Marvin Olasky interviews Dr. Robert Sloan (President of Houston Baptist University and former President of Baylor University) in the latest issue of World magazine. The two discuss Sloan’s sometimes embattled presidency at Baylor and Sloan’s hopes and aspirations for HBU.
The print interview is an abridged version of the full, audio version, available for download. An excerpt:
Now that you’re at Houston Baptist, what are your hopes and aspirations? We have a 12-year plan called the Ten Pillars. It rejects the idea that to be more academic you have to give up faith, as if faith and learning are a zero sum game. Students and faculty are willing to embrace the truth of Jesus Christ and then believe that we should not treat religious knowledge as a matter of personal, private and interior emotional value and opinion.
Do you think your plan for Baylor is possible, even if not at Baylor? The world needs Christian institutions that are not just small, regional, denominationally related institutions. We need a resurgence of great institutions of learning where a Christian worldview dominates. Many students go off to get doctorates but they get trained in places where there is a separationist view regarding faith and academics. Our aspiration at HBU is to be a comprehensive university with a clear core program but also doctoral programs. So yes, I think it’s possible.
Sloan’s emphasis on the fact that academic excellence need not entail any compromise of the Christian faith is something I address in Thriving at College.