by David Cox
I should start out by giving some of my background in order that you understand where I am coming from. I am not somebody who has flunked out of high school, and therefore has a grudge against schools, Christian or otherwise. I went to a public primary and high school (there were no Christian schools around when I was coming up), and upon graduating from High School I went to Bob Jones University. It has been my observation over the years that while the Christian School (K-12) does teach Bible and such, many students are enrolled there that are not saved, and do not even pretend to be (evangelization instead of education), and these students bring every bit of influence from a secular school to the Christian school, drugs, cursing, sex, rebellion, rock music, etc. The Christian schools come back that they have to accept these kids because otherwise they won't make their payroll. These kids learn to "play the Christian game", look, act, and talk like a Christian when necessary while living a life of hypocrisy. At least when I was in a public school, we had to make a decision, and we didn't fellowship and make friends with the perverse kids. We looked for "safe" kids that were basically Christians like ourselves. We were rejected and scandalized as a group for our Christian faith, but at least we knew what it cost to "be different". That tends to make people "have guts", instead of floating along with the crowd.
I studied at Bob Jones through the benefit of my parents that paid for everything. I went to summer school to take extra classes because I thoroughly enjoyed and desired to learn. God was blessing my time in Bible study. I graduated in 1979 with a B.A. in Christian Missions, and Greek minor, a difficult minor for most people. I continued in Graduate School at Bob Jones, and graduated in 1981 with a B.A. in Bible. I took much more class hours than was necessary for my masters because I was planning on continuing my studies with a doctorate after I graduated. Instead I took a Masters in Educational Administration and Supervision, the major for a Christian school administrator.
At this point I must get nasty with a few things. My take over the years has been that Christian universities first "feathered their own beds" with majors that they were graduating, then they tried to "sell" the need to churches. In the end, many small churches started Christian schools that were latter shut down. The reason for this is varied, but all return to the Christian Universities (by the way, they were churning out Christian teachers by the dozens each year), and these universities "selling" the hard sell that no Christian parent would dare put their children in a secular school. When asked what are the qualifications of their faculty (PhD's), they make fun of smaller Christian Universities or Colleges that have faculty who graduated from religious schools and they themselves brag of their PhD's who graduated from secular schools. Strange that this hard sell does not demand that all of their own faculty have exclusive education from Christian schools. We were told this gives them validity in the eyes of the world, as if that was something that was necessary or would really happen. Christians have outpaced, out won, and out everything the world, and they still don't take us seriously, so why should we cater to them anyway? End of digression.
I have visited so many churches which had Christian schools and then later folded. The bottom line in all of this is that we allowed Christian Universities to mold our thinking when clearly it was self serving on their part. They are trying to convince Christianity as to the validity and necessary position in Christianity.
You may say, this is a hard thing David. Yes it is. But after all is said and done, we only have the Scriptures to dictate to our lives. Christian Universities have robbed the church of its teaching duty. In the end analysis of things, Christian Universities have taught us that no minister is serious unless he has gone through a Christian school, specifically a Christian University, preferable a seminary (always they assume that a 4 year liberal arts education in a Christian School is requirement for seminary). The New Testament sets the example of pastors and missionaries teaching the young ministers the ministry. This is clearly what happened in the Bible.
I have seen both sides of this issue, and in fact, when I first arrived in Mexico, my vision was to start a small "Bob Jones University" in Mexico. This is what my education prepared me to do. As I visited Bible institutes in Mexico, I began to realize that the problems I was being made aware of did not have solutions where the people were typically looking for them (more money, more qualified personnel, more, bigger, and better buildings, more money again). The problem that the Bible Institutes suffered from was one of a lack of student base, and that was because there was a lack of fundamental churches in Mexico (still is).
As I thought through what God was showing me, I realized that the general slide of all Christian Schools in the USA towards a more "accepted" position and always away from a stronger position is logical. They have the same problem of inscription of new students. As Bob Jones grew, Pensacola strung up. Dr. Horton is a Bob Jones Graduate. In my humble opinion, the accusations of Pensacola against Bob Jones in reference to the King James Issue is simply one of one business trying to undercut the consumer base of another business. If Dr. Horton is so strongly against BJU's position on the KJV, then why did he go to Bob Jones and it not bother him? The fact that a Christian school attacks another Christian school deliberately trying to get their students by accusing them of doctrinal "infidelity", well to me, that places the attacker in an equal position of being untrustworthy. Interestingly, Pensacola attacks BJU, and Peter Ruckman strings up across town from Pensacola to attack Pensacola and BJU.
It is amazing to me that Christians in general do not recognize the childish arguing and haggling that all of this comes to.
If we go back to a Bible scheme of things, pastors and missionaries are the principal teachers of ministers. I wondered why at Bob Jones they were constantly mentioning that the University "brings in" pastors, evangelists, and missionaries to teach the preacher boys. It was as if somebody had accused them of being in "ivory towers" (an educational term that means the people seal themselves up in an university and teach things that don't have anything to do with the "real world"). This is a real problem for Christian Schools. Their "validity" is based in bringing in experienced teachers from the real world, but why do these same expert experienced people have no validity on their own, teaching in their own churches instead of universities? Simple answer, because the University makes no money from it all that way. God's plan seems so simple and so perfect, yet it is set aside in favor of what Christian Universities teach us.
God's plan is that the church charges no entrance fee at their services. Anybody can come in freely, receive the teaching they offer without paying anything. Who pays the bills then? The mature Christians in that church. They see the ministry of the church, they believe in it (or they seek to change it or change churches), and they sacrifice for it. Once these new people are saved, they are taught their obligation to support their local church, and they help support it all with free will offerings. What is done is limited by the vision and economic wherewithal of the people in that church. Why is this no sufficient for Christians? Because Christian Universities have been hot and heavy in selling the concept of a Christian School, which is to their own economic benefit. They deny the validity and qualify (sufficient for God, it should be sufficient for us) of a local church education.
I remember Dr. Bob Jones III and Dr. Bob Jones Jr. preaching in chapel telling us of how we should write a thank you letter to our parents every semester to say thank you for our education. We all did that it seemed after those sermons every semester. But later I began to wonder about things. Typically these sermons had some kind of illustration of our poor mother back home who had to get that second job washing floors on her hands and knees so that we could attend a Christian University. This is to invoke great guilt and emotional distress so as to move us to write those letters back home.
But if the administration of the University was so moved by the great sacrifices of the parents (and great was the sacrifices of the parents) then why didn't they just lower the tuition? Bob Jones has an art gallery with paintings by famous artists, some costing several million dollars each. Where did the money come from to buy this luxury? Very simply those poor moms on their hands and knees mopping up floors so that their kids' SCHOOLS could have unnecessary luxury. Those things are necessary. They are in the realm of rich people's dreams. Some may say, the school did not buy it, but the Dr. Bob's bought it with his own money. Wait a minute, we know the history well, Dr. Bob Sr. was the son of a poor dirt farmer, and started the school on a shoe string. Each son took over without any wealth from anywhere else except from their school salary. So in the end, they took sufficient salary to buy these things, so whether the school paid for it or the individual it is the same.
You figure a typical Christian School charges $10,000 a year up front (hidden costs make it more). If they have 8,000 students, then they have a gross income of around $80,000,000. This does not even touch on the income from the book publishing, the other "minor" businesses the school runs, nor outside donations by alumni and friends. The CEO of a business with an $80 million dollar yearly budget should get probably around 5-8 million. Even if they take only 2-3 million, that is nothing in comparison to what a Fundamental pastor would get. We would charge a pastor with abuse if he made that, but in the case of a Christian University president, we think that is typically "normal" somehow.
We typically had at graduation some parent that was honored because they put 6 or 7 kids through BJU. At $10,000 a year pop, over four years each, that runs around $280,000, or the equivalent of that couple's house, and most of their retirement, handed over to a Christian University simply because the education a local church gives is not sufficient nor acceptable in the eyes of "knowing, educated Christians".
I visit many churches around the country, and one of the things that always picks my interest is to meet somebody I knew while at BJU. Unfortunately, most of these people have the same story, they took some major at school only to get into another field of work later on. Their education at Bob Jones was useless. Not all people have that story, but an alarming number do have that story, and being "an educator" (trained as one, and teaching in my own church, and giving counsel to my own people), I detect that more pressure is given to "get a good education" (remember the adage, "Bob Jones doesn't teach you how to make a living, but how to live" -- I thought that was the duty of the local church and the parents?) at a Christian University than to discern God's will and do it, whether it is more education or whatever. The rule at Christian Universities is that every Christian young person needs to go through there except if they are so stupid that they flunk out, in which case it looks bad on the school so go somewhere else.
I look at small churches that have one or two Christian young people that graduate each year. They regularly send them off to Christian Universities, but what does the Christian University give the local church in exchange? Instead of these young people getting married to somebody in their home town, going back to raise a family and support their local church, they go somewhere else. Churches propagated in the New Testament by evangelism, but there was a very strong chain of spiritual men and women that taught their children well, and the local church continued into the next generation because of these strong young Christians that had roots and would defend their parents' work and sacrifice over the years that was represented by their local church.
But many churches do have young ministers return to their churches from Christian Schools. Unfortunately, while away at Christian University, they are taught that the local church is not a priority (many schools have students that don't even attend any church while at school, or they attend occasionally, and they do not get involved in ministry in the local church). This was at least required of Preacher boys at Bob Jones, but the rest of the student body is left as "an option" if they have time. We have created a system whereby the most important things, sitting under the example and instruction of a man of God (a pastor of a local church), is unimportant or not a priority. Personal service to our Lord is secondary or optional "if you have time".
Many young people return from Christian school with these kinds of attitudes. Sure they attend their church, but they see other things as being a priority above and over their relationship with their local church. This is what local churches receive for their promotion of Christian Universities. What's more, over the first centuries of the Christian church, the "final word" in matters not specifically revealed in Scripture was settled by pastors, pastors of local churches. Today, this is settled by expert Bible teachers at Christian universities and seminaries, by Christian University presidents, and such like. The only pastors that are accepted by these people are those which are 100% in agreement and active support of their particular Christian University.
The bottom line here is that we need to return to a concept where kids study anything over high school in a local context where they can still participate and be active in their family and local church while studying. I do not know that going to a Christian university is actually all that much better than going to a local community college and staying active and involved in your own local church.
Very simply, I do not think it is a sin for a Christian to go to a Christian University, just like it is not a sin to go to a secular university. If it was a sin, then why do all the administrations of Christian Universities want their faculty to get advanced degrees at secular universities instead of Christian Universities?
I would point out that in a secular university, anything related to the Bible is probably wrong, unscriptural. In a Christian university, the unscriptural teachings are so colored by the institution being "Christian" that they are unilaterally accepted as biblical, and anybody who does not agree on a particular point of the Christian University's doctrinal position is "a heretic" (at least while there, once graduated and an alumni, they want your support and donations and young people looking for a college even if you are a heretic).
For example, I laugh as I talk with graduates of Pensacola Christian College about their views of the KJV controversy. While in PCC, they were KJV only to the extreme, but once out, many "dump" that position for one that is more moderate, KJV preferred, but other people using other versions is not wrong. I ask them, "how can you come out of PCC with that position?" Their answer, "Everybody at PCC takes the school's position while there, but we all know that really most people don't accept it. When we leave, we will change back to what we were before." "Why did you choose PCC then?" "Because it is the cheapest place to go." Amazing. Duplicity and hypocrisy that is built into the system, and it is okay. Morally, it is not a problem for a person to take a position which is not really his simply for an economic reason. But this is what Christian schools are built on, a false and faulty system of principles that do not produce strong Christians. (PCC has their particular problems, but this is extremely common among ALL Christian Universities).
The fact that it costs somebody a great sacrifice to take a stand against the majority is something that God blesses, it is not a problem. Sure, some people will bend and go the way of the world in a secular university. My take on that is that these people are not really saved, because a real Christian cannot do that. If perhaps one does, my Bible says God will judge that person, and if he does not respond, God will take him home to heaven quickly before his time.
I have problems with the entire set up of Christian Universities. Although some are better than others, all have problems in my book. I would tend to lean towards schools that are under the direct supervision of a local church. I feel that is much better than most Christian schools. For example, I would prefer the setup of perhaps Hyles-Anderson under a single local church (although I reject Hyles salvation as easy believism and heresy), or Tabernacle Christian Schools in Greenville, SC, simply because they are more ministries of that local church rather than a rogue ministry gone wild like most Christian universities. I do not think Pensacola's situation of making a local church as a department of their school is in any way biblical. It makes fun and ridicule of the local church as presented in the Bible. Nowhere is a pastor and church in the New Testament under the authority of a local school.
Realize that the situation that you are submitting yourself to is not one in which you are going to follow the biblical principles. Biblically you see a brother or sister sin, your responsibility is to go to them one on one first, and if they admit it and repent, it goes no further. Doing that in a Christian University will quickly get you expelled. In life, everything must have a biblical reason (a valid exposition of a Bible verse which clearly explains the principle) or the matter becomes one of personal preference, your preference being fine for you, and mine is just different. Every man should be fully convinced in his own heart of what he is doing (Romans 14:5). In other words, Christian conscience means you should respect other people's convictions and beliefs, but not necessary be under them as you are under the Word of God. You do not trip up people, but you do not have to make their restrictions and convictions your own unless you understand their biblical exposition of Bible principles, and you see them as valid.
It is important for Christian young people to understand that their Christian University is not the final word in their spiritual life, the Bible is. Many of the explanations that they will hear at a Christian University are simply "convenient" for the schools at the moment. These will change with time as the currents of Christianity turn towards or against the issue. Christian Universities are seeking the broadest base of Christians so that they can keep their enrollment as high as possible, and if possible, to increase. That means they have a middle road philosophy, not necessarily a die hard allegiance to God's word.