What Kind of College Would Jesus Go To?

A College That's Strictly Different, Chronicle of Higher Education, March 24, 2006

If you're looking for signs of the Theocratic America that Tim LaHaye prays for, you don't have to look much further than Pensacola Christian College.

It was founded 30 years ago, perfectly timed with the beginning of the Republican Revolution, and is about as restrictive and repressive an environment as anything the Taliban might have set up...well, except for the fact that they are "co-ed" in Pensacola. And claim to be Christian.

I'd really advise reading the Chronicle article, it is as informative as it is scary.

Some highlights for you:

• It is not accredited, and so some students have to start college over when they discover that their degree is worthless in the eyes of some employers...though it might be priceless in the eyes of God.
  
• Dissent is never tolerated, and expulsions for even minor infractions are routine.
  
• Students are rewarded for turning each other in for infractions.
  
• There are restrictions on when and where men and women may speak to each other.
• Some elevators and stairwells may be used only by women; others may be used only by men.
  
• Socializing on particular benches is forbidden.
  
• If a man and a woman are walking to class, they may chat; if they stop en route, though, they may be in trouble. Generally men and women caught interacting in any "unchaperoned area" — which is most of the campus — could be subject to severe penalties.
  
• A man and a woman cannot go to an off-campus restaurant together without a chaperon (usually a faculty member). Even running into members of the opposite sex off campus can lead to punishment.
  
• Men and women are not allowed to be at the beach together.
  
• Even couples who are not talking or touching can be reprimanded for engaging in "optical intercourse" — staring too intently into the eyes of a member of the opposite sex. This is also referred to as "making eye babies."
  
• Video games are banned by the college.
  
• Movies are also forbidden, including those rated G.
  
• Music is restricted to classical or approved Christian ("contemporary Christian" artists are deemed too worldly).
  
• Students are allowed to watch television news at 6 o'clock, but TVs are controlled by college employees, who flip a switch to black out the commercials, lest students see anything inappropriate.
  
• In the library, books and magazines are censored.
  
• According to its website "God has called this institution into existence for His own glory; therefore, the administration, faculty, and staff are dedicated to training young people for His service." The divine inspiration for the college allows the institution to intimidate students by telling them that quitting once enrolled is the same as quitting God. If you are expelled, then God has no more use for you than the college did.
  
• The college is Baptist, but not affiliated with the any official Baptist organization. Both its founders are graduates of Bob Jones University but is even more conservative than Bob Jones, which PCC criticizes for using translations of the Bible other thant he King James Version. Bob Jones struck back by criticizing PCC for trying to claim the high ground of Fundamentalism. (To my mind a dubious distinction, but that's what they are into. Be Ye Hot or Be Ye Cold, I guess, but how hot can you get and not be able to tell the difference from the fires of Hell? How strict do you have to be to complain that Bob Jones University is too liberal?)
  
• While computer labs exist, internet access is tightly controlled and limited to only a few hundred approved websites.
  
• One of the founders has also established A Beka Books, acknowledged as the largest Christian-textbook company in the world. A Beka sells textbooks to more than 10,000 Christian schools across the country, offering a complete curriculum for kindergarten through 12th grade. It has also won a big share of the lucrative home-school market and brings in about $70 million in revenue each year. Income from the book company subsidizes the costs of the college, and allows them to keep tuition low enough to entice students away from other rival Christian colleges.
  
• Christianity is woven throughout the curriculum. Creationism is taught in science courses. Classes begin with a prayer. Along with mandatory chapel services, students must attend the campus church three times every week; they are not allowed to go to another church unless they are from the Pensacola area, and even then they need special permission. Mandatory small-group prayer meetings are held in the evenings.
  
• According to their website: "We believe in the imminent, pre-Tribulation return of Jesus Christ for all believers. This Rapture of the saints will be followed by a seven year period of Tribulation, after which Christ will return in glory to judge the world and set up His millennial reign on earth."
  

I wonder if they reimburse you for tuition if the Rapture occurs before the end of the semester?

As a college level instructor myself, who teaches at a primarily Christian private college, I can tell you that this movement to impose a Christian curriculum on public institutions while providing an ever more radical Fundamentalist approach to education in the private schools and colleges is a frightening trend.

The Independent/UK recently published an article which revealed the startling number of graduates of another Christian private school, Patrick Henry College, ending up working for George Bush at the White House.

I think that, even though I am a Christian myself, the most dangerous thing facing our nation at the moment is the rise in political power of the Fundamentalist movement of Conservative Christians.

Don't let them use your faith against you, and remember that the Anti-Christ will convince many that he is Jesus. I'm tempted to say he's got a pretty good plan, there.

Here's the smell test I use. If a religious doctrine, church, or zealot seems to be using his religion to justify hatred and violence instead of love and forgiveness...it probably ain't coming from Jesus.

Who Would Jesus Expell?