It would seem to me that many colleges & universities started by churches have, over time, parted from their Christian roots and eventually divorced themselves from the church all together.
Forbes says: "In the beginning, most universities in the U.S. were established as institutions of faith: the colonial colleges – such as Harvard, Yale and Dartmouth (Puritan), College of William and Mary (Church of England), Princeton (Presbyterian) and Rutgers University (Dutch Reformed Church) – were Christian schools in mission or affiliation. For almost all of these and similar elite schools, the answer to grow with the times and the country was to leave their religious legacy in the microfiche files." (emphasis mine) (Read the whole article here.)
I'd like to propose a few ways to change a Christian school into a secular school (and there is a difference between the two). I make these proposals not because I actually recommend them, but as a warning to those that may be tempted to follow the path...
1) If you have chapel services five days a week; change it to three. If you have it three days a week; change it to one. Too much "church" is a turn-off to unbelievers (not to mention the fact that it could hurt enrollment/finances to require chapel). Finally make chapel optional before being a good steward of the school's finances and doing away with chapel all together. (Remember, do it slowly in a long process so that no zealous Christians will cause a fuss.)
2) Strive for intellectual and academic excellence to the neglect of the spiritual state of the campus. Certainly you could probably focus on someone's spiritual health and academic performance, but their spiritual state is just another thing to be juggling and the 'academy' has a different function than the church. You are, after all, a college/university!
3) When you advertise on TV, billboards, or secular periodicals make sure you do not mention your Christian foundation. It is a turn-off and you will lose many prospective students that way. (They might find out if they come to your school anyway, so why mention it?). Even if they don't ever realize they attended a Christian school, you've just done a great job of helping them be Christians even though they may not realize it!
4) Lower the standards for your sports teams. If it makes you feel better, you can convince yourself that having a winning basketball team will make a better name for Jesus than a mediocre basketball team that lives a holy life.
5) Hire faculty, staff, & administrators that are not Christians. As long as they do their jobs well, who really cares? And what about diversity?
6) Create a false dichotomy by mischaracterizing Bible believing, faithful Christians who desire for their children to be given an education from a Christian world view and pitting them against sincere ideologues who are simply trying to "minister in an ever changing world." Consistently claim that both conservative bible believing Christians and leftists are complaining. This gives you credibility when it comes to claiming you are a "middle way" or "different way" or abstract way. We know that you are following the historic shift from Christian to secular, but let's continue to live in denial.
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7) Do away with any kind of rules or standards you might have on your campus. Those include curfew, expectations for dress, required chapel attendance, alcohol prohibition, and any other rules students often complain about. You certainly do not want to be viewed as legalistic. If you have any rules and, for denominational reasons, are not able to do away with them, just leave them in print but ignore them in practice.
8) Change your school motto from something like: "Christlike in all we do" to something that uses some Latin and is translated to say something more general like: "We are nice and we like everybody." The shift of your statement should move from God's holiness to the practical benefits of students graduating with a degree from your school.
9) Take down all crosses and religious imagery from your campus. It was all probably graven images any way. Put up peace signs, lots of posters on what we can do to help the environment, BLM, and other left leaning political rally points. Remember the goal is that secular humanists would find your school enticing.
10) Replace some of the religious requirements (required Bible & theology courses) with community service. It will fool the Christians into believing you are still a part of the Christian church as long as it is a good deed and convince the rest of the world you want to make a difference without "pushing your beliefs" on anyone else.
11) In your Bible, Theology, or religion department hire professors who are most adept at promoting cultural ideology rather than biblical truth. Have them promote critical race theory, philosophy, universalism, and process theology. Bonus: you can probably receive grants from secular organizations that want to influence your students with their causes like integrating "climate science" into the theological education. You can justify this to your faithful constituents by explaining that you want to be inclusive of all viewpoints for the academic benefit of your students. (Just do not actually include anyone more theologically conservative.)
12) Finally, measure your success by how much money your graduates make or how many books they publish. If someone becomes a denominational leader you can take credit for it within the denomination but do not talk about it outside of the church. (You may be able to take credit for sports stars who thought about coming to your school too.)
Extra note: If part of a denomination, you may want to continue to tap into the enormous amount of financial resources available from the many lay people who have no earthly idea what is really going on at your school. To do so, talk a lot about what God is doing at your school (even if you have to exaggerate or even make things up). All some lay people care about is whether or not the young people are serving the Lord and living for Him (how short-sighted they must be)!
What might you add?
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I'm afraid that I know some schools that are doing these things. It's sad. I also am concerned that for many schools its only a current leader that is maybe holding the line (or saying they are) before everything is going to fall apart. It breaks my heart for those in the CotN who can't in good faith support their college or university yet it is still considered mandatory.
ReplyDeleteI think schools should definitely make the most of their Christian roots. But, your version of Christian "education" is a narrow, small-minded, and almost idolatrous indoctrination into a sad American-based Fundamentalism of the worst kind. Your words and actions are NOT the solution to a better Christian higher education, nor are they the solution to a Church that really fully reflects Jesus.
ReplyDeleteUnfortunately, I have witnessed this decline in “Christian” schools as well, especially when it comes to putting sports above everything else.
ReplyDelete