I have a close friend who serves on a Christian organization at a university that is decidedly liberal and predominantly anti-Christian. Sunday our pastor pointed out that most of what we consider Ivy League schools were established by believers. He is correct. Harvard, Princeton, and Yale among others in that group were established as seminaries to train pastors and missionaries. Now, not so much.
As our pastor mentioned Sunday most of those schools, including the one my friend serves, are embarrassed by the monuments and plaques that are on the campus. They no longer believe or defend the right of people to believe what is written on those plaques. Further, if one is vocal about faith, one will soon find themselves censored, excluded, and most likely expelled from the institution.
It used to be that the purpose of “higher” education was to examine ideas. It seems now that it is to accomplish what Paul warns us of in Romans 12:1 – 2, the purpose is to squeeze us into a mental, social, aspiritual, and verbal mold. Ironic that the very institutions that were founded for the purpose of equipping for the spreading of the gospel are now committed to the propagation of a “settled” godless worldview.
The students do not benefit from this. My friend was telling us of a group with whom he was talking who were discussing the SCOTUS ruling on same sex unions. There was not one who would admit to disagreeing. My friend felt that if he had spoken, he would have been reported and possibly banned from the campus.
In some of the countries in which the Lord has allowed me to serve in the past few years, disagreement with the prevailing religion or conversion to Christianity is punishable by death. For me speaking in the name of Christ to one who was not a believer would mean my forced removal from the country or worse. That level of physical tyranny is not yet being felt here, but it soon will be. There is a couple in Oregon that probably would disagree.
It used to be that the purpose of “higher” education was to examine ideas. It seems now that it is to accomplish what Paul warns us of in Romans 12:1 – 2, the purpose is to squeeze us into a mental, social, aspiritual, and verbal mold. Ironic that the very institutions that were founded for the purpose of equipping for the spreading of the gospel are now committed to the propagation of a “settled” godless worldview.
The students do not benefit from this. My friend was telling us of a group with whom he was talking who were discussing the SCOTUS ruling on same sex unions. There was not one who would admit to disagreeing. My friend felt that if he had spoken, he would have been reported and possibly banned from the campus.
In some of the countries in which the Lord has allowed me to serve in the past few years, disagreement with the prevailing religion or conversion to Christianity is punishable by death. For me speaking in the name of Christ to one who was not a believer would mean my forced removal from the country or worse. That level of physical tyranny is not yet being felt here, but it soon will be. There is a couple in Oregon that probably would disagree.
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