21
Churches of Christ (Pacific Christian, which was later
renamed Hope International University); and Assemblies of
God (Northwest College).
30
In light of Augsburger's
concerns about some features of contemporary
evangelicalism, it is interesting that most of the new
members would have been classified as conservative
evangelical or, in a few cases, fundamentalist. In fact,
unlike the Consortium, which consciously distanced itself
from fundamentalism, the Coalition welcomed fundamentalist
institutions that met membership standards (and whose
presidents and/or chancellors refrained from undue time in
the public spotlight).
Since denominational pluralism was well established in
the Coalition before the Augsburger presidency, the
Mennonite educator's main significance cannot be found
there. Instead, his boundary stretching centered on a
controversial social and cultural agenda that ultimately
proved to be too divisive to survive intact in the
Coalition. Evangelicals certainly enjoyed the right to
raise peace and justice issues in a number of venues; some
Coalition constituents, however, questioned whether the
aggressive promotion of such concerns distracted the
published Perspectives on an occasional basis.