OPINION:
Harvard churns out Nobel Peace Prize winners. Yale shapes Supreme Court justices and legal masterminds. Stanford births Silicon Valley billionaires by the bucketful. If you want them to be a quarterback, the University of Southern California or Ohio State might be your best options.
Here’s the question parents should really be asking: What kind of university produces the best human being a child could ever become? Not just brilliant, not just successful, but someone with a moral compass, a heart of compassion and the courage to stand for what’s right, even when that’s hard.
The answer? A Christian university.
This isn’t just about faith. This is about development. In a world fraying at the edges ethically, socially and spiritually, Christian universities don’t just prepare students for a career. They prepare them for a life of inspiration. They don’t just fill heads with knowledge. They form hearts, build character and forge convictions that last.
“You can be competent without character, but that’s how the world gets Enrons, not heroes,” said political commentator and author David Brooks. He is right: The future doesn’t need more high-achievers with hollow souls. It needs courageous, morally grounded leaders who live with integrity and purpose.
Let’s be crystal clear: A Christian university is not a cushy echo chamber of feel-good spirituality. It’s not an extended youth group retreat. It’s a crucible for character, a training ground where faith and excellence are welded together in the fire of real-world challenges and driven by motivated and principled educators.
Why? Because Christian universities demand more, not less. More academic rigor. More intellectual honesty. More accountability. As a Christian university, we know that excellence honors God and mediocrity has no place in the life of someone called to change the world.
It’s time to discard the outdated stereotype that Christian colleges are soft on standards. The best of them produce doctors, teachers, entrepreneurs, engineers, artists and scientists who are at the top of their fields and lead with truth, grace and moral clarity.
If your goal is simply a job, then pick the “Iviest” of colleges with the fanciest of logos. But if your goal is to help your child become someone who knows who they are, why they are here and what’s worth fighting for, a Christian university is the place to be.
This is the moment when your child moves from “my parents’ faith” to “my faith.” It’s when he or she goes from sitting passively with you and your family on Sunday, absorbing values from the preacher, to actively living out those values and changing the world based on them.
A Christian university gives students the freedom, courage and responsibility to wrestle with big questions in a world that is more uncertain, tempestuous and dangerous to navigate than ever before.
Here is the ultimate litmus test for any university where you are thinking of sending your precious son or daughter:
• Do its graduates just make money, or do they make an impact?
• Are they trained to compete or called to serve?
• Do they leave with a degree or with a vision for their life?
A great university doesn’t just teach. It transforms, and, most important, its alumni inspire.
So, when comparing schools this fall, don’t ask just about test scores, job placement rates or shiny new buildings. Ask this: What kind of person does this school shape its students to become?
The world has many clever people. What it needs now more than ever before are clever, brave people. People with steel in their spines and compassion in their hearts. People who see brokenness and run toward it, not away. People who don’t just climb the ladder but also lift others as they go.
People who live for something bigger than themselves. That, my friend, is what Christian universities produce.
Let’s stop playing defense. Christian higher education isn’t just relevant; it’s also essential. It’s how we cultivate the kinds of leaders American culture is starving for: leaders who are intellectually sharp, emotionally grounded, spiritually awake and ready to step into a fractured world and say: “Here I am. Send me.”
If you love your country, these are the kinds of people who can take America into a bright future.
If you’re looking for a place that will push you, grow you and prepare you to make a difference, not just for four years but for the next 40, choose a Christian university. In the end, this isn’t just about getting into the right career. It’s also about becoming a person who inspires.
That, more than anything, changes the world.
• Eric Hogue is president of Colorado Christian University, which was included in the Wall Street Journal’s College Pulse Ranking for a second consecutive year and named one of the fastest-growing universities in the country for the ninth year in a row.
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