For as 'woke' as the environment supposedly is – he's been appalled at the Establishment-friendly narratives (that while sometimes critical of the United States) in the end defend it and justify American policy and conduct in such contexts as Vietnam and its other more recent wars. And so while a Right-wing adherent would be critical of what's being said, a New Testament Christian is left offended by what is in the end a defense of the Establishment regime and its countless episodes of imperialist theft and murder. And it would only be worse in the context of a Christian college.
In the end, I would neither encourage parents to send their
kids to public colleges (or any college) nor roundly condemn them for doing so
– as some homeschool advocates would. It all depends on the context and on the individual
child – or in reality the young adult. My son started when he was twenty years
old and had already been out working in the world. He had already faced and
wrestled with what's out there and the sharp antithesis between Christianity
and the culture. What he encountered in the classroom was hardly a shock and he
has (so far) navigated it with ease and has a 4.0 grade average – once again a
testimony to the degradation of today's college and academic environments. He's
plenty smart to be sure – I don't mean to take anything away from him, but the
classes just aren't very challenging – the bar has been lowered considerably to
accommodate the many kids that in earlier generations would not have been
encouraged to go to college and in many instances probably wouldn't have
graduated high school. It really is that bad. It is literally shocking.
There are many reasons for this degeneration – the breakdown
of the family and the discipline parenting brings, the entitlement culture
which has also affected how parents deal with and defend their children and
their failures, the elimination of shame, the justification of bad behaviour
due to the culture of psychology, but most of all, it comes down to money. In
political terms the downgrade has been a bipartisan effort – you cannot solely
blame the Left. Higher Education is big business in the United States. Other
societies have questioned whether or not things like education, medicine, and
public utilities should be in the business of making a profit. The US system
demonstrates how these privatised models can quickly go astray, become exploitative,
and finally collapse into a swamp of decadence.
In some respects the Christian institutions are worst of all.
As already stated, for my son to attend one of the Christian colleges in the
larger region – Grove City, Geneva, Clarks Summit, or even Houghton is simply
out of the question. Now maybe the answer is to opt of college altogether and
it certainly has been considered, and as stated my other kids have no plans to
get a degree – though the reasons are not merely financial. As stated, we are
in the end a counter-cultural family and do not share the values of the middle
class – nor their lifestyle.
In the case of this son, the paths he wants to pursue (which
ironically are within the spectrum of Christian concern) require a degree to
even get your foot in the door. Even most para-church organisations and
institutions borrow from the world's standards. And so that's where things
stand. There are dangers, but in our case they are mitigated by upbringing and
probably helped by having lived a bit and worked out in the world. Homeschooling
shelters young children from the wolves but as they get older they have to be prepared
for what life is like in a fallen world. It's pointless to shelter them from
that forever but rather we sought (hopefully with some wisdom) ways to
introduce them to the world in a way that wouldn't overwhelm them or lead to a
crisis.
We're not Evangelicals. We raised our children as Christians
not as 'potential' Christians let alone little pagans awaiting some watered
down (and often contrived) conversion experience. Baptized into the Body of
Christ, they were raised in the faith and yet as they were told – they have to
own the faith and persevere in it. Whether that comes at a point in time they
will someday look back on and be able to identify, or whether it's gradual, or
even a reality they cannot ever remember experiencing is immaterial. The
salient issue is perseverance – continuing in the faith grounded and settled
and never abandoning the hope of the gospel.
Maybe some readers won't see the real difference, others
might reject this approach outright. The question is what do the Scriptures
teach? But on a practical level I will say this – it's a very different
approach and the antithesis with the world is something they have understood
since Day One – even before they were able to elaborate it. This also
represents a radical departure from typical Evangelical thinking which tends
toward loose Sacralist models, equating the society or country with being
Christian. The confused identity of being American with being a Christian
creates a collective category that rivals and often supersedes the collective
ecclesiastical covenantal and Kingdom identity of New Testament Christianity.
There are dangers in the state university and its education
and clearly for some the risks are too great. In the case of our son we were
confident he was grounded and there was enough of a foundation present that
there would be no real threat. And as mentioned he doesn't live on campus and
so coming home the three days a week that he has class – he's still part of the
family. And on the other days of the week that he works – he encounters every
bit as much wickedness as he does in the classroom environment – his
Evangelical boss maintains a rather poor testimony in how he maintains his
workplace.
For my son, the foundation is there – one that is not going
to be present in a child of seven, twelve, or (depending on the situation)
sixteen. His only goal is to get a basic four-year degree and then move on –
the first hurdle in what will be a long race. If he seeks graduate level work
it will be someplace more serious and more directed. If not, then he will at
least have some job opportunities available to him that he wouldn't otherwise.
We of course pray that all goes well and so far there have
been no issues. We thought he might have some difficulty in a government class
as he refused to assume some of the arguments for an assignment but argued
instead Christian principle which rejects the assumptions of Enlightenment
liberalism. He would have had the same problems at a Christian college where it
is assumed the Constitution is (in some capacity) a Christian document as well
as the humanistic assumptions that undergird it.
He was prepared to receive a bad grade but did not – I'm guessing because he was able to articulate his views. And by the end of the semester he had the highest grade in the class anyway. What could the professor say – all the more given the basic ineptitude and apathy that seems to dominate the class?
See also:
https://pilgrimunderground.blogspot.com/2023/07/christian-kids-in-state-colleges.html