OPINION:
My entire career was dedicated to Christian higher education. For more than 40 years, I served as a dean, vice president and president of multiple “Christ-centered” institutions. For decades, I extolled the virtues of the biblically centric liberal arts. Year after year, I rang the bell. Time and again, I told parents that our schools were the last line of defense in a culture war that was hell-bent on destroying their children’s hearts, minds and souls.
I no longer believe this.
Why? Put simply, it’s because dozens upon dozens of Christian colleges, including the ones I served, are now proving they are not what they claim to be. While their pretty four-color brochures tell you one thing, what is taking place on their campuses is, in fact, quite another.
Take, for example, Seattle Pacific University, a Free Methodist school where more than 70% of the faculty recently voted “no confidence” in the school’s board of trustees because it failed to repeal a statement that requires all employees to abide by the university’s policy on human sexuality. This is a statement that does nothing more than affirm that “sexual experience is intended [to be] between a man and a woman” and that “the full expression of sexuality” is reserved for the covenant of marriage.
Yep, you heard that right. Nearly three-quarters of this Christian university’s faculty find the biblical definition of marriage to be so objectionable that they actually voted to remove the school’s board of trustees over the issue.
Then there is Biola University, a Christian school in Greater Los Angeles. Here, the current student handbook reads: “As issues connected to sexuality and gender are complex and layered, we will walk with students on an individual basis who identify as transgender or experience dissonance with their biological sex and gender in order to provide helpful support, to arrive at decisions around facilities use, and to offer appropriate accountability.”
Biola (also known as the Bible Institute of Los Angeles) has also officially sanctioned a student organization called “The Dwelling,” which states: “[We are a place] where students who are LGBTQ or who experience same-sex attraction come together for community and support as they walk with Jesus.”
Next, there’s Fuller Theological Seminary’s queer-affirming group, known as “One Table,” which has featured the movie “Milk” on its campus. This film celebrates gay activist Harvey Milk, who was known, among other things, for having an ongoing sexual relationship with a 16-year-old boy — an activity otherwise known as statutory rape.
Then we have Houghton College in upstate New York, whose president, Shirley Mullen (since retired), proudly participated in a campus vigil bemoaning a group of conservative students who painted an American flag over the top of an image of a gay and lesbian flag on a large boulder on the school’s campus.
It’s not just the morally warped worldview of LGBTQIA+ to which these colleges have sold their souls. In addition to bowing to the gods of the rainbow, Christian universities across the land are stumbling over themselves to add CRT, BLM and DEI to the alphabet of their politically correct lexicon.
Take North Central University and Bethel University, for example. Both institutions in Minnesota have created George Floyd scholarships on their campuses.
Then there’s Calvin University in Michigan and its course on “Faithful Anti-Racism.”
Not to be outdone, we have Indiana Wesleyan University and its 2017 “Day of Courageous Conversations,” where all classes were canceled for a day in favor of activities such as a “Privilege Walk” and a “Racial Injustice Bus Tour.”
The inconvenient truth is that these examples are not anomalies but rather just the tip of the iceberg. From the professors claiming the miracles of Jesus (including his death, resurrection and virgin birth) are “message statements rather than reality statements” to required chapels featuring pro-socialist speakers such as Bart Campolo, who, by the way, has since left Christianity and become a “humanist chaplain” at the University of Southern California, the list goes on and on. These schools are simply not good places to send your kids.
Cyril of Jerusalem (c. 315) once wrote, “Evil apes respectability, and tares do their best to look like wheat. … Even the devil transforms himself into an angel of light. … We therefore need the grace of God, a sober mind and watchful eyes … so as not to mistake the wolf for the [shepherd] and be ravaged.”
I never thought I’d say it, but until the Christian academy repents, you’re better off sending your kids to a school run by pagans. At least the predatory professors there don’t disguise themselves as your child’s counselor, pastor or priest.
Wolves in sheep’s clothing are dangerous, but wolves in shepherds’ clothing are downright deadly.
• Everett Piper (dreverettpiper.com, @dreverettpiper), a columnist for The Washington Times, is a former university president and radio host. He is the author of “Not a Day Care: The Devastating Consequences of Abandoning Truth” (Regnery). He can be reached at epiper@dreverettpiper.com.
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