Why have we seen Christian schools become secular without seeing secular schools become Christian? This drift only happens in one direction. The paternalistic Left equates proper political views with morality. They want to “help” your school build with wood, hay and stubble. At the least, they want to help you into become a liberal college.
Is your college or university on the way to becoming a liberal college? The following thoughts are culled from discussions with faculty and staff at several Christian colleges and universities.
You know your Christian college or university has gone or is moving Left when:
- People are generally a bit nervous about speaking up to buck the trend, at all levels, from newbie faculty all the way through the hierarchy. In a world where a Left-leaning fellow like Larry Summers at Harvard can speak the plain truth and be pilloried for it, it’s pretty clear that no one is safe. Summers couldn’t withstand the pressure placed on him by the Left segment of the campus and eventually had to resign.
- Faculty meet behind closed doors to discuss these political changes (to the Left) on campus.
- You can walk through the faculty parking lot and count Right-leaning bumper stickers on the fingers of one hand, while quite a few have Left-leaning stickers. (This doesn’t necessarily mean that the Left is a majority… but it means they’re a LOT more vocal about it.)
- Students start forming groups to promote conservative and traditional values (because they see so little defense of them on campus). Faculty often don’t stop to talk to such students at booths that promote such values—not because they don’t agree, but because they fear being seen to agree, or even being interested. Likewise, faculty who consider joining the Facebook group of conservative students pause for a moment and count the cost.
- Every chapel speaker for three or four weeks straight seems to come from the Left.
- It’s always completely safe in public discourse (meetings, workshops, councils, etc.), to express fidelity to diversity activism, but not to political activism such as overturning Roe v. Wade, or to fight for a Right to Life constitutional amendment.
- You feel that it’s safer to “feel people out in person” before sending them a document expressing conservative or libertarian values. On the other hand, people from the Left send abundant emails to the entire campus expressing their point of view, and appear to feel perfectly safe in doing so.
- Official college publications begin using the phrase “speech codes” in a non-pejorative manner.
- Your campus has “justice weeks” in which there is no mention of killing the unborn; the rise of anti-Semitism in the West; out-of-wedlock birth leading to fatherless children (with the inevitably higher rates of crime, time in prison, poverty, etc.); Muslim treatment of women (in Western nations, not just “Islamic” ones); nor the responsibility of society to care for military veterans and their families—especially disabled veterans and the families of killed soldiers (a scandal if there ever was one). Huge injustices all, but somehow never in view during campus “justice week.”
- High level administrators try to suppress student political activism toward the Right. Consequently, administrators may be forced to apologize via legal action by the students on the Right.
- The cafeteria goes “green” and refuses to give customers “to-go” containers even as an extra cost item. The cafeteria doesn’t supply trays anymore (to save water), so you have to juggle plates, beverages, utensils, soup bowls, etc., the hard way. Consequently, the cafeteria carpet has more stains than it used to.
- Recycling bins are all over campus, but there aren’t enough trash cans—or at least, they’re placed distant from the recycling bins.
Are you becoming a liberal college? If this sounds like your campus, your founder may be turning over in his grave.
