Wednesday, March 5, 2014

Irresolution

GRACE and BJU are now back under the same original contract, with no changes.

BJU called their termination a "suspension" when they announced the re-engagement.  BJU even changed the wording on their original announcement to engage GRACE as an ombudsman, now terming victims as people "inadequately helped by the University's response" - presumably largely in response to Pastor Ryan Ferguson's incredible video appeal to the University (now marked "private" on YouTube, but you can still find the transcript here.)

But nowhere has the University apologized for its actions, admitted its gaffe, or given even a hint that the enormous public outcry could have had anything to do with the re-instatement of GRACE.  There's nothing to see here, and you all should just move along.  We were going to finish this investigation anyway.

We are at war with Eurasia. We have always been at war with Eurasia.
- Nineteen Eighty-Four

BJU supporters also continue their cognitive dissonance. The leaps of logic required to get from "GRACE was doing something illegal" before the reinstatement to "GRACE owes BJU an apology" after the reinstatement are just too exhausting to parse.

However, there are a small subset of BJU supporters who are waking up as they ask very good questions and get very unsatisfactory answers from the University.  The facade is so much harder to maintain now thanks to the openness the internet provides.

I suppose it's only human to try to evade that much honesty in a place so insistent on perfection even to the point of rewriting history.  And it's my opinion that the report that GRACE will publish will devastate BJU and its supporters, so they have good reason to be squeamish.

However, my hope that BJU will do the right thing at the end is a lot more feeble than it was mere weeks ago.

Please, BJU, surprise me.  Because I have the sense that you're just filling up your cup of wrath rather than realizing your error.


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