I have taught Christian theology in three major evangelical Christian universities over forty years. I also served as editor of a scholarly journal supported by fifty of them. Each one sent a representative to our annual board meeting and I communicated with them often about a wide range of subjects, often about controversies surrounding their universities. (Some were colleges that had not yet chosen to change to “universities.”)
That is to say I have a wide and deep acquaintance with the inner workings of evangelical Christian colleges and universities of which there are over 100 in America.
Every few years a new controversy breaks out about one such college or university. People who think they know one well, often alumni, pile on the college or university without really understanding how they operate.
It begins with a rumor spread on social media or email or Facebook or Youtube. A graduate whines loudly: “The college I love has lost its way!” All it takes is one or a few such angry, embittered, often confused person to start the controversy that results in very serious problems for his or her alma mater.
In many such cases the people piling on the college or university are simply reacting to rumors. In some cases they are simply seeking influence, even power over the college or university.
I have personally experienced such cases and have heard of many, checking them out with people I know inside the newly controversial institution.
These people usually have very little understanding of what “liberal arts education” means and does not mean.
For example, someone hears that his or her “beloved alma mater” teaches liberation theology. They can’t or won’t distinguish between teaching it to promote it and teaching about it. Instead of liberation theology it could be: open theism, dispensationalism, existentialism, etc., etc.
I remember a former missionary who taught Old Testament at the evangelical Christian liberal arts college where I taught for 15 years. He was about as devout, committed, evangelical as anyone could possibly be. But, he was amillennial rather than premillennial and he believed that the flood of Noah’s day was local and not universal. He was a gentle teacher, never imposing his beliefs on students but encouraging them to take the Old Testament seriously as God’s inspired word.
A group of the college’s constituents began a campaign to get him fired for not believing in the “rapture” or the “millennium” even thought the denomination’s and college’s statement of faith included neither as a doctrine. They were also incensed that he did not believe in a universal flood. Their campaign caused the college, the professor’s department (which I was part of) and the college months, even years of difficulty. Many pastors and parents encouraged their kids to go elsewhere to college because of that one extremely kind, deeply evangelical professor.
That same kind of conserves broke out there, during the 15 years I was on the faculty, and at the two other evangelical Christian universities where I taught.
In every case I knew for sure, without any doubt, that the people stirring up the controversies and campaigns to get professors fired knew very little about the reality inside the college or university. They rarely came in person to inquire about what was really going on. In some cases they seemed only to be interested in one thing—gaining power and control over the institution.
Recently a new controversy has broken out about a well-known evangelical Christian university of arts and sciences in Southern California. I know people who teach there. I have watched and listened to them on Youtube—defending the institution against the attacks by outsiders and alumni.
A major accusation is the the institution has become “woke” and therefore “liberal.” Three long-time teachers of theology have gone on record, on Youtube, trying to explain the falseness of the accusations. Yet the people stirring the pot continue their campaign.
Such people are in danger of bearing false witness against the institution which is composed of brothers and sisters. They need to stop it.
On the other hand, there are times and situations in which biblically conservative Christian institutions have gone “off the rails” into secularism and liberal theology. In another essay here I will speak more about those examples—why that happens and what should be done to prevent it.
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