THE LOWDOWN ON HIGHER EDUCATION

In my last post, I spoke of some of the perils our kids face when we ship them off to the university. Here is an article I read that reinforces that concern:

More Dangerous On College Campuses Than You Thought
By Marsha West

Soon thousands of teens and twentysomethings will be going off to “institutions of higher learning.” Young people who’ve been raised with moral values will go behind the fortified walls of Babylon, pretty much unarmed. And the barbarians are prepared to chew them up and spit them out.

Barbarians, you say? OK, liberals. Liberals on college campuses want your son and daughter to have the freedom to have sex (hetro or homo), to binge drink, and to do drugs. Most liberals have little or no respect for faith-based parents and their annoying moral values. In a Townhall.com article “Why Liberals Lie About Sex,” Kevin McCullough points out that liberals “are willing to substitute false thinking for solid fact on the consequences of what will happen. And they do so while simultaneously insulting you and your child's ability to comprehend, discern, and choose behaviors that make the most sense.” In other words, liberals know better than you do what’s best for your child.

Most parents do everything possible to shelter their kids from the evils of this world during their growing up years. Then something rather curious happens on the heels of high school graduation. Moms and dads suddenly misplace their common sense. Poof! Right out the window. Without the slightest hesitation, once protective parents are allowing liberals to shape their teenagers minds with an anti-God worldview. Otherwise intelligent parents fork over a credit card, say “Bye-bye” and drive away, leaving a loved one to wrestle with the world, the flesh and the devil! What’s up with that?

Before you pack your child’s personal possessions into your SUV and whisk him or her off to a secular humanist indoctrination center, read on.

College Drinking Prevention (CDP) is an online resource that offers comprehensive research-based information on issues related to alcohol abuse and binge drinking among college students. According to CDP 1,700 college students between the ages of 18 and 24 die annually from alcohol-related injuries. [1] Betcha haven’t heard that statistic from the artful dodgers in the mainstream media. Instead what’s reported day in and day out is the number of casualties in Afghanistan and Iraq.

Since alcohol and drug use can seriously impair a person’s personal and academic performance, no parent wants his or her child involved in that kind of behavior. Forewarned is forearmed, so here’s some eye-opening data from “A Snapshot of Annual High-Risk College Drinking Consequences” to mull over:

Injury: 599,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are unintentionally injured under the influence of alcohol (Hingson et al., 2005).

Assault: More than 696,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are assaulted by another student who has been drinking (Hingson et al., 2005).

Sexual Abuse: More than 97,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 are victims of alcohol-related sexual assault or date rape (Hingson et al., 2005).

Unsafe Sex: 400,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 had unprotected sex and more than 100,000 students between the ages of 18 and 24 report having been too intoxicated to know if they consented to having sex (Hingson et al., 2002).

Academic Problems: About 25 percent of college students report academic consequences of their drinking including missing class, falling behind, doing poorly on exams or papers, and receiving lower grades overall (Engs et al., 1996; Presley et al., 1996a, 1996b; Wechsler et al., 2002).

Health Problems/Suicide Attempts: More than 150,000 students develop an alcohol-related health problem (Hingson et al., 2002) and between 1.2 and 1.5 percent of students indicate that they tried to commit suicide within the past year due to drinking or drug use (Presley et al., 1998).

This is just the tip of the iceberg. Read more here. [2]

In light of the high-risk behavior on college campuses, many states are offering “higher education” in alcohol and substance abuse prevention. For example, the state of Maine is dealing with the culture of college drinking by making the Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Partnership available for parents and students. [3]

A sad fact is that Christian young people are no angels during their tenure in educational institutions. Whether the institution is Christian or secular, the culture of college drinking includes professed Christians. In his book, University if Destruction, David Wheaton points out that while away at college young people who are brought up in Christian homes face “three Pillars of Peril: Sex, Drugs/Alcohol, and Humanism.” Wheaton says 50 percent lose their faith after four years in college -- and never come back. “For far too many the transition from home-life to campus-life is traumatic -- what begins as a University of Instruction ends up being their University of Destruction…with long-lasting negative effects and no guarantee of return.” [4]

According to the Barna Report, Christian young people “pull away from participation and engagement in Christian churches, particularly during the ‘college years.’ The research shows that, compared to older adults, twentysomethings have significantly lower levels of church attendance, time spent alone studying and reading the Bible, volunteering to help churches, donations to churches, Sunday school and small group involvement, and use of Christian media (including television, radio and magazines).” [5]

The Bible tells us that God’s people are to follow the law of the land. Hate to disappoint but there’s no exception for teens and twentysomethings who wish to sow their wild oats in college. Those who drink alcoholic beverages when they’re not of legal age are lawbreakers. In God’s eyes they’re doing wrong. Romans 13: 1-2 says, "Everyone must submit himself to the governing authorities, for there is no authority except that which God has established. The authorities that exist have been established by God. Consequently, he who rebels against the authority is rebelling against what God has instituted, and those who do so will bring judgment on themselves."

Christian colleges do not necessarily provide a safe way to go either. Even some Christian colleges and universities are not unscathed by liberalism. In fact, there are a number of so-called Christian professors who are full-blown liberals!

Of course today’s liberals prefer to call themselves “progressives” hence “progressive Christian.” Don’t be fooled, though. Progressive is simply a euphemism for a person who has a socialist leaning.

So what is the progressive Christian’s modus operandi? To impart utopian ideas that advances an unbiblical socialist ideology to impressionable students. Sadly, a lot of parents are oblivious as to what’s being taught to their sons and daughters, and by whom. Sincere Christians ought to be on top of it!

Granted, choosing a Christian university can be a daunting task, even exhausting. The ideal, of course, is a biblical worldview curriculum for Christian young people so they’ll have the knowledge and skill to engage the culture and have the confidence to stand for truth and righteousness.

But that’s not always the case. As I said, liberals have managed to ingratiate themselves into Christian colleges and universities so parents must exercise humble skepticism. In fact, it’s not a bad idea to explore the stated theological viewpoint and doctrinal statement of colleges and universities that interest you. And don’t be surprised if your investigation shows that certain historic doctrinal statements are no longer held.

Kid’s binge drinking is bad, but it’s also important to call attention to the distorted reality of today’s young people. And a lot of Christian youths also have a very fuzzy view of reality! Ask them what they believe and why they believe it and you’ll hear a very distorted view of Christianity! Why? Because young people are no longer taught the whole Word of God…they’re not learning Church doctrine…they know diddly-do about historic Christianity…they’re influenced by liberalism…they hold to an unbiblical worldview -- the list goes on and on. Is it any wonder that so many Christian youths think and act like pagans? You say, “But what can I do about it?” I’m so glad you asked.

In Josh McDowell’s latest book, The Last Christian Generation, he warns that we’re failing our kids “by not adequately preparing them to face the non-Christian worldviews they will be taught during their educational training.”

Now, the question Christian parents must ask themselves is this: Have I adequately taught my kids a biblical worldview? If your answer is no (or who knows?), consider purchasing the Worldview Weekend Christian Family Survival Kit . [6] It’s imperative that youngsters learn very early on that everything a Christian thinks, says, and does must “filter” through the God’s Word, the Bible. The Secular progressive philosophy and New Age thinking could never pass through a "Christ-filter."

Attending Brannon Howse’s Worldview Weekend helps Christian families to think biblically. Great speakers and fun for all! For details go to http://worldviewweekend.com.

Probe Ministries offers the Mind Games Conference. For details go to http://probe.org and click on Mind Games. Attendees of the Mind Games conference will inoculate kids from unbiblical ideas while strengthening their faith.

So here’s the thing. It’s entirely up to moms and dads to decide if a child is spiritually ready to go off to college, it’s not up to your teenager to decide if he’s ready! Christian youths who are unable to “contend for the faith that was once for all entrusted to the saints,” will enter the swamp of “higher education” and find themselves up to their eyeballs in alligators. Spiritually immature teens and twentysomethings may not survive the swamp.

I’ll wrap this up with this suggestion. Christian parents who are unsure of their child’s spiritual maturity ought to consider keeping him at home for a year or two after high school graduation. Working for a while won’t kill him – and it could save his life.

Footnotes:
[1] A Snapshot of Annual High-Risk College Drinking By College Drinking Prevention Consequences http://www.collegedrinkingprevention.gov/StatsSummaries/snapshot.aspx
[2] Ibid.
[3] Maine’s Higher Education Alcohol Prevention Partnership http://www.maineheapp.org/links.html
[4] David Wheaton’s website, davidwheaton.com
http://davidwheaton.com/book.htm
[5] Most Twentysomethings Put Christianity on the Shelf Following Spiritually Active Teen Years - The Barna Report http://www.barna.org/FlexPage.aspx?Page=BarnaUpdate&BarnaUpdateID=245
[6] Worldview Weekend Christian Family Survival Kit . http://www.worldviewweekend.com/secure/store/product.php?ProductID=481

Additional Reading
How Not to Lose Your Faith in College By Thabiti Anyabwile
http://www.boundless.org/2005/articles/a0001439.cfm
Kingdom Campus: Re-envisioning the Christian College as a Kingdom Resource By Dane Fowlkes
http://www.cccu.org/resourcecenter/resID.2126,parentCatID.192/rc_detail.asp -
Christian Teens and Drinking By Kelli Mahoney
http://christianteens.about.com/od/christianliving/a/Drinking.htm

Copyright by Marsha West, 2007. All rights reserved.Distributed by www.ChristianWorldviewNetwork.com