The Cost of Being Christian at “Christian” Schools

As the world closes in on faithful Christians, it’s only natural that those who hold to the faith of their fathers would look to their brothers and sisters in Christ for sanctuary. After all, God’s instructions to His Church about loving one-another are clear and pervade Scripture. As we pray for help, we seek answers to those prayers among other Christians and the institutions we’ve built.

This is especially true of parents as we consider our children’s futures. We can protect them for a time, but at some point, they will need to be able to make their way in a world that will hate them as long as they remain faithful. Those who need assistance in preparing their children for a difficult adulthood have long looked to Christian schools who have made such preparation their mission.

But worldliness (the temptation to pursue esteem among those who hate us) works directly against the love Christians have for one-another. Instead of caring for our brothers in need, we try to make sure everyone knows we’re not one of those Christians. We take pains to separate ourselves from them and their concerns. In some respects, this temptation is far stronger in Christian schools than elsewhere. The practicalities of operating can require more cooperation with many worldly institutions and therefore currying more favor from them.

So it is that many of our institutions have become Christian in name and branding, but not in practice. A friend of mine discovered this the hard way a few years ago. During his decade-long service at a Christian college attached to a conservative denomination, he found that it was precisely his faithfulness to Christian mission–a mission highlighted in their literature–which brought him into conflict with his employer.

Christian at a “Christian” College

This conflict first became apparent when, in addressing a history class, he presented Vasily Surikov’s painting of the Apostle Paul before Agrippa and Festus in a slide. This was, after all, a trial in which Paul explained Christ’s Resurrection as something true, rational, and public–in other words, a matter of history. One should hope that a school which seeks to serve Christ by educating its students about history would take no umbrage at such an example, but this was not the case. He was quickly relieved of his duty to train history students at a Christian school because he spent a minute telling them that the Resurrection was a matter of history.

There was also an article he wrote for the school newspaper addressing LGBT issues after a campus event which strove to create more gay-friendly viewpoints at this Christian school. I’ve read the piece, and he bent over backwards to be gracious: extending welcomes, condemning bullies, minimizing homosexuality as an issue that the church shouldn’t focus on, welcoming civil conversation on the subject, and so forth. His stated concern was merely the authority of Scripture and that a Christian school must accept that homosexuality is one sin among a great many other sins as Scripture says. Indeed, he went so far in being winsome, that I would even disagree with some of his points as a result. But none of his nuance, sensitivity, or understanding prevented him from being rebuked as judgmental by the Dean of Diversity because of it. (Note: if your “Christian” college has a Dean of Diversity or any other DEI personnel, it is actively promoting a false religion.)

But the conflicts did not stop there because my friend did not stop Christ’s mission there. Over the years, he continued to perform his remaining duties at the school as a Christian rather than a pagan. When his department held ongoing events exploring Islam, he suggested they do so from a Christian point of view. He objected that the search committee for his department’s new director contained no serious Christians. He periodically tried to persuade his coworkers to take the school’s purported Christian mission more seriously–even if it put them in tension with worldly professional organizations. And, of course, he spoke out about religious and political issues on social media. Though he did not violate the school’s policies, his views were nevertheless held against him.

Pagans in Charge

Christ warned us that such faithfulness would earn us conflict with the world, and that’s precisely what he received. “He is insane”, “unprofessional (crossing religious and political lines)”, “not neutral/not ‘welcoming all'”, “religious obsessions”, etc. These are common reactions from pagans, of course, but we often forget that the world is with us even within our “Christian” organizations.

As it turns out, making an organization’s official mission Christian does little good when unbelievers are hired to carry it out. As his supervisor once put it in a performance review, ““He is learning that since we are not a Bible College but rather a Liberal Arts College, not all colleagues appreciate his desire to integrate these into the daily life of the [organization].” Indeed, she made it clear that the department was to remain “neutral” rather than Christian so that it could “respect and honor the various belief systems that we may encounter.” This is the reign of the Spirit of the Age.

Neither does being extremely conscientious about how one contends for the faith offer us much protection. My friend picked his battles. He worked hard to perform his duties with excellence. He was diligent about cultivating good relationships with colleagues. While he was no more perfect than any of us, he strove to be respectful in all things. Christians who seldom find themselves in hostile environments think that being loving enough or “winsome” enough will save them from the world’s ire, but this has never been the case. None of us will be as loving as Jesus, but the world still hated Him enough to put Him to death.

The final straw for my friend came when the school was in danger of violating state law in its COVID procedures, and he gave them an unwelcome reminder of their legal obligations. Once again, he bent over backwards to be understanding and objective in the way he addressed it–even seeking his wife’s input to make sure it wasn’t out-of-line or taking an adversarial tone. Once again, he was treated with hostility. They dredged up a history of “infractions” which he had never even been approached about in the past. They even gaslighted and falsely accused him in the form of the insidious “I feel threatened” card, which conveniently says nothing at all about its target, but is used liberally to justify abuse. Finally, they could tolerate his faith no longer, and they fired him after over a decade of service.

Sadly, his state’s government refused to protect him as a whistleblower, and allowed the matter to fall under at-will employment, meaning an employee can be fired for any reason or no reason at all. But whatever the legality of such a choice, the morality behind it was anything but Christian.

Start Being Vigilant

So what are Christians to take away from stories like my friend’s? For parents and prospective students, the lesson should be clear: Denominational branding is woefully insufficient for judging whether or not a school is actually Christian. Mission statements and the positive aphorisms of your tour guide don’t cut it. As tempting as it is to think you can send your sons off to college without simultaneously sending them off to war, the reality is that even most conservative Christian schools simply do not offer you that option. Your efforts will be best spent preparing them for that conflict with the world just as much as for academics.

Donors need to take away that same lesson and consider exactly what they’re supporting with their money. This point will largely be lost on Boomers who blithely donate even to their secular alma maters while simultaneously complaining about how our universities have become leftist indoctrination centers. But they’re not the only class of donors anymore. Consider what the school has been up to before signing any checks for them. Suspending faculty or reprimanding students for being conservative Christians is an obvious tell, but many other victims like my friend remain anonymous. Instead of just looking for Christian affirmations in their literature and among their faculty, also make sure you look for the affirmations of the Spirit of the Age. Do they brag about their diversity? Do they have any DEI-related staff? Do they make common cause with Satan in any way that goes beyond required legal boilerplate for non-discrimination? No self-proclaimed Christian organization which dances with the devil in such a way should see a penny from a Christian.

But there’s also a lesson for Christian organizations themselves–at least those interested in remaining Christian: If you do not actively oppose infiltration by the world, the world will consume your institution. “What communion hath light with darkness? And what concord hath Christ with Belial?” This shouldn’t need to be said, but the answer to Paul’s (rhetorical) questions is not “inside my Christian service organization!” If you hire unbelievers, they will inevitably undermine your Christian mission. Not because they’re mustache-twirling villains or because they’re just much worse sinners than you, but simply because they are animated by a different spirit. Their priorities are the world’s rather than Christ’s.

To be sure, this is not as easy as it sounds. It’s hard to find people who are both faithful and qualified for very specific positions in very specific time-frames. Even my friend’s former employer had made efforts in the past to hire more Christians, but weren’t able to pull it off effectively. Like many organizations, they found that having strict standards of faith for the personnel would severely limit how many personnel they can actually have. Like many organizations, they probably thought they could be larger and serve more people if they relaxed those standards. And that’s true in the short term. But in the long term, while they can certainly grow larger, the service they provide drifts further and further from their original Christian mission. In the end, they become only a larger and more efficient servant of the Spirit of the Age. It would have been better to serve far fewer people for Christ.

Trust Not in Denominations

It’s easy to be discouraged over stories like this. It’s easy to be discouraged as yet another institution in which we might have hoped becomes just another casualty of Satan’s war against the saints. It’s easy to think we’ve been left alone, but we have not. Christ is with us, and he has given us many faithful men and women to work alongside. The difference is in how we find our allies.

The age where we sought common-cause through denominational branding is drawing to a close. We will find our brothers and sisters among those who actually act as fellow Christians have been instructed to act by God’s word. They are the ones who love one-another, who defend one-another against the world, and who actually come to your aid when you are under attack. They are the doers of the Word rather than hearers only. They have Christ’s priorities in mind rather than the world’s. They will defend you even if you are imperfect rather than letting your peccadilloes excuse them for abandoning you. As Christ says, you will know them by their love, and the Word remains true. Look for those who love their fellow Christians. And more importantly, be one of those who loves his fellow Christians.

May God provide us with many such saints; may He bless those like my brave friend who have taken wounds in His service; may He bless us all as we build new institutions and reclaim fallen ones; and may He teach us to hold them steadfast and true against the world’s incursions.