Spring Break
A hundred years ahead of our homonym
Daniel J. Williams
Issue date: 4/24/08 Section: Focus
"We wanted to keep the historical connection," said Jack Richey, a retired Oklahoma minister and a member of that trustee board. "So we chose to go with the [name] Hillsdale."
"It's not hard to figure out that we do consider the connection pretty strongly," Eaton said, getting up from his desk to pull two histories of Hillsdale College - one written by college historian Arlan Gilbert - off his study bookshelf. "That volume and then the centennial volume are in my office."
Michigan's Hillsdale College, though founded by Free Will Baptists, has always been officially non denominational. Hillsdale dropped its Free Will Baptist affiliation in 1907 when the Free Will Baptists merged with the Northern Baptist Convention. Then in the early 1960s Hillsdale ended that final affiliation, becoming fully non-sectarian, Gilbert said. Financial concerns prompted the move.
Yet in 1971, though Hillsdale College was over 60 years removed from its Free Will Baptist affiliation, and nearly a decade from any formal religious affiliation, Oklahoma's Free Will Baptist trustees found affinity in the historical and educational connotations of Hillsdale's name.
Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bob Thompson said Hillsdale Free Will Baptist, which requires a core of humanities, sciences and social sciences, has taken pride in its liberal arts emphasis.
"We felt like going away from the Bible college concept name to Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College would give us a little more emphasis on that," Thompson said. "But we wanted to stay true to our heritage."
Eaton said that heritage also influences the principled philosophies of both schools.
"In many ways that is the link," Eaton said, "that affection we have for the historic founding of the church and the college, the antebellum abolitionist history that we all share in common in a time when it was not necessarily popular or politically expedient. We kind of like that, being ahead of our time."
"It's not hard to figure out that we do consider the connection pretty strongly," Eaton said, getting up from his desk to pull two histories of Hillsdale College - one written by college historian Arlan Gilbert - off his study bookshelf. "That volume and then the centennial volume are in my office."
Michigan's Hillsdale College, though founded by Free Will Baptists, has always been officially non denominational. Hillsdale dropped its Free Will Baptist affiliation in 1907 when the Free Will Baptists merged with the Northern Baptist Convention. Then in the early 1960s Hillsdale ended that final affiliation, becoming fully non-sectarian, Gilbert said. Financial concerns prompted the move.
Yet in 1971, though Hillsdale College was over 60 years removed from its Free Will Baptist affiliation, and nearly a decade from any formal religious affiliation, Oklahoma's Free Will Baptist trustees found affinity in the historical and educational connotations of Hillsdale's name.
Vice President for Institutional Advancement Bob Thompson said Hillsdale Free Will Baptist, which requires a core of humanities, sciences and social sciences, has taken pride in its liberal arts emphasis.
"We felt like going away from the Bible college concept name to Hillsdale Free Will Baptist College would give us a little more emphasis on that," Thompson said. "But we wanted to stay true to our heritage."
Eaton said that heritage also influences the principled philosophies of both schools.
"In many ways that is the link," Eaton said, "that affection we have for the historic founding of the church and the college, the antebellum abolitionist history that we all share in common in a time when it was not necessarily popular or politically expedient. We kind of like that, being ahead of our time."
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Tom Alciere
posted 5/13/08 @ 7:56 AM EST
Kind of like Congressman Mike Rogers of Michigan's 8th Congressional District and Congressman Mike Rogers of Alabama's 3rd Congressional District.
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