Theology for Women

Forbes Magazine recently published an articled entitled “College Daze” in which the author examined the slipping standards of American universities. According to the author, colleges are no longer a place to prepare young people for adulthood, but to instead prolong their childhood.

Rather than discipline students and train them for the real world, spineless professors are pampering their students through widespread grade inflation, no longer holding their students accountable for tardy and below average work. As the author sees it, college is a place to get maximum benefit with the least amount of effort. A Duke University administrator even noted that the school has run out of classroom space between the hours of 11 and 2:15 on Tuesdays and Thursdays, reflecting an effort on the part of the students to extend the weekend for as long as possible.

The author concludes that maturity and a strong work ethic are no longer valued principles in our generation. We are spoiled and we are lazy.

Now before I go into the ways I agree with the author, let me first say that I don’t think the situation is quite so dire. There is a tendency to reminisce about “the good ‘ol days,” romanticizing them in a way that exaggerates reality. Not everyone in college worked hard 30 years ago. I’m pretty sure there was a beer or two to be had. Plus, I have quite a few friends who have worked their tails off in college–probably working harder than was even healthy. Not all students used to be perfect, and not all students today are completely hopeless.

That said, the author is in many ways correct. Statistics dealing with grade inflation and class scheduling are tough to argue with. The author also noted how much complaining goes on when a prof isn’t a complete and total pushovers. It used to be considered a virtue when your professor prepared you for the real world by holding you accountable for late or unsatisfactory work. Now we whine and feel sorry for ourselves, maybe even call our profs a few choice names.

And I’ve done this. I can’t disagree with the author one bit on that point.

The reason I bring this up today is not to go on a rant about the laziness of our generation…though it is something we should think long and hard about. But the reason I raise this issue is that it challenges us all to pause and ask ourselves:

Why am I in school?

And don’t stop there. Why do I have this job? Wherever you are, why has God placed you there?

It’s so easy to think of our particular season in life as a means to an end. I go to school to get a good job. I get a good job so that I can make money and have the life I want. But we don’t always see our places in life as ends unto themselves. We don’t consider them to be a particular calling.

Yet this is an area in which Christians have an opportunity to stand out. Given the way our culture views our generation, we can break the mold by embracing college and our careers in an exceptional way. We can work diligently and carefully. We can refuse to join in with our peers in whining when our professor or boss is harsh or unforgiving. We can choose to have a positive attitude in the face of tough classes or difficult work environments, knowing that such experiences build character, perseverance, and discipline.

We can work as if we are working for God, and not man. (Col. 3:23)

We inhabit a generation that society has labeled lazy, immature, and irresponsible, but we cannot afford to let God’s name be tarnished with such a reputation. This is about more than ourselves, but about the name of Jesus Christ in this world. That is why college cannot be seen as just an opportunity to prolong our childhood and sew our wild oats, but must instead be seen as a high calling.

That is why any work is a high calling. Once we bear the name of Christ, everything we do is done in his name, whether it actually reflects his character or not. I challenge you to answer that high call this semester. It’s not just a hard chemistry class or a terrible psych prof–those are opportunities to glorify your Creator.

Seize them.

If you ever get a chance to visit Duke University, walk through the grass in front of the chapel until you find a plaque that sits about 75 yards away from the chapel steps. The plaque contains the school’s mission statement–what the founders of the school intended for the university and the students. It reads as follows:

The aims of Duke University are to assert the eternal union of knowledge and religion set forth in the teachings and character of Jesus Christ, the Son of God; to advance learning in all lines of Truth; to defend scholarship against all false notions and ideals; to develop a Christian love of freedom and Truth; to promote a sincere spirit of tolerance; to discourage all partisan and sectarian strife; and to render the largest permanent service to the individual, the state, the nation, and the Church. Unto these ends shall the affairs of this University always be administered.

Given the time period (1920’s), this statement is not surprising. In fact, many of our country’s first universities were founded for the purpose of educating Christian ministers. Even after the university became a place for more general liberal arts study, it was still a location for the creation of model citizens. Higher education wasn’t merely about disseminating information, but molding students into leaders with a clear moral compass.

Sadly, those days are long gone. One doesn’t have to spend much time on a college campus to discern how dramatically things have changed. Not only are secular universities not offering classes that intentionally seek to shape students into ethical beings, and not only are professors refusing to take any definitive stance on what is right or wrong, but the students are furthering the educational-ethical divide by the nature of their lifestyles.

Until recently, it never struck me how ironic the college experience has become. My fellow students and I would study great philosophers, scientists and brilliant thinkers who changed the world with their leadership and innovation. Then, after hearing these inspirational stories about the power of the mind and the possibilities before us, my classmates walked right out the door to get completely wasted. Women seeking to improve their minds, aspiring to be lawyers, doctors and leaders in our country, were simultaneously prancing around campus with hardly any clothing on, hooking up with random guys just to get attention. Men who wanted to be politicians and CEO’s engaged in mind-numbingly dumb fraternity rituals and pranks, all for the sake of fitting in.

Go to almost any college party, and you will see exceptional people intentionally debasing themselves, spitting on the gifts and resources with which God blessed them. For many, that is what the college experience has become. It has devolved into a 4 year free-for-all in which anything goes, education being a secondary priority. Rarely do students stop to consider that there might be a connection between their education and their lifestyle.

Well I write all of this today for two reasons, the first being that, because of the huge disconnect between education and ethics in the university today, Christians are presented with a unique opportunity to stand out. The university culture has become so hedonistic that Christians students have to do very little to distinguish themselves. The darkness is so pervasive that even a dim bulb will cast light. Imagine what a blazing torch could do!

But the main reason I bring up this point is that the divide between knowledge and lifestyle is not limited to the university. As easy as it is to point fingers at secular academia, Christians are frequently no better. We learn and we learn and we learn–we go to church, weekly prayer meetings, Bible studies, discipleship, service projects, etc. But our lives look no different than the rest. We often forget that there is a connection between the things that we learn and the life that we live. We forget that knowledge isn’t for the purpose of puffing us up intellectually, but humbling us and molding us into holy disciples.

So the next time you step onto a college campus and you see women ignoring the empowerment of their education to instead pander for a boy’s attention, remember that we Christians do the same. We ignore the freedom we have in Christ and the meaning such freedom has for our lives, to instead live the life we desire now. The question is, are we going to be different, and are we going to do what’s necessary to protect the Church from the fate of the American university?

Yesterday afternoon the Durham-Chapel Hill region was shocked by the horrible news that UNC’s Student Body President, Eve Carson, had been brutally murdered. No details have been released concerning her death, but it appears to have been a random crime. All day I felt as if I’d been punched in the stomach–we are all reeling from the loss of such a prominent member of our community.

After I first heard the announcement, I went onto CNN.com to see if the story had made it into the national news, and I was surprised by what I found. I saw a headline reading something like, “College student fatally shot,” but when I clicked on the link I discovered that it was not about Eve. Instead, the story was about a freshman girl at Auburn University, and the details were oddly similar to that of Eve’s death–a young, beautiful college student was found lying on the side of the road, having been shot and left for dead. I couldn’t believe that such comparable violence had occurred at two different college campuses at roughly the same time.

But the more I think about it, the less surprise I feel. Violence on college campuses is becoming the norm. No, these two crimes are not in the same vein as Virginia Tech or Northern Illinois, but the fact remains that violence in universities is escalating. More and more colleges are instituting emergency systems in the event that a gunman is on campus. As a college minister who works on a campus, my school has quite literally trained us to expect just such a catastrophe. It feels as if it is only a matter of time.

What is interesting to me about this phenomenon is that it echoes a trend we saw in high schools, a trend that took full effect about 10 years ago. The shootings at Columbine initiated a new era for teenagers. As a result of that and similar tragedies, students now have to attend school in fear, walking through metal detectors to enter the school doors, and running practice drills in the event that a shooter is on school grounds. For many high schoolers, violence has become a reality.

And now it would seem that the violence of high school has graduated to the university. Instead of targeting their teenage classmates, individuals are targeting their roommates and hallmates. Granted, not all violence on college campuses is caused by a psychopathic student, but universities are simply not as safe as they used to be.

The question is why?

In all honesty, I don’t have an answer. On the one hand, I can somewhat discern the source of teenage violence–high school can be a true pressure cooker! You are trying to figure out who you are, but your peers can be brutally judgmental and cruel, tearing down any shred of self-confidence that you might have had. The race to be cool and accepted is cut-throat, and on top of all of that, you have the stress of making good grades so you can get into a good college. That is a lot for a teenager to handle, so it’s not surprising that some people crack under the pressure, venting their frustration on the students who spurned them.

But college is supposed to be the best 4 years of your life! Yes, you have to work hard, but you also play hard. Even if you’re not out drinking and partying, there are the midnight runs to Krispy Kreme, and staying up all night talking to your friends about the questions of life. It is a wonderful season in which you have lots of freedom without the responsibility of being in the real world. It is the one time in which you can be virtually carefree.

So why are college campuses becoming less and less safe? I am not entirely sure, though I suspect there are many reasons–on a large campus, more students can fall through the cracks; universities are becoming increasingly liberal and hesitate to provide their students with any sort of moral compass; the hedonism that pervades college life is corroding the moral fabric of these young adults; students develop a false sense of security and make bad decisions under the influence of drugs and alcohol–and the list goes on.

But regardless of the reason, this rising violence impresses upon me an even greater sense of urgency in the work that I do. I see more and more students feeling hopeless and fearful, and it is at these moments, when the darkness is greatest, that we Christians can shine the brightest. While this violence is certainly evil, God may be able to use it for good, but it is up to us whether we will take part in that redemption.

So while I may not have an answer as to the true source of all these troubles, I do know this: We can feel hopeless and fearful like the rest of the world, or we can see it as a challenge, an opportunity even, to share the Good News. In which of these two categories do you fall?