Just What Are They Thinking? II

Of course, one can ask this of us Lutherans, too. St. Olaf College, "a private liberal arts college of the Lutheran church in Minnesota," recently announced the appointment of a new Chair of its Religion Department. Once upon a time, the Religion Department of a Lutheran College was the place for young men who were preparing to enter the Holy Ministry in the Lutheran Church. That is much less the case these days. That my undergraduate education was at a state university was not all that unusual when I was in seminary -- though my BS in Business Adminstration (Accounting) was. Still, one would expect that the Religion Department of a Church college, while teaching about other religions, would teach from the perspective of that Church. Right?

When I was a teenager, it was a pretty controversial matter when California Lutheran College appointed a Presbyterian as College President. A couple years later, when the CLC recruiter came to my high school, he thought it was something worth mentioning to the 2 of us who'd expressed an interest in CLC. But that's more than 30 years ago!

Still, what might it mean that the new Chair of the Religion Department at St. Olaf College, a college of the Evangelical Lutheran Church in America, is ...


... is ...



... is ...




a Hindu?