Brother Rader’s Documentation
No one regretted the circumstances surrounding brother Rader’s lecture more than we. Brother Rader’s lesson was not questioned. His biblical teaching was correct and well presented. The issue related solely to his representation of the views of several brethren in the documentation. They said they were misrepresented; that is, they affirmed that they do not believe what brother Rader represented them as believing.
When brother Rader sent his manuscript to be published in the book, brother Jenkins wrote him asking that he more adequately document. Brother Rader returned the manuscript retaining the references. After the lectures began and the books were available, I received a note from brother Owen stating that he was misrepresented by the documentation. He requested to read a brief prepared statement to advise the audience. His request did not challenge the biblical truth taught in the lecture. Such would have been inappropriate in this setting and would not have been allowed. After discussing his request with several members of our Bible faculty, I decided to grant it in an attempt to be fair with him. I reached him by phone late Wednesday afternoon. Not knowing where brother Rader was staying kept me from contacting him until his arrival on campus shortly before he spoke Thursday morning. As soon as he arrived, I informed brother Rader. I regret there was not more time.
I did not allow rebuttal in this situation because of the time constraints and demands of the program. We also wanted to be fair with the next speaker who had been asked a year ago to prepare and deliver what proved to be an outstanding lecture. Brother Rader’s documentation was on the record. With brother Owen’s statement, each interested member of the audience could make a fair judgment of the disputed points for himself based on the evidence.
Brother Harrell spoke to me on Thursday morning and made a similar request. I informed him of the fact that brother Owen would be reading a statement. He and I agreed that it would not be best in these circumstances to have several come before the audience. He was most gracious. He went to type a statement and prepare it to be distributed. I did not see it (or those of brethren Owen and Kimbrough) prior to distribution.
The college does not claim responsibility for each person’s statements or adopt them as its own positions. This includes those published in the lecture book. We have often stated such in the introductory section of the books. Neither do we endorse the responses of everyone in our audiences. That should go without saying.
As to the matter of an administrator passing out statements, that was simply to facilitate moving more than five hundred people in five minutes in and out of the room so we could go on with the next speaker. Time was passing and aisles were backed up as people stopped to get copies. The administrator happened to be standing there and with no thought other than to move the crowd wanted to help. To think of “appearance of collusion,” “effort to ambush,” and “bias” is not worthy of our brother. To say that “a studied and calculated drive was mounted to discredit him and it worked” is patently false and likewise unworthy of our other brother. It has seemingly been forgotten that brother Rader was the one speaker asked to present the truth on this subject. Mistreating anyone was never my (our) intention. We are studying how to avoid similar problems in the future.
119 Glen Arven Ave., Temple Terrace, Florida 33617 caldwelc@flcoll.edu
Truth
Magazine Vol. XLV: 11
p15 June 7,
2001