By Jill Pautz

“Who would have ever thought that a little church girl would grow up one day to be the sex columnist for her college newspaper?”

This is the opening line from a writer’s bio belonging to the University of Colorado-Boulder’s student newspaper. Her advice for fellow students includes, “don’t do it when your roommate is there,” “remember to lock your door,” and “don’t have sex on your roommate’s bed!”1 The sex columnist’s coaching is demonstrative of the sad reality on many college campuses today. A review of television and politics reveals that America’s national morality is in free fall, but there are few places where morality is as severely undermined as in institutions of higher education.

There are more than 4,000 degree-granting institutions in the United States with over 70 million people enrolled.2 At the top are the eight “Ivy League” schools: Brown, Columbia, Cornell, Dartmouth, Harvard, Princeton, University of Pennsylvania, and Yale. These respected schools began as “training grounds for Christian missionaries and ministers,” but have certainly lost their way. Unfortunately they are not alone.

Lo$ing my Religion

As students prepare to graduate high school and consider what lies ahead, a myriad of questions surface. What should I study? Should I go to the same college as my friends, or venture out on my own? Should I go to a small college or a big one? Do I need a secular or a Christian college? The answer to this last question is central in shaping a student’s college experience, worldview, future relationships, and life work.

Most Christian students choose to attend non-Christian colleges. Government-run colleges and universities, funded by our tax dollars, are able to provide an education while charging less. Small, private schools simply cannot afford to compete in price. Even when the economy is strong, people look to save money everywhere they can. But, there is a hidden cost to secular and government-run schools.

In his dissertation, The Impact of Student Religion and College Affiliation on Student Religiosity, Stephen Henderson found a startling decline in both the faith and practice of born-again high school students who go on to attend public or secular universities. His analysis, and that of Gary Railsback in 1994, revealed that there was a “total religious dropout rate from born-again [to unbelieving] is as high as 52 percent.” This figure includes 34 percent who profess to a loss of faith and no longer refer to themselves as born-again.3

There are many possible reasons for the loss of faith. The vast majority of public and secular institutions are informed by a liberal agenda. The schools that began as “training grounds for Christian missionaries,” are now “propaganda factories for every leftist, perverted, radical, tyrannical, failed ideology known to mankind.”4
“The nonreligious population has doubled in the last decade and a half alone,” reports David Wheaton, host of The Christian Worldview radio show and author of University of Destruction. There is an “unparalleled rise of disbelievers … almost entirely due to spontaneous individual conversion.”5 This is a tremendous concern for Christian parents everywhere. After 18 years of training their children, they entrust the final step in their development to our institutions of higher education only to see them undermine faith, principles, and morality. Wheaton describes college campuses as areas where secularists are actively “converting people to a secular worldview.”6

Many college students follow the lead of their professors and seek their approval. Henderson states, “Evidence indicated a link between the religious values, behaviors, and preferences of faculty and the tendency among students to change their religious commitments.” He continued, “Where the faculty was non-religious or mildly religious, students’ religious commitments move considerably toward the secular. Where the faculty expressed greater commitment to religious values and behaviors, the institutional environment supported the students’ religious values and commitment during their college experience.”

In Bad Company

Columbia University, an institution whose motto In lumine Tuo videbimus lumen means “In Thy light shall we see light,” freely offers “Go Ask Alice,” a website filled with “how-to” sex advice for students. Columbia does not offer statistics on student pregnancy or sexually transmitted diseases, but the site featured 286 questions from students about pregnancy and abortion, and 82 questions about sexually transmitted diseases.7

According to the Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC), 26 percent of teen girls have an STD.8 The White House reports that 55.6 percent of people ages 18-25 have tried drugs.9 Alcohol use is another growing problem on American college campuses and is connected to everything from poor grades to sexual assault.10

Should we abandon the secular universities, or should we send our students to be light in a very dark place? Over a century ago, S.B. Wenger wrote: "Our young people will have an education and if we cannot give it to them in well-guarded schools of our own, they will go out into other schools and get it, and according to past experiences we need not expect more than a small percentage of them to return to the church … Many bright young minds have been lost to the church by going out into the world schools to acquire an education."11

The Apostle Paul put it succinctly, “Do not be misled: ‘Bad company corrupts good character.’”12 We’re also commanded to be salt and light in a dark world. The student who chooses to go to a secular school must be determined to make an impact on that culture. It’s a calling. That student’s character and devotion to God must be unshakable, ready to stand firm against ridicule. Like Daniel, they need to take a stand even if they’re the only ones to do so. Without this determination, it is far too likely that the culture will change the student rather than the student changing the culture.

Making an Impre$$ion

Most Christian colleges and universities are committed to imparting doctrinal truths to their students. Some of these schools are also committed to graduating students who will provide leadership in the church. However, students need more than just a heritage of faith or a curriculum that features doctrinal truths. Crown College uses a Christ-centered approach to lead students to the Truth: “Christ, in whom are hidden all the treasures of wisdom and knowledge.”13

Henderson’s report on “religious dropout rate” was only one side of the equation. The reverse is also true and is a tremendous reason for hope. Henderson’s survey included students who attended schools in the CCCU (Council for Christian Colleges and Universities), of which Crown is a member.  Of those students, 82 percent expressed stronger religious faith by the time they graduated.

---

Christ-centered colleges provide opportunities “to be transformed by the renewing of your mind,”14 building upon the aims of higher education by teaching all disciplines from a Christian worldview. The learning of truth (whether scientific, mathematical, or otherwise) is framed in the context of the Author of all Truth. Our faith does not, and must not, simply supplement our education—our faith forms the education, shaping and adding depth to it.

---

Only God can answer the questions we all face, particularly the questions we have during our college years: Who am I? Why am I here? Where am I going? What is the purpose of life? Secularists and liberals in higher education cannot provide life-affirming answers to these life-changing questions.

Christ-centered higher learning builds on the practical purposes of education to provide students with resources and opportunities that catalyze personal and spiritual development. The former prepares students to get a job. The latter helps students live for Christ.

The Ca$e for Crown

We hope that you and your high school students will give Crown College serious consideration. Beyond that, we pray that you will seek God’s face as you choose between a Christian college and a secular one.

It is Crown’s calling and vision to develop Christian leaders. This is why we invest so heavily in the lives of individual students. Everyday nearly two hundred faculty and staff come to campus seeking to carry out this vision, one person at a time. We know that each Crown graduate will have a unique sphere of influence; one life changes another, which changes another … the world changes when one person makes a difference in the life of one person.

Crown works to anticipate marketplace needs and create programming that addresses them, thus making our graduates competitive in the market. It’s this foresight that has led to majors like Public Health and Social Entrepreneurship, which will be launched in the Fall of 2009. The commitment to Crown graduates is to prepare them to accomplish the work that the Lord has called them to. The grounding in God’s word and biblical principles provides graduates a guide for a life of faith. Crown focuses on the individual, mentoring students formally and informally. Professors may have their students in their homes for dinner. Some staff members take students for coffee every week. The intention is to walk side-by-side with students so that when questions arise, there is someone to go to for help.

$um-thing to consider

Families make sacrifices to send their children to Christ-centered colleges like Crown because students develop their worldview, choose a career, and build life-long friendships. They may even meet their future spouse. Good company encourages good character. Whether you choose Crown, another Christian college, or the university of wherever—be sure to consider the true cost.

1 Stortroen, Elizabeth, “Below The Fold: Sex etiquette for the dorm rooms.” The Campus Press, University of Colorado-Boulder. www.askejean.com/campuscolumnists/columns.php
2 National Center for Education Statistics, Digest of Education Statistics: 2007 nces.ed.gov/programs/digest/d07/
3 Henderson, Steven, The Impact of Student Religion and College Affiliation on Student Religiosity. 2003. p.35.
4 Washington, Ellis, “Harvard, the Ivy League and the forgotten Puritans.” World Net Daily. 30 June 2007. www.worldnetdaily.com/news/article.asp
5 Summit Semester Update. The Journal, Summit Ministries. January 2009. www.summit.org
6 Wheaton, David, The Christian Worldview Radio Show. Saturday, February 7, 2009. thechristianworldview.com
7 www.goaskalice.columbia.edu
8 www.cdc.gov
9 www.whitehousedrugpolicy.gov/publications/factsht/druguse/
10 pubs.niaaa.nih.gov/publications/arh27-1/79-86.htm
11 “The Ethos of Anabaptist-Mennonite Colleges,” in The Future of Religious Colleges, p.267.
12 1 Corinthians 15:33, NIV
13 Colossians 2:2b-3, NIV
14 Romans 12:2, NIV