A Godless Fundamentalist: Chapter Three – Sex and Rock & Roll at the Christian School

I think that these articles that John has written need to be a book for pastors, parents, and Christian school teachers and administrators to read!

I remember learning, to my horror, that a Christian school near Michigan State was almost identical in nature to the one John describes here. Not that I didn’t know where to find trouble if I wanted to—I could go up two floors in my own dorm, or to the next dorm over, which were renowned for parties and such—but what a contrast between the Christian young people I knew in the dorms, generally filled with the joy of the Gospel, and the kids in the “Christian” school being “protected” from the evils they were sure were all over at my “party school”.

We could start by not pressuring children for professions of faith, and not baptizing young people until they have evidenced a willingness to stand up to peer pressure for the sake of Christ. One reason some treat nearly all the young people ini their youth group or Christian school as believers is because they have nearly all prayed the prayer. How can we assume that they are not saved, if we have already told them that they are?

I can’t remember if I included this in one of the posts or not -

Before she died, my mom and I had a conversation about pressuring children into making professions of faith. She told me that she had been taught to get as many kids as possible to pray the sinner’s prayer. Over her career, she was also “encouraged” by her administrators to fill out decision cards. Over time, she became increasingly uncomfortable with the practice. I don’t know when, but eventually she stopped trying to get kids to make decisions and instead focused on sharing the gospel with them (I don’t know when she began doing this. Ron Bean may have some insight, since he was her boss for a while - I don’t know if it was before or after). From that point on, she began to be singled out in faculty meetings for having the least amount of decision cards filled out. She told me that she never regretted her change of perspective and “tactics.”

G.N. Barkman, out of curiosity, what are your thoughts about Christian schools (usually middle and high school level) that require a profession of faith for enrollment?

Thank you for your encouragement.

I remember that as a young believer, the pressure to “walk to the front” was highly irritating, especially as most of the sermon preceding had generally been moralistic, not Gospel-centered. And as such, I can heartily affirm the end of pressure tactics to gain “conversions.” My introduction here was a bit where I lamented the failure of VBS to add members to the church, after all. And in the same way, I agree wholeheartedly with the notion that we ought to ask for some sign of growth and steadfastness in Christ when we treat someone as a brother.

That noted, there’s also a hefty dose of “are we teaching Scripture and the Gospel, or are we teaching moralism?” involved as well. That was certainly part of what was involved in Lansing, Michigan. A Gospel-free presentation of morals—or perhaps more precisely, a moralistic presentation with a quick, pressure-laden Gospel presentation tacked on—generated exactly the results that we would expect a moralistic presentation to yield.

My gut feeling is that if churches get just one of these things right, or get two right if they’ve got one right, and beautiful things will follow.

I had the opportunity of doing two separate terms at the school to which John refers. The first was in the late 70’s as a teacher and the second as the administrator from 1994-2004. (As to me being John’s Mom’s “boss”, I think she had a better hand on things than I did.) During my first term getting decisions was a priority. I had some junior high kids “get saved” 2 or 3 times a year (I think my stats were that I may have had more decisions than students. SARCASM). During my second term some things had changed. Students were not required to make a profession of faith to be admitted. That was for two reasons: The first was that nearly everyone would make a profession of faith so the request was meaningless. The second was that we needed students to make ends meet. What we did require was that students be “amenable” to the rules and regulations of the school. This resulted in students and parents who learned that external adherence to the rules was what it took to “pass” as a Christian.

Me and Ron’s time at the school never overlapped. He left before I got there, and then returned to become administrator the year after I graduated. I did have one very poignant interaction with him during the winter of 2003. By God’s grace, Ron literally saved my life. I often praise God for the love Ron showed me that day. But that’s a story for a future chapter :)

[Ron Bean]

…Students were not required to make a profession of faith to be admitted. That was for two reasons: The first was that nearly everyone would make a profession of faith so the request was meaningless. The second was that we needed students to make ends meet. What we did require was that students be “amenable” to the rules and regulations of the school. This resulted in students and parents who learned that external adherence to the rules was what it took to “pass” as a Christian.

What is with all the self-flagellation over a matter that is as old as the oldest book of Scripture involving the one person who God Himself describes as ” a perfect and upright man, one that feareth God, and escheweth evil… (Job 1:8)”? Job is the epitome of this observation. Read Job 31:4 FF (particularly vs. 5, 7, 9,13, 16, 19, 21, 24-26, 29, 33) if you want to see a guy “passing” as a believer holding up a list before God and demanding that God honor it—“Oh, that one would hear me! Behold, my desire is that the Almighty would answer me, and that mine adversary had written a book. Surely I would take it upon my shoulder, and bind it as a crown to me. I would declare unto him the number of my steps; as a prince would I go near unto him.” Needless to say, God took a pretty dim view of his list and his demands—Job 38-41—and Job eventually came around to God’s point of view: “…I have heard of thee by the hearing of the ear: but now my eye seeth thee. Wherefore I abhor myself, and repent in dust and ashes.”

Nothing new to see here. Preach the Gospel; obey Scripture; trust the Holy Spirit in the life of another. I have been around the fundamental world and the Christian school world from practically every angle for as long as I can remember remembering. At its best or worst I have never—not ever; not even one time—seen rules and “standards” passed off as anything remotely salvific. Generally as a better choice that can help protect a young person from consequences later in life (a worthy goal, though not necessarily a salvific one).

“There is nothing new under the sun.” My guess is that the technology of the current age simply allows us to recognize more that which has been widely evident since Job.

There’s a difference between self-flagellation and self-reflection. And a little sorrow during self-reflection does not necessarily indicate self-flagellation.

John,

My recommendation would be that at least one parent be a professing Christian and an active member in a sound church. The school exists to help parents fulfill their god-given responsibility to train their children. We should assume that many of the students are not yet regenerated. Students should be required to agree to some basic regulations, no more than necessary, but not required to profess salvation. To require a salvation profession is a sure recipe for false professions.

… for your response G.N. Barkman. I would go a step further and suggest that one of the parents, at least, should be a member in good-standing at the local church that has the school as part of its ministry (that may not be practical nor even legal, I haven’t really spent any time considering the logistics of operating a Christian school). That policy, I think, could potentially help with discipline and discipling, and I’m thinking specifically of the discipling of the parents.

For example, and this isn’t a school but I think the parallel is strong enough, my middle school-aged daughter wants to go to the Wilds this summer with some of her cousins. If she goes, and right now it’s a big “if,” I will expect her to abide by the rules while there. Now, let’s say while there she gets busted violating one of the rules. In this scenario, it will most likely be in regards to music (we’ve tried to explain to her the rules about music, but without really any frame of reference she doesn’t comprehend what we’re trying to tell her). At that point, the conversations that the counselors will have with her will probably be quite different than the conversation that my wife and I will have with her at the end of the week. In fact, there is a chance that all involved could contradict one another at points.

Translate that to a school setting, and I think that having a parent who has submitted him or herself to the church will help provide continuity and help stave off potential conflict between parents and teachers. More importantly, it will aid in the overall program of teaching administered by the Elders of the church. The Elders, parents, parents of friends, school teachers, and Sunday school teachers will (should) be intimately involved in the training of the student. And all will basically be on the same page. Whatever differences arise can be mediated by the Elders, if needed.

I recall discussions I had with other school administrators who required professions of faith from their students—usually middle school and above. My response was always “Are all your students saved?” Answers ranged from “Of course not” to “I hope so” to “You’re kidding me, right?” I found that requiring a parent or parents to profess Christ and attend a “good” church was nearly impossible to enforce.

Making sure that students obeyed the rules in school was possible, although we knew that “the devil lived in the restrooms and locker rooms”. We had rules for behavior outside of school too: no movies, dancing, rock music, etc. and often deluded ourselves into thinking that students complied although in our hearts we knew the truth; that many were living the lives that John describes.

Basically we practiced the faulty reasoning that “Christians obey therefore those who obey must be Christians.

I know the story of Achan inside and outside and every other which away because whenever we would lose a basketball game (which was frequent my first three years), the story would be preached to us in the locker room after the game. Thankfully, we got a new coach my senior year and that stopped (plus we started winning - I guess in a sense, we figured out who the Achan was - jk).