By Jim on
Fundamentalism & Evangelicalism
Bob Jones University
Cedarville University
Clearwater Christian College
Northland International University
Maranatha Baptist University
Researcher compares assets and enrollment of major fundamentalist educational institutions

Discussion

Fri, 03/18/11
Jim,

I may not have been clear. I am not accusing you as the poster of the information on Sharper Iron of having a bone to pick with BJU.

But, I did read some of Karl Nashorn’s postings. He admits to being expelled from the school, and doesn’t appear to be happy about that. It obviously must bother him or he would have just moved on and let it go. Why go to all the trouble to dig up these statistics if it no longer matters to him?

My point is that everyone who posts statistics has a purpose for posting those statistics. Before posting something like this for the world to see through the Sharper Iron forum, I believe that it is in the best interest of those who love God and His people to know for sure that the desire is to help rather than to hurt.

Dan Pelletier Hamilton Square Baptist Church - San Francisco Acts 20:24 - Touch the Future with Truth from the Past

Fri, 03/18/11
[Dan Pelletier] Obviously, from the postings linked to these charts and financial figures, the “researcher” has a bone to pick with Bob Jones University for something that happened to him close to 30 years ago.

Proverbs 22:24-25 leads me to suspect anything he posts.
Dan, I agree. This is “angry data” (to coin a phrase). I would refuse to “learn his ways lest it snare my soul,” except I feel someone needs to redo the graphs. We can take the data and spin it the other way around, because it’s all just facts that need to be reinterpreted. If you go and punch in all the figures into Excel, you can make the graphs look entirely different. You might be quicker at getting the graphs uploaded than I, and if you beat me to it, that would be fine. But as Dr. Doran pointed out above, the whole thing with the East Anglia University graphs on global warming is suspiciously similar.

One thing I don’t know is what happened to Karl 30 years ago. I would be interested in hearing that, since I don’t know anything more about Karl. For all I know, “being born” was the bad thing that happened 30 years ago ;-). I think we would all benefit from hearing more of your perspective on Karl’s interactions with you and/or BJU. This is information I could use, to be sure.

http://toearnestlycontend.blogspot.com/

Fri, 03/18/11
[Dan Pelletier] Obviously, from the postings linked to these charts and financial figures, the “researcher” has a bone to pick with Bob Jones University for something that happened to him close to 30 years ago.

Proverbs 22:24-25 leads me to suspect anything he posts.
I think you may have him confused with a link to ANOTHER blogger .. the Hidalgo guy ..

But that in a way was the point I was making - why link to him unless there are similar feelings?

I REALLY don’t understand the concept of blogs that defame institutions … usually when you read through them it ends up that that while people FEEL they were treated “unfairly” .. they brought the situations on themselves.. (This has NOTHING to do with the financial blogger - as he doesn’t give ANY background about himself.. another bugaboo of mine about blogs .. laugh.. LACK of information regarding the blogger)

Fri, 03/18/11
**** Forum Director Comment ******
[Dan Pelletier] I did read some of Karl Nashorn’s postings. He admits to being expelled from the school, and doesn’t appear to be happy about that.
Please specifically substantiate this by providing a link to Karl Nashor’s blog post. I’ve carefully gone though his blog and I haven’t found it

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Jim's Doctrinal Statement

Fri, 03/18/11
[Dan Pelletier] a bone to pick with Bob Jones University for something that happened to him close to 30 years ago.

Proverbs 22:24-25 leads me to suspect anything he posts.
That’s the part I’m looking for too. At first I thought I was having a little problem navigating the site, but then I figured Pastor Pelletier must have known Karl at BJU. That’s what I was referring to when I was asking for the additional information.

http://toearnestlycontend.blogspot.com/

Fri, 03/18/11
**** Forum Director Directive *****

Either Dan has to substantiate his claim (And I have PM’d him)

OR

You can contact the BJU Numbers guy here
Readers may contact the author at bjunumbers AT gmail DOT com.
(I have personally contacted him, by the way! The moderators and admins have seen his response)

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Jim's Doctrinal Statement

Fri, 03/18/11
As an accountant, I agree with Dr. Doran on the numbers. You cannot run income statements side by side and make adequate pronouncements. You would have to examine whether the investments (at cost) were similar from year to year to make a true comparison. For all we know, they sold out of most of these investments and lost money on a small investment pool rather than losing over 6 million dollars in investments. All we can tell from the post is that investment revenue made up a smaller (acutally negative) percentage of the total revenue pie.

In addition, US tax-exempt investors do not have to file on income that is earned in off-shore investments. A hedge fund I worked on previously had several billion dollars of investments from tax-exempt universities in its off-shore fund. Does this post account for this?

Also, revenue alone does not tell the whole picture. A better analysis would be cash flows and cost analysis. These actually tell whether there is a true problem.

Now I have only glanced over the financials he posted, but unless I missed something, I think many of the pronouncements are premature.

Fri, 03/18/11
I confronted Karl on his site about Pastor Pelletier’s accusations. Karl confirms what Mr. Peet said above. I apologize to Karl and Mr. Peet for the way I handled it. Pastor Pelletier and I seemed to be doing what we were accusing Karl of doing.

In the spirit of Biblical principle, I rebound the accusations to Pastor Pelletier, and ask if it was his bitterness that led him to jump to conclusions about Karl.

http://toearnestlycontend.blogspot.com/

Fri, 03/18/11
Just to push my point, confirmed and shared by others here, a little farther…

In terms of telling what that site is about, the selection of information and the way in which that information is being framed are more significant than the numbers themselves. Why those numbers? Why frame them as he has? Why does he think this is important at this particular time? Add the fact that he has made a deliberate effort to draw attention to two agenda-driven sites does not suggest a neutral quest for and dissemination of information.

If this guy wants to spend his time doing this, so be it. If people read it and think it is some kind of objective, neutral zone of information, that’s sad. That this was chosen as newsworthy and something to be brought to the attention of people, that’s disappointing.

DMD