Worldview: College Education

Mr. had an interesting conversation with a fellow Christian regarding a local Christian college that our church is associated with. His claim was that the college is extreme in its legalistic application of rules and procedures. As a student at this college, they are supposedly not allowed to view movies in movie theaters, the movies are limited to specific rating and content, their music choices are limited to approved artists, there is a dress code, and curfew as well as many other rules including no men in girls dorms and vice versa. This man felt that these types of restriction lead to rebellion and labelled them as legalistic. The use of this word is a huge pet peeve for me! The word is misdefined, misused and often the reason or excuse people have for not following Christ fully. We will leave that conversation for another time!


The rules that this college supposedly espouses are very similar to the "rules" we have at home. It is our desire to daily honor Christ and glorify God in all that we do. There is no area excluded from this. He is the God of EVERYTHING. We regulate and have taught our children to regulate what they listen to, what they watch in the media, and what they read. These boundaries protect them from sin and honor Christ. We also consider it a wisdom issue. There are only so many hours in the day. Why would I choose to spend the time we have on things that are even questionable when there are so many wonderful things out there? We have a dress code in our home. Clothing should not be tight, or expose large areas of skin. Skirts (although not required) should be well past the knee. I do not buy shirts that have writing on them or sayings. Why would I want to label my child with an article of clothing that says 'brat" or some other unflattering terminology? I also do not buy clothing to advertise for a company. In our own home we do not allow opposite sexes from outside the family in bedroom together. Nor would we allow our children to go to movie theaters with the opposite sex. These boundaries that we have established in our family do not just apply to our children. They apply to us, the parents, as well. The dress code that our children follow is no different than the one Mr. and I follow. I spoke with a mom the other day about dating and was expressing that I felt very strongly about the opposite sexes spending alone time together. She asked when I thought that restriction would no longer apply. I expressed that I am married and almost 40 and it still applies to me today! I would not consider spending time alone with another man and would go far out of my way to make sure that it did not happen.

As a person who practices these boundaries in a daily relationship with Christ and who has raised her children to practice these boundaries and to consider all that they do in light of their Savior why would the rules of this college not be welcomed or at the very least seen as an extension of the home. For a child leaving home to enter an atmosphere as such would be seen as a blessing by us not as a bad thing. The alternative is to send your Christian child to a state college where the very goal of the college is to destroy that which you are paying them to educate? The alternative according to this man is okay because it is the opposite of legalism. State education, at the k-12 system or the college does not educate adults who can enter the workforce and are prepared to live as adults. Its educated children to continue on as children. (note they do not consider males to be mature until the age of 30 now.)

His belief is that these types of rules and boundaries lead to rebellion. The truth is that we have a sin nature and rules are not needed for us rebel because ultimately rebellion is a heart issue with Christ. We tell a two year old not to stick a tweezers in the outlet socket. This is a hard and fast rule in our home. We have that rule because we do not want them to get hurt and we understand electricity. The child does not have the wisdom or understanding to make that decision on his own. Even so, what will the sin nature of the child lead him to do? Stick the tweezers in the outlet! If we did not have that rule or we encouraged him to stick the tweezers in the outlet due to an omission of the danger on our part we would be considered neglectful. How much more negligent are we when we fail to protect our children's walk with their Creator and Lord! Other people make rules for our children. The government has decided that a child between the ages of 16 -18 can not drive between certain hours. There have been studies that show this to be the most dangerous time for inexperienced drivers. We accept this and while many students rebel against this and drive anyway we do not change the law. We do not encourage our children or ourselves to break the laws of the state and yet we tell them the laws of God are legalistic and that we don't have to be bothered by them. The rules of the state must be followed but when the culture declares things like pornography and abortion okay we take it at face value, ignore God's word and in fear of rebellion we turn them over to their depraved minds. What a dangerous position to take!

Personally, I am glad to know that there are still colleges out there who are working hard to educate and raise up a Godly generation, where we could send our children to be influenced for Christ.