Grace Theological Seminary - Xapis / Grace Yearbook (Winona Lake, IN)

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great embarrassment of all con- cerned, leaving the seminary with less than the minimum number of teachers necessary to maintain stand- ard theological work (23). At the 1936 meeting of the board, a large part of the president’s report was devoted to an unwarranted and rather petty attack upon a group of preseminary college students who had distributed Christian tracts on the campus; and submitted a plan to divide the college student body into two groups in relation to “standards of living and conduct’; the one group to be permitted to uphold “restricted standards”; the other and larger group not to be required to live in harmony with such restricted stand- ards of “social activities’; and the views of each group were to be “re- spected and protected” (24). This absurd proposal, supported by a ma- jority of board members present, aroused widespread indignation, pro- voked the resignation of Dr. L. S. Bauman from the board, and subse- quently resulted in the historic “Open Letter” addressed to the president of Ashland College by the Brethren Ministerial Board of the Southern California District (25 ). Vill. The Conflict Enters the General Conference of 1936. Following the issuance of the “Open Letter’. and its distribution throughout the churches, the college president labored hard to explain his actions and rally support to his ad- ministration. When the General Conference convened in August of 1936, the main issues had become fairly clear: first, the protection of “liberalism” in the college because of the refusal of the administration to apply the officially adopted standards of faith; second, the question of church control over its board; third, the conflict over standards of life and conduct on the campus; fourth, deep concern regarding the future of the seminary under the jurisdiction of a hostile president now supported by a majority of the board, and whose promises apparently meant little. The so-called “Ashland College Problem” reached the floor early in the General Conference where it was discussed to some extent. That the problem was no mere tempest in a teapot is abundantly clear from the following actions passed by the Con- ference: First, after the public reading of the “original charter of Ashland Col- lege,’ a motion was made that the Conference appoint a committee of seven men to investigate the condi- tion causing the disturbance and re- port back to the General Conference in 1937. Although bitterly opposed by the college president and his friends, the motion passed with a fair majority of votes. According to the Minutes, page 13, “The Special Com- mittee for investigation of Ashland College as elected by conference are as follows: R. D. Barnard, C. A. Stew- art, R. F. Porte, Wm. Schaffer, Jr., Roy Patterson, E. H. Wolfe, H. V. Wall” (26). This committee organ- ized and outlined a program of pro- cedure, but was informed by the col- lege administration that it would have to wait for an invitation from the college board which would not meet until the following year (27). Second, as to the proposal of the PAGE 25

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PAGE 24 throughout the community that the seminary teachers are troublemakers ... These charges can be verified if the board wishes to investigate. . We believe the coming of Dr. Ans- pach will begin immediately to change these conditions under which we have had to work. His program for the institution, as outlined by him upon several occasions, is the pro- gram we have believed in and prayed for through the years... . Every diffi- culty that has ever arisen between seminary and college administration has had to do, either directly or in- directly, with Christian faith and life. No other problem exists. Our battle is not over men, but over truth. We do not hate men; we do hate untruth and error. And we do not propose to surrender when it arises. If you ex- pect us to, do not ask us to remain here. We believe that, if Dr. Ans- pach’s program is loyally and enthu- siastically supported, this institution can become by God’s grace one of the most outstanding educational institu- tions in America, spiritually and in- tellectually” (22). No president ever began his admin- istration at Ashland College with so complete and united support of its church constituency, or with such un- reserved approval for his avowed pro- gram. Yet within a few months the new president’s almost cynical viola- tion of his solemn promises had pre- cipitated a conflict which virtually wrecked the seminary at Ashland, lost to the college at least half its church constituency, and led to divi- sion of Brethren churches into two national conferences. To be sure, one man by himself could not have done all this. There had been existing dif- ferences, some trivial, and others more serious, but none that could not have been handled without such far- reaching results if the actions of Dr. Anspach had been tempered with more wisdom and good will. Consider some of these actions. A clear indication of his real inclinations appeared when the new president be- came sharply critical of the seminary because its teachers protested the in- clusion of certain religious modernists on his inaugural program. Further- more, one of his first administrative acts was the proposal of certain con- stitutional changes to permit a sub- stantial increase of non - Brethren membership on the board, and de- priving the church districts of their former elective powers, thus making the board self-perpetuating. This was serious enough for the college, but far worse for the seminary which was controlled by the same board. Again, he began to reduce arbitrarily the small financial allowance made to the seminary for essential activities such as the annual day of prayer. In his first year it was found that, in spite of his former pledges, the new president was actually sympathetic with the very teachers in the college whose attitudes had caused much of the dif- ficulty under the former administra- tion. During the academic year of 1935- 36 Dr. K. M. Monroe resigned his po- sition as professor of the Old Testa- ment, and President Anspach author- ized Dean McClain to secure for this position Rev. Homer A. Kent, then pastor of the First Brethren Church of Washington, D. C. After the lat- ter had accepted the call, Dr. Anspach suddenly reversed himself, to the

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PAGE 26 college president to increase the non- Brethren membership on the board, the General Conference adopted a strongly worded resolution warning of the danger of opening the door to modernistic control, and disapproving his proposal. Again the college ad- ministration fought the Conference action, and subsequently proceeded to do exactly what the Conference had disapproved (28). Third, smarting under the adverse actions of the Conference, the friends of Dr. Anspach proposed a motion of confidence in him and the entire ad- ministration of Ashland College. This motion was tabled by the Conference (29). IX. The Year of Decision, 1936-37. Coming from his defeat at the Gen- eral Conference, in which the semi- nary had participated actively, the college president proceeded to make things uncomfortable for those sem- inary teachers who continued to in- sist on the use of the college State- ment of Faith. The climax came early in 1937 when the entire faculty of the institution had met to consider a pro- posed code of “Rules and Regula- tions” for their organization and guid- ance. This code provided, among other things, that ‘a member of the teaching staff may be dismissed .. . for inefficiency or neglect of academic duty, immorality, or conduct unbe- coming to a gentleman” (30). Dean McClain moved the addition of an- other cause for dismissal, namely, “for teaching anything contrary to the college Statement of Faith.” This motion was quickly defeated by a loud chorus of ‘“‘No’s.” Pointing out the seriousness of this action, Dean McClain asked that his own affirma- tive vote be made a matter of record. Prof. Herman A. Hoyt made the same request. Someone moved that all the votes be so recorded, but the motion was overwhelmingly defeat- ed. At this point the late Dr. L. L. Garber, no mean parliamentarian, in- formed the chairman that anyone could demand a roll-call vote. In- stantly Professor Hoyt made the de- mand, and the roll-call began. It happened so quickly that the opposi- tion had no time to collect its wits, and the chairman simply moved with the tide. Otherwise the issue might never have come to a clean-cut public decision, as it did, with no escape for anyone (31). The second name called in alpha- betical order was that of the president himself. Dr. Anspach made an angry speech against the application of the college Statement of Faith and voted an emphatic “No,” after which there was no longer any uncertainty as to the safe way to vote. When the vote was finished, only five votes were re- corded as favoring the application of the Statement of Faith. Three of the votes were cast by the seminary teachers—Hoyt, McClain, and Stuck- ey. Only two college teachers sup- ported the seminary position — the late Dr. L. L. Garber, and Dr. Scholl, who a year later was quietly pushed out of the college. The above incident is related some- what in detail because it seems to have precipitated the fateful decision of the college president and his sup- porters to put an end to the theolog- ical seminary, at least in the form and with the uncompromising Chris-