In Defense Of Pepperdine College
There appeared in a recent issue of The Gospel Guardian an article written by brother Claude E. Worley, under the caption, "Can Two Walk Together, Except they be Agreed?", which needs some clarification.
In the first place, brother Worley evidently received his information from the newspaper article which is never a very accurate source of true facts. If brother Worley had really been interested in obtaining the true facts, he lives in Beverly Hills, not far from the Pepperdine Campus. Why didn't he ask some of the administrators of the college? The administrators have not "misled Christians as to what was actually going on at Pepperdine." Neither have they "distorted, twisted, and perverted so as to leave the impression that the school was indeed in the tradition and policy of the 'Christian Colleges' with which brethren have been familiar in the past."
On August 11, 1960, at the Summer Lectureship, there was announced to an audience of at least one thousand people the following:
"We are happy to announce that Pepperdine College has been given a one-third share in the net income of the Morningside Hospital at 8711 South Harvard in Inglewood. Under this arrangement all net proceeds go into a private, non-profit foundation which has been chartered to receive and disburse this income according to a fixed formula.
"The college has not and is not investing any funds in the hospital. We simply receive a one-third interest. The formula under which the donors make this gift provides that the other two-thirds of the net income into the Foundation will go to projects of the Christian Church. The charter of the Foundation provides the college with three of the nine trustees of the Foundation. No definite dollar value can be placed on this gift since Foundation disbursements depend upon the Hospital profits.
"We are pleased that the donors recognize the value of Pepperdine College to this community and have shown their recognition in this tangible way."
A public announcement made so forthrightly eliminates the possibility of deception.
A group of medical doctors formed the foundation, the purpose of which was to give its profits to worthy institutions. Pepperdine College was selected by the doctors to share one-third of this profit. The other two-thirds went to the Christian Church. The charter of the foundation calls for three from Pepperdine to serve on the board for the express purpose of protecting this one-third interest. This does not ally Pepperdine College with the doctors or the Christian Church!
Colleges supported by members of the church of Christ have frequently accepted gifts from private foundations. These same foundations have given gifts to colleges supported by the Baptists, the Methodists, and even by the Catholics. Does this ally such colleges with the Baptist, Methodist, and Catholic churches? It does not.
One lady left one-half of her estate to Pepperdine College and the other half to the College of the Pacific, a Methodist institution. Does this ally Pepperdine College with the Methodist Church? No!
The California Christian Foundation is a corporate organization made necessary by our tax laws in order for the doctors to carry out their philanthropic desires to present the funds to the institutions named above. It is true that some of the board are pastors of the Christian Church, but they are there only because the charter of the foundation calls for them to be there to protect their two-thirds interest. So there can be "no valid objection at all to Dr. Young's serving on the board of a nonprofit foundation" when there "are no strings that tie that foundation in with a false religion or other things inimical to the cause of Christ."