Editor’s Note: This represents a continuation of Part I of Mr. Hunter’s article.
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Facing the Challenges of the World
Many students and alumni have argued that the challenges to their Christian faith they have faced at Erskine have actually strengthened their faith. I have no doubt that this is the case, as I would include myself in that category. Challenges to faith indeed often motivate our minds to think, send us to search the Scriptures, and drive us to prayer, and we are refreshed and reassured of God’s promises in Christ. However, I would like to point out that this has clearly not been the case with everyone! In fact, some have not been strengthened in faith, but rather weakened, or even encouraged to fall away. What about students who may be seeking or considering Christ? Are they being encouraged to look to Christ or away from him? The fact is, is that students are being de-evangelized! Surely no Christian would want this to happen at a Christian school.
No doubt God in his grace can work through them, but is a lack of a strong Biblical foundation or in some cases assaults on Christian faith how Christians really how we are supposed to mature? Yes, Christians will face intense challenges from the “real world” their entire lives. The whole point of a Christian liberal arts education is to help equip and prepare them for those challenges, not to assault them with those challenges and leave them to fend for themselves. The Apostle Paul, longing for the maturity of young believers in the early church in the face of persecution and false teaching, prayed that “Christ may dwell in your hearts through faith,” being “rooted and established in love” and “may have power together, with all the saints, to grasp how wide and long and high and deep is the love of Christ” (Ephesians 3:17-18), so that “you may be filled with the knowledge of his will in all spiritual wisdom and understanding, so as to walk in a manner worthy of the Lord, fully pleasing to him, bearing fruit in every good work and increasing in the knowledge of God” (Colossians 1:9-10). If a school is commissioned to be a Christian liberal arts institution, shouldn’t every effort be made for Christian students to grow in knowledge and richness of Christ’s love? And for non-Christian students to come to faith and know and experience this same love? Should it not be a legitimate concern that while some students are growing in love for Christ, others are being shaken or encouraged to look away from Christ because of what is being taught in some of the classrooms?
I know some will probably object by saying that Erskine has a spiritual side but is an academic institution. Spiritual growth and maturity should take place in the churches, campus ministries, and Bible studies, and real scholarship should take place in the classroom. What then would make Erskine distinct from a secular institution? All colleges have campus ministries and Bible study groups. Furthermore, as we have said before, such a dichotomizing is not only impossible for any institution because all have faith commitments, but also has disastrous results for the Christian. To bear the name Christian is not simply a matter of personal faith that is merely one facet of life—Christ should be the center that affects every facet of life. He has the supremacy. This includes the classroom and the academic pursuit. Again, I hope that I have shown above that this does not mean sermons in every classroom, Erskine becoming a separatist Bible college, or trying to coerce Christian beliefs on non-Christian students. I firmly believe that if Erskine College truly fulfills its mission, non-Christian students too can still come receive an excellent education and greatly enjoy their time at Erskine. Rather, it means teaching every class in a way that affirms Christ’s lordship over everything. Are Erskine’s classes being taught in this way?
I know some will object by saying that education should not teach people what to think but how to think. Many have expressed appreciation for professors who taught them to think for themselves. I hope I have shown that a Christian liberal arts education, if truly implemented, does not encourage students to turn their brains off, but rather to thoroughly explore and rigorously study all areas of life. It is not about spoon-feeding students. It is not about preaching to them. But all education has to be taught from a particular perspective. All professors, including the ones so praised for teaching students how to think, have an underlying perspective that affects how and what they teach.
I suspect that oftentimes many students in these classes are actually not thinking for themselves. If a professor says in class that Scripture is not God’s Word or that faith has no effect on the world of science, are students really thinking through it themselves or do they just taking his word for it? Professors with a Christian way of viewing the world can just as much as other professors do, and they can even better encourage students to think through issues themselves while also teaching from an evangelical Christian perspective. Doubtlessly there are great secular schools out there that hold to different perspectives. I strongly considered a couple for my own college education. But if Erskine is called to be an evangelical Christian liberal arts school, then it should teach from that perspective—one that holds Scripture to be the inspired, inerrant Word of God and one that longs in everything for Christ to have the supremacy. The point is what kind of school has Erskine been commissioned to be?
So what kind of education best equips Christians to face the challenges and assaults to their faith from the “real world?” One that could potentially undermine their faith before they even get to the real world? Or an education that will foster maturity and prepare Christian students to face these challenges with confidence in God’s Word and in Christ?