Episode 127: Christian Colleges

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 Regular listeners will know by now that we tend to cover topics here that bounce around Religion, Politics, Pop Culture, Foreign Films, and many things in between. Today our topic is going to focus on a particularly unique institution that crosses a lot of those boundaries: Christian College. I’ve personally spent some time as a student and a professor in this world and I have...thoughts. First, I think that we’re going to have to wrestle with terms here a lot. What do we mean exactly when we say “Christian” for instance? That may sound simple, but it’s wildly complicated. Second, my own opinion is that the Platonic ideal of Christian College is probably without question the best form of education for me and my taste. The practice of creating these institutions, however, often results in troubling consequences. 
Let me be clear here. Many people have been hurt by Christian Colleges, just as many people have been hurt by Christian institutions of other kinds. I am absolutely one of those people (I may or may not get into this during the show). Yet, there is something so wonderful about, to use an old warhorse slogan, “integrating faith and learning.” 
Today I want to talk about the mass of contradictions that is the Christian College.
Joining me today are Michial Farmer and Michael Gruber (introduce selves). 
Announcements:

1. MAC Charity Con. 
2. Patreon Campaign.

Discussion:

1. Do we want to begin by defining our terms and talking about exactly what we mean by the term “Christian College?”
2. Without getting too deeply into the weeds, just at the biographical level, what are our experiences with Christian Colleges? 
3. I contacted Alan Noble about this subject, based on a Twitter exchange he was having, and asked him for a defense of Christian Liberal Arts Education. Here is what he sent me. What are your thoughts about the strengths of a Christian education? Also, how does - in theory - a Christian higher education distinguish itself from a secular one?:
   1.  In short, properly done, a Christian LA education views education as involving the whole person, body, mind, and soul, rather than a mechanistic view of the person. It sees the ends of education as "liberation" (the old meaning of the liberal arts) through virtues and the good life (as opposed to our natural state, which is enslaved to our passions, our desires, our ego, and cultural forces like propaganda and marketing). It teaches the best that has been thought and said, but it interrogates those works, bringing in the best of resent scholarship that has recovered marginalized works. It does not treat students as machines for production, but living beings created in the image of God who therefore should delight in creation, imagination, and beauty, and who should understand history honestly, and should do all this with a spirit of humility, rather than haughtiness or pride. 
   2. (Danny) 1. The ability to bounce off of spiritual assumptions is a powerful learning tool. 2. Aiming people’s desires versus satisfying their consumer demands.
4. Despite the promise and philosophy of Christian Education, however, things sometimes fall apart in rather tragic ways. What are some inherent weaknesses, or maybe better yet, paradoxes, built into Christian Higher ed as experienced in practice. 
   1. (Danny): 1. Selling college as a material good, then expecting students to approach it spiritually. 2. “Protecting” students from ideas. 3. Worldview ideology versus formation. 
5. Economics: All colleges, particularly private, Liberal Arts colleges, are under extreme financial pressure today for reasons that merit a separate podcast discussion altogether. How does the pressure of having to respond to market forces twist Christian Higher ed? 
   1. (Danny) 1. Like the issue with “christian” media. Same structures, same formation, different clothing. 
   2. (Michial) Even worse than Christian media, because of the existential threat. Costs so much to run a college. People are afraid to go against the current. 
6. Ideological pressures: One of the things I want to do here is to emphasize that the problems facing Christian Higher Ed are not entirely external. Sometimes “mission” is a political hot potato that various constituents of the institution battle over. In short, there are cases in which particularly fundamentalist ideologies can run roughshot over the “Liberal Arts” part of the equation. Case Study from Olivet Nazarene - https://www.insidehighered.com/quicktakes/2019/07/12/scholar-loses-professorship-over-his-book What are your thoughts about this particular situation. Moving past the “legal” right for the college to do this, does it reveal a particular weakness in Christian higher ed? 
   1. (Here is my friend Rob’s response to my FB post - As a Nazarene school Olivet has investment from giving across Nazarene churches in a spectrum of contexts. While there would be complaints, there would also be people unopposed. I don't envy leaders in an institution of higher ed that have as a goal spiritual formation.

And of course instances like this are easy to cherry pick in the arena of big doughy Christian schools that have as their aim something altogether completely unconsidered by MOST schools. I mean to climb on the "please let's move beyond" bandwagon, can we move beyond pretending this is ONLY in Christian schools? Or that there aren't financial (or enrollment) pressures to jettison away from anything that smells like Christianity in nearly every other school. 
A discussion about how these issues play out at any school that would even try to align themselves conservatively (and I mean in lifestyle, not the voting booth) would be adding something. For instance how does this play out at say Zaytuna College? Or among any of our Muslim brothers and sisters institutions of higher ed? Do we want to pretend they aren't marking out the same shrinking territory?
I think to smear these schools for an effort that inarguably crosses swords with the entire current of education is a really easy caricature. I mean what do we say "How dare they!?". How dare they what? Enjoy the pluralism that's been championed by those of higher learning?
(Danny) 1. The dangers of demanding “consensus” or “adherence”  2. Just as Christian Colleges scold secular ed for prohibiting diversity, this is what they do themselves under the banner and protection of “Biblical Values”

1. Prediction time: Future of Christian colleges? 
   
   Bonus Material Question:

What are some of your favorite stories from your experiences at Christian Colleges? These can be fun/tragic, whatever.
OTHER LINKS:
https://www.idahostatesman.com/news/local/education/article95597627.html

https://pietistschoolman.com/2019/07/27/the-average-christian-college-president/?fbclid=IwAR061sqqYiXCMTSQ8xoz6h8QyMMWQSf8h9cHELNgWhXCNh8Zy1KYcniwMg4

http://www.christianhumanist.org/2019/07/book-review-christian-higher-education-edited-by-david-dockery/

https://www.chronicle.com/article/Dire-Financial-Straits-/246735?key=lZNp9FHkDfv6nyFEhWZrDYslmeFkprKLASO6Qc1DSvfaaJLBHGpntRMWIrLuDrUnREJLSTNTZXZ4SlMwemFzTWtqRllmcVVGUXdLaFFOZnRLSlpGamZ6c0xYUQ&fbclid=IwAR30EbTo8qGLC6VhavtoR4K6RivM-j6x5x-iID82bxK11Ahn7KL2yo3jyN4