Since its founding in 1930, Bryan CollegeÂs statement of belief, which professors have to sign as part of their employment contracts, included a 41-word section summing up the institutionÂs conservative views on creation and evolution, including the statement: ÂThe origin of man was by fiat of God. But in February, college officials decided that professors had to agree to an additional clarification declaring that Adam and Eve Âare historical persons created by God in a special formative act, and not from previously existing life-forms.ÂOK, nothing new here, except for the college president's remark, delivered from an impossibly distant cosmos in which neither Darwin nor irony ever existed:
ÂI donÂt think you have to believe the Bryan way in order to be a strong evangelical, he said. ÂBut this is Bryan College, and this is something thatÂs important to us. ItÂs in our DNA. ItÂs who we are.ÂDon't ever change, Bryan College. Stay just the way God created you.
devoutly,