Page 17 - Failed Experiment

A Failed Experiment

On a cold and damp winter day, at the end of my two year period of
service, I walked off the Big Sandy campus. I was just as much an
outsider, an unknown, at the end as I was at the beginning. During my
time there, no faculty member, administrator, minister or student ever
asked me anything about myself. None of these people knew where I
came from, what my education background was, what my aspirations
might be or anything about my personal life. A few 1-Ws knew a little
about my background. I worked with other people every day who
pointedly had no interest in me but yet smilingly advocated the concept
of “outgoing concern.” I knew that this sham “outgoing concern”
always operated within the limits prescribed by the unassailable and
class-bound hierarchy of Ambassador College.

A side note: Before I left I was asked by an AC graduate who was
working in Dallas what I had learned from my 1-W experience. At that
time I had not really processed what had happened to me and was slow
to give him an articulate response. So he supplied me with a
conclusion: “No matter what happens in the WCG, you will never
again be shocked.” That was not quite true. After all I was still a True
Believer and was optimistic about the future. So subsequent events did
shock me, but not nearly as much as they might have. At about the
same time, another AC graduate, who had been a ministerial assistant,
and I were having a conversation about the possibility of AC getting
accredited. He made an interesting comment. He said that AC Big
Sandy would never be accredited because it could not live up to the
spiritual objectives outlined in the College Catalog. It was not a matter
of courses, professors and facilities but it was a matter of spiritual
failure and that this would be easily visible to the accrediting officials.

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