Maintain harmony

Thanks, editor, for keeping readers informed. Thanks, also for harmony between our state convention and Alabama Baptist colleges and universities. Unfortunately church-state relations are not that great in Georgia.

Having served in Georgia as head of Shorter College’s fledgling Education Department, director of summer sessions and supervisor of student teaching in the early ‘50s, I learned firsthand about certification standards in Baptist school administration. I was shocked, therefore, by your article of Jan. 24 that reported the Georgia Baptist Convention’s withholding of funds from Shorter.

Since the GBC became the sole authority for electing and dismissing trustees, I understand the concern of Shorter’s president about accreditation and pray that Alabama Baptist school administrators will never be shackled by convention tyranny.

We can maintain harmony, under God, by remembering that “the price of freedom is eternal vigilance.”

John A. Vanderford
Jacksonville, Ala.