else at the time knew – is that Joe’s homosexual drug using assistant Joseph Cole (by the way everything I’m saying is my opinion so it’s not to be considered a statement of fact, just in case you want to sue me) Joe’s homosexual drug using assistant had overseen some documents being forged, supposedly at the command of Joe [Aguillard] and some on the Board of Trustees paid him off $35,000 to sign a statement of confidentiality. That’s what was was released by the Pulpit and Pen website and on this program and then, as they say, it “hit the fan” and then like a snowball headed towards hell it continued to build up steam as information continued to be thrown to us and to the press well.
All of that is the history. Let me read to you parts of this letter I sent by SACS, which again, if you’re not familiar with what’s happening you should have been listening to the Pulpit and Pen program over the last 9 months as we’ve been talking about all of this. And all of this is an “I told you so” because we’ve addressed all of these issues presented in the SACS letter. As a matter fact, last Friday…I talked about two articles…one from Reynoso’s blog and one at the Crescent Crier, which is Jay Adkins blog, and I said “Hey, listen to what these guys are saying” and I pointed you in their direction. I pointed out that Jay Adkins… had not seen the statement sent to LC by SACS pulling accreditation and putting them on probation. Why is it a trustee is not allowed to see what SACS has said? Why? Why is that?
Well, after my program this last Friday when I said that the Town Talk was coming out with the letter, LC posted the letter a few hours later on their website. They probably knew that it was coming out of Town Talk even before I said so, as I think the Town Talk has even said since then that they had called for a comment. So within just a few hours of my program, [LC] had put the letter up themselves, “Hey there, we released it on our own.” Yeah, okay. You released it right after they started calling for comment.
PR 1.1 of the letter says that “The voluminous documents submitted by the institution are interspersed with narrative that is laced with opinions accusations and vilification of former employees, unusual characterization of SACS actions and dissenting trustees rather than recognition of deficiencies of institutional processes to ensure integrity and establishing policies and procedures to remedy the concerns the documents provided by the institution.” Hey, remember my theme music back when I was covering this stuff every day for David Hankins? You Fascists Bound to lose. Number 1, the SACS document says, “a pervasive culture of avoidance of transparency in the institution’s operations.” Sound familiar to you? Fascists bound to lose.
Next, “multiple cases of conflicting documentation of ‘facts’…” Facts is in quotation marks (this might have been written by Tim Lee, what with the talk about “self-contradictory facts”)…”multiple cases of conflicting documentation of facts, the apparent unauthorized use of restricted funds” which is referring to the $60,000 embezzled by Joe at the pay for some pipe dream in Tanzania and we still have no idea what that bought.
And number four, “The presence of forged documents in the submission to SACS. This isn’t only the Joseph Cole forgeries, which were probably the “Joe Aguillard forgeries.” It’s talking about something else, which we’ll get to a moment.
Five, “several mischaracterizations of SACS actions.” This includes a claim of SACS exonerating the president from allegations. If I was Ken Fryer I would be doing cartwheels, for the vindication in this concerning the original article he posted at Pulpit & Pen saying that Joe has not been exonerated and SACS did not exonerate him, that they simply gave back their accreditation, that they did not exonerate Joe of anything. Well, I guess SACS doesn’t appreciate this mischaracterization….
[The SACS letter also mentions] a college policy what would that [was not approved by SACS]. Remember that meeting Jay Adkins walked out of? When they made them put their cell phones in a basket so nobody could record the meeting and so forth? And Tommy French said that SACS was requiring them to sign a new confidentiality agreement, that you can’t talk about what happens in this meeting, that SACS is requiring us to do that. And [SACS] called foul, called baloney on that. Guess what? SACS doesn’t appreciate Tommy French – supposed man of God -lying about this. Moreover they say “no policy or procedural actions were provided to show actions taken to protect the institution and donors from the risk of misapplying restricted funds are the targeting of the whistleblowers with adverse and unprecedented personnel actions.” Rght. What they shut Quarrels out the door and fired Timothy Johnson (he’s been nothing but a man of integrity in this whole mess). Next, “Irreconcilable documents appear in several cases within the response a report generated by a third-party law firm commissioned by the then chairman of Board of Trustees find that the president is culpable and central in deceiving the Board of Trustees, misusing restricted funds, and manipulating both donor conversations and SACS statements.”
They’re talking about the guy they made President Emeritus,Joe Aguiard. Also, like this one – “CS 324 External influence: Some of the evidence provided suggests the governing board accepts the notion expressed by the Executive Director of the Louisiana Baptist convention speaking to the executive committee of the institution, of which he is not a member, that since the Louisiana Baptist Convention ‘owns’ the college, the directors of the LBC supersede actions or intended actions of the board; what seems to be missing is a broader institutional issue developing an agenda for serving students and appropriate faith-based environment.”
You Fascists are bound to lose… SACS is now gunning for them. And [SACS discusses how LC] punished whistleblower Timothy Johnson. I don’t know if he’s got a lawsuit going against them or not, but I would sure suggest one. Boy, it seems like the cat is in the bag now. SACS sees it here in black and white.
Again, there was a time when I would sit and read this entire thing to you and harp on about it for days. Instead, I point you in the direction Pulpit in Pen.org. You can see it there. I’ve heard Dave Miller at SBC Voices is going to post it, we’ll see. And the Town Talk has done another one, along with statements from trustees – the few of them with some form of integrity. Now, I’m hesitant to say this next bit before I get done here because, I don’t know, I guess I’m sheepish when it comes this type of thing… how did the Town Talk get this?
None of the trustees had this. How did they get this? This was addressed at the top to Argile Smith, and as I understand it, was CC’d to Tommy French who is chairman of the board. Darth French had a copy. How did the Town Talk get it when trustees didn’t have it? My sources tell me – and they’re all telling me – it was Ardis Smith who sent this to the Town Talk…
All of my sources say – and they’re very firm – that it was Argile Smith. Why would Argile Smith – the one who threatened to come after Josh Breland – why would Argile Smith who very clearly lied about Chuck Quarrles to get his job (this is on audio) who is man is a man of deceit, why would Argile Smith give this to the Town Talk? Well, rumor has it that he has become somewhat repentant, which I would think should cause us all to have a great deal of joy. There has been some bullying of him by chairman of the board Tommy French. Darth French has not wanted this to be released; “Cover-up, cover up, keep covering this. Cover it up, sweep it under the rug and it will just go away,” Tommy thinks. Apparently thinking that SACS is as corrupt as is the Louisiana Baptist Convention (which it’s not).
So, being bullied by Tommy French, Smith sent this in himself to the Town Talk. It’s either true repentance, which should be public and open and his first step should be to repent to Breland for threatening him in such a fashion, and then publicly for all of his actions. He should also publicly apologize to Chuck Quarrles for lying about him when he knew that it would result in his termination. It’s either that [Smith is truly repentant] or he knows that Louisiana College will not exist in 12 months and he needs a job. He’s trying to get off the train that is headed towards the terminus at full speed velocity. He knows the ship is sinking and the captain is trying to get off the Titanic. He’s trying to not burn bridges, and means to find some bride out of there. Now, given his past history, which one do you think it is?
This is a circus. Tt’s a circus. Pray for Louisiana College. Please, please pray for LC.
