50% of Christian College students no longer "born again Christians" after graduation

[Jenn! 918]

With memories of high school graduation still fresh on their minds, millions of parents will send their children off to college in the coming weeks. For parents, the time is a bitter-sweet milestone. For students, it marks the beginning of a quest for freedom.

But what students and parents don’t realize is that today’s campuses are functioning as an indoctrination into the realm of liberalism. As early as the 1790s, Yale college students were openly disavowing Christ. Despite periods of revival, the denial of Christian beliefs and the acceptance of secularism have persisted and gained strength through the years.

In April 2000, Tufts University in Massachusetts decertified a Christian student group “for its refusal to allow a lesbian to run for president,” as columnist Matt Kaufman reported on Boundless.org. The decision was later repealed.

Yet, six years later, students at the University of Michigan may sign up for “Lesbian Worlds: Subject, Object and Representation,” “Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and ####### Studies” and other homosexual-based offerings for the 2006 fall semester.

It is obvious that the Left has a prominent place on public, private, secular and Christian campuses and is so convincing that some Christians are denying their faith while other students are forming a personal set of beliefs for the first time.

In his book University of Destruction, David Wheaton cites research by Dr. Gary Railsback and the Higher Education Research Institute at UCLA. Wheaton wrote, “Depending on the type of college attended, as many as 51% of students who claimed to be ‘born-again Christians’ as freshmen said they were no longer born-again Christians four years later.” (See chart on facing page.)

“The trial everyone has heard about – but most people underrate – is the sheer spiritual disorientation of the modern campus,” wrote J. Budziszewski in a Focus on the Family magazine article.

“Methods of indoctrination are likely to include not only required courses, but also freshman orientation, speech codes, mandatory diversity training, dormitory policies, guidelines for registered student organizations and mental health counseling,” Budziszewski added.

“[T]he modern university, having lost its moral convictions, has attached itself to relativistic doctrines such as tolerance and diversity, which mean, in practice, tolerance of anything but Biblical faith and traditional morality.”

Signaling left

Budziszewski’s claims ring true for Noah Riner, who was the 2005-2006 student body president at Dartmouth College in New Hampshire – a college founded in 1769 to provide Native Americans with a Christian-based education.

Riner delivered the university’s convocation speech last fall. In it, he named Jesus as the solution to flawed humanity and as the ultimate example of character based on His sacrificial love. Riner intended to challenge students to think about what kind of people they would become.

“So in talking about that I couldn’t help but talk about Christ. … [and] living for Him and knowing what our purpose as humans is,” he explained. “[After all], what is the purpose of education, if not to use it for Him?”

But many – both friends and foes – in the Dartmouth community felt differently and spoke out in e-mails as well as articles, op-ed columns and a retaliating cartoon in the student newspaper, The Dartmouth. The controversy even resulted in the resignation of one of the student assembly’s vice presidents, Kaelin Goulet, who claimed she could no longer work with Riner because she considered “his choice of topic for the Convocation speech reprehensible and an abuse of power,” according to The Christian Post.

The Post also reported that the editorial board of The Dartmouth wrote, “The problem with Riner’s speech was his insinuation that turning to Jesus is the only way to find character.”

“I definitely knew that a lot of people would disagree with me in terms of calling Jesus the best example of character and also claiming Him as Savior,” Riner admitted. “I didn’t anticipate the reaction being … as passionately opposed to me as it was, though.

“t was hard [for people] to believe that somebody, some educated, intelligent person believed in God, believed in Jesus Christ and was willing to talk about it,” he explained. “I think it represents [that] a lot of people haven’t heard the Gospel – even in our country.”

Although some of his relationships were strained, Riner took time to respond in person to the people who were upset by his comments. Doing so allowed him to meet new people and gave him the opportunity to talk to some who were contemplating Christianity.

“I don’t think I necessarily changed a lot of people’s minds, … but it was good in that people felt like they had been heard,” Riner explained. “They understood me a little more, and I understood where they were coming from.” And perhaps a seed was planted in the process.

The need for evangelism in addition to the school’s superior academic reputation is the reason this Kentucky-raised, Baptist-bred home schooler attended Dartmouth – a campus where religion is not taken seriously and where humanism is perceived as the predominant worldview.

“ just believed that I could make a difference there,” Riner said. “I think that … our calling that Jesus has mandated is to go into all the world and preach the Gospel. So I think it’s pretty sad when Christians abandon entire areas of our culture, and … I think it’s pretty dangerous to let bad ideas go unchallenged.”

But what does it take for a college student to get to this point where he can stand firm in his beliefs despite the pressures of liberal opposition?

Turning right

For Noah, as for anyone, it’s all about salvation and spiritual preparation.

“Being a ‘good kid’ wasn’t going to be nearly enough to survive college. …” Wheaton wrote of his first few weeks at Stanford University. “My (paltry) desire to adhere to the Christian values with which I had been raised was overwhelmed by the temptations and pleasures of college life.”

These temptations can turn to assaults when exacerbated by sin. Kaufman said students should expect to be assaulted intellectually, emotionally and socially.

To combat the intellectual assault, Kaufman believes Christian students “shouldn’t have an inferiority complex about Christianity.” Rather they should deepen their thinking and consider what it means to be a Christian by immersing themselves in great Christian literature.

“[K]nowing that the Christian worldview is viable and that it makes sense to look at the world from a Biblical standpoint [is so important],” Riner added.

When it comes to emotional and social preparation, Kaufman said it is important for students to plug into a church and to get into relationships with other Christians, both peers and mentors.

“But there’s also the spiritual preparedness that just comes from knowing God and walking with God and knowing His will,” Riner said.

Therefore, Christians need preparation of both the heart and head, according to author Nancy Pearcey.

“If all we give them [young people] is a ‘heart’ religion, it will not be strong enough to counter the lure of attractive but dangerous ideas,” Pearcey wrote in her book Total Truth.

“Young believers also need a ‘brain’ religion – training in worldview and apologetics – to equip them to analyze and critique the competing worldviews they will encounter when they leave home,” she added.

“Parents should try to make sure that their children are grounded in apologetics before sending them off,” said Dr. Richard Howe, a writer in Christian apologetics and a former college professor.

“Training young people to develop a Christian mind is no longer an option; it is part of their necessary survival equipment,” Pearcey wrote.

“This does not mean that the students would have to have all the answers before they go,” Howe added. “But it does mean that, if the need arises for an answer, they will know where to go and with whom to consult when the intellectual battle starts to rage. And it most certainly will rage.”

http://www.afajournal.org/2006/august/0806colleges.html

[UmmSqueakster 54]

I went to a Lutheran University and graduated a Muslim Except I was never really born again (ergo not a real christian in some people's eyes), cause Lutherans are born right the first time

[Ban Hammer 14,291]

i wanted to be born again but my mom said no

[dani_christine 0]

“[T]he modern university, having lost its moral convictions, has attached itself to relativistic doctrines such as tolerance and diversity, which mean, in practice, tolerance of anything but Biblical faith and traditional morality.”

that pretty much says it all, right there.

[LaL 418]

I went to a private Catholic college in NY. I have never been in a church nor was i baptized ... i certainly did not graduate with any *new found religion* much less lose religion

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

I’m not sure its accurate to suggest, as the article does, that colleges and universities are in the business of actively indoctrinating people into some sort of mythical realm of liberalism.

Noone told me what to think at university, in fact the whole point of undergraduate study is to encourage criticial thinking - not to tell you this is wrong and that is right, that judgement is ultimately left to the individual.

If challenging entrenched views, as has been demonstrated in the other thread, represents some dangerous and abhorrent "liberal conspiracy", this country is in far worse ideological shape (ideologically) than I thought.

[Fischkoepfin 1]

Interesting article written by people who obviously don't spend much time on college campuses otherwise they would know that the goal of a college education is not too change students beliefs but to expose them to a wide range of belief systems.

Two passages stood out for me:

But what students and parents don’t realize is that today’s campuses are functioning as an indoctrination into the realm of liberalism. As early as the 1790s, Yale college students were openly disavowing Christ. Despite periods of revival, the denial of Christian beliefs and the acceptance of secularism have persisted and gained strength through the years.

In April 2000, Tufts University in Massachusetts decertified a Christian student group “for its refusal to allow a lesbian to run for president,” as columnist Matt Kaufman reported on Boundless.org. The decision was later repealed.

Yet, six years later, students at the University of Michigan may sign up for “Lesbian Worlds: Subject, Object and Representation,” “Introduction to Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual and Transgender and ####### Studies” and other homosexual-based offerings for the 2006 fall semester.

It is obvious that the Left has a prominent place on public, private, secular and Christian campuses and is so convincing that some Christians are denying their faith while other students are forming a personal set of beliefs for the first time.

The history of Yale is an interesting one, and I find it quite fascinating that the article takes offense at whatever happened there in 1790. In order to understand the significance of the event, one needs to consider that Yale, like Harvard, was founded as a school for Calvinist ministers, and that the two universities spend most of the eighteenth century arguing points of doctrine, with Yale being slightly more progressive, favoring mass propagation of the gospel and believing in universal grace. In the wake of the revolution, Yale (and the other US-colleges) were forced to change their mission because students now attended these schools in order to get a general education, because the war prevented them from attending English schools. Thus, many of the American universities (all of which were private and religious) opened their doors, and the students protests in 1790 were not so much a rejection of Christ but a demand to expand the curriculum for those not wanting to be ministers.

Anyway, far removed from that is the second part of the quote which equates a homosexuality with godlessness citing too examples. The case at Tafts is emblematic of the complaints of the right because it considered a typical example of the problem with speech codes or rather anti-discrimanation codes at American colleges. The interesting thing about speech codes and the Christian right is that they reject them unless they can use them in their own favor, such as to further the "Student Bill of Rights." Arguing that they as conservative Christians are being discriminated against, they want equality in the dissemination of knowledge in the classroom, thus while not directly relying on the speech codes, demanding the same rights granted by speech codes.

Finally, the Christian right attacks the curriculum at universities, particularly courses on feminism and sexual orientation, most of which are offered to allow students an insight into different mindsets. However, because groups on the Christian right believe that sexual orientation is not genetic but a choice, they view these classes as dangerous because they fear that students attending the class could be "converted to homosexuality" or to become "feminists" (not nearly as bad, but stilll a problem). Interestingly, the article makes no mention that rightwing students oppose courses on race and class in America with equal vehemence, citing similar reasons, thus in effect yearning for the good old days.

“Methods of indoctrination are likely to include not only required courses, but also freshman orientation, speech codes, mandatory diversity training, dormitory policies, guidelines for registered student organizations and mental health counseling,” Budziszewski added.

To condemn mental health counseling as a form of indoctrination is about the worst problem with the article. Many people on college campuses seek counseling for a number of issues arising from separation from their families and mental illnesses developing in early adulthood. For most of them, making the decision to seek counseling is difficult enough, and ithere's no need to stigmatize mental illnnesses any further. On the other hand, it is of course surprising that counseling appears in the article at all, indicating that if counseling really poses a danger for young Christians that the writers of the article oppose self-inquiry which forms a vital part of counseling.

[pedroh 21]

yea lol.. #######.. they don't force u to learn anything in a universitry.. and.. oh, i thought college students had minds of their own, and they could think, and not fall into suggestion by others

[ceriserose 1]

Am I the only one who wavers between seriously bothered by and completely confused by the implication that a political liberal wouldn't/couldn't be religious?

[Peter Miami 1]

i wanted to be born again but my mom said no

I tried the same thing!

Peter Miami

[Ban Hammer 14,291]

Am I the only one who wavers between seriously bothered by and completely confused by the implication that a political liberal wouldn't/couldn't be religious?

no

[Cassie 8]

I attended both "secular" and Christian universities during my education. First I went to a "secular" uni to study nursing. During that time, I realized that I had lots more to learn about my faith, scholarly study of the Bible and why I believe what I believe. I then went a Christian university, which helped me in doing that, while still getting a quality humanities degree in history. Then back to graduate school, where I then promptly ran out of money.

I was fortunate growing up in that I had lots of opportunity and exposure to different things -- teaching children both in school and at home the skill of critical thinking is crucial.

[Fandango 1,440]

Why are their classes in lesbianism?

[Trumplestiltskin 5,791]

Am I the only one who wavers between seriously bothered by and completely confused by the implication that a political liberal wouldn't/couldn't be religious?

Yep - it’s the usual sort of baseless slur you hear bandied about. Apparently only christian neo-conservatives have the privilege of holding genuine religious views.

Ironically enough, its those with inflexible views who have the hardest time with the courses - because that closed mindset is totally at odds with the goal of the courses, which again is about asking questions - and forming their own views.

Anyone who sees that as some sort of dangerous threat, is missing the point of higher education IMO.

[w¡n9Nµ7 §£@¥€r 123]

Why are their classes in lesbianism?

When people donate large sums of money to an institution, they are in the position to demand certain courses/departments be instituted and/or certain forms of research be pursued. This is not a bad thing.