Below are some final comments that my family and I have been discussing and I would like to share with you concerning College Critiqued.
I've received a lot of feedback about College Critiqued throughout the past week and I'd like to thank each of you who took the time to comment, both positive and negative. My brother, Jonathan, and I really enjoyed making this short film; the entire project has been a great learning experience :) Education is definitely a “hot button” topic that hits close to our worldview (something I was not ignorant of when I embarked on this project), so I’m not at all surprised by the varied responses and some of the passion expressed. I would like to close this topic with some final thoughts.
My desire was to point out the crisis in higher education and that from a Biblical perspective revolution must start with the Fear of the LORD (Proverbs 1:7), which has completely been removed from the teaching in secular universities. In the wake of removing God and the fear of Him, we clearly see significantly lower standards and results (by the way one commenter validated the statistics: if only 31 percent can read a complex book and extrapolate from it, this means that a MAJORITY of 69 percent cannot), skyrocketing costs, out of control immorality, and much more. Therefore, we must seriously consider revolutionary alternatives like CollegePlus!, distance learning, and Christian colleges and universities.
Some argued that if Christians are to stay away from secular colleges and universities, then we should also, as one responder stated, “stay away from sports games, Kroger, amusement parks, museums, and doctors’ offices.” This logic implies that we should not choose to avoid cultural settings, activities, business ventures, education, or employment opportunities because of anti-Christian views or immoral activities. This is clearly an unbiblical position. How many of us would use this position to argue in favor of attending or sending our children to an Islamic school, working for Planned Parenthood, or going to an adult bookstore? Why, then, do we use this flawed argument when it comes to education?
In part, I believe we lean on this flawed logic because we’ve bought the lie that education can somehow be religion neutral. This is not possible. As Jesus said, “He who is not with me is against me, and he who does not gather with me, scatters” (Luke 11:23, NIV). Knowledge is not taught in a vacuum. All education propagates and makes disciples of some belief system, so why would it not be especially critical to take extreme care when selecting our “disciplers?” As Jesus also said, “Can a blind man lead a blind man? Will they not both fall into a pit? A student is not above his teacher, but everyone who is fully trained will be like his teacher.” Wow! Today’s secular colleges and universities are indeed great mission fields (our church hosted two different mission organizations that focus on our local university campus at our missions conference this weekend), but they are NOT training camps for disciples of Jesus Christ. In fact, they are about the business of scattering. Recall that we are commanded to live in the world, not be of the world.
Just as a footnote, I was accused of being unaware of the state of government education and college campuses because I've supposedly never been in them. Thus, I am automatically unqualified to state my opinions. While I do not agree with such a claim, these were, in fact, false assumptions. My claims come not only from research and what others have told me, but from my own experience.
Revolution is serious business; revolution involves revolt, throwing off the existing system and replacing it. Many have argued that I did not answer the question (How would you revolutionize higher education?), because my views were to essentially be rid of the current secular system. However, this argument, in and of itself, proves that I did argue for revolution. Merriam Webster’s online dictionary defines revolution as “a sudden, radical, or complete change … a fundamental change in the way of thinking about or visualizing something : a change of paradigm.” Secular colleges and universities are focal points of openly anti-Christian and anti-Biblical teaching, openly promoting the religion of secular humanism and Darwinian evolutionary thinking. They are propagators of Marxist/socialist philosophies in America and are supporters of rampant immorality. The results are evident and increasing in every sphere of American and global culture. When is it time for Christians to take radical action to make “a change of paradigm” if not now? When is it time to stop providing financial support to the tune of $15,000 to $30,000 per year for institutions that are so openly anti-Christ if not now? When does revolution become necessary if not now? Revolution is not a comfortable topic. In fact, it invades our comfort zones, calling into question our very belief systems and forcing us to consider difficult choices. I believe that NOW is the time to seriously consider revolutionizing higher education.
