February 08, 2007
Soul Force at Covenant
For those who dont know, I currently work as an admissions representative for a small, Presbyterian liberal arts college on top of Lookout Mountain, GA called Covenant College. Ive spent most of the past six years of my life involved with Covenant in some form or another. Ive been educated by Covenant and Ive worked for Covenant and Ive met the majority of my friends in this life at Covenant. Deep down inside, I really love Covenant and I still commend highly the quality of education that can be received here.
Now for my first few years at Covenant, I really did believe that Covenant was a progressive, culturally sensitive institution that defied almost all of the stereotypes of Christian colleges in America labeled as "fundamentalist." I believed that while Covenant was conservative in its theology, it was aggressively seeking to engage the wider world around it in a meaningful and thoughtful way. I still do believe that this is the intention of the majority of the faculty at the school. However, there have been some administrative decisions made in recent years that have caused me to reconsider just what kind of school Covenant is. Is it the culturally engaged, stereotype defying institution that I once idealized it to be? Or is starting to show signs of a serious strain of fundamentalism and of a backwards subcultural mindset?
Now dont get me wrong. I dont think things are that bad yet. Covenant is still one of the best Christian colleges one is going to find in terms of its balance of conservative, Reformed theology and intellectual and cultural awareness. But there are some warning signs to be cautious of. Recently, the school banned students (with only inconsequential exceptions) from consuming alcohol while in foreign countries. In my opinion, this is a poorly conceived move on Covenant's part considering that it goes against all of Covenant's views on cultural participation and engagement. Covenant is merely setting up its own subcultural enclave in a foreign country when it refuses to ackowledge that country's existing cultural laws and mores. It is not illegal for students to drink in many of these foreign cultures nor is it wrong. So why does Covenant make it wrong for its own students while they live in these cultures? Well, Covenant argues that because students are not allowed to consume alcohol while on Covenant's campus they should not be able to do so while thousands of miles away. The rules should be consistent. Ive actually heard that word a lot around Covenant in regards to this new rule: "consistent."
I once attended an extremely fundamentalist Bible college before I attended Covenant and they used the same word a lot. That word provides a very typical argument for most fundamentalists circles, even outside Christian circles. Every group has its laws, but then sub-groups like to take those laws and extrapolate whole new laws based on the need to be consistent. This can be a never-ending process. For example, my old Bible college believed that Christians should do nothing that could remotely offend or give the impression of wickedness to the outside community. Therefore it seemed "consistent" with that principle that students at the school shouldnt be seen going into movie theatres where it might be supposed that they were going to watch movies containing lewdness. And to be "consistent" with that rule, it was ruled that students shouldnt be allowed to attend movie theatres even when at home under their parents' auspice on summer break.
Now Covenant, of course, bears very little resemblance right now to this kind of extreme fundamentalism. I was refreshed to come to Covenant when I did, and to thrive in an environment of Christian liberty and cultural and intellectual consciousness. Nevertheless, Covenant is making some shady moves in the wrong direction if you ask me. Their decision to ban alcohol consumption in foreign cultures is a solid step away from the kind of intelligent and carefully considered application of Biblical principles to life that I used to praise at Covenant. Rather, it just demonstrates a blind enforcement of "consistency" that compromises Covenant's commitment to training thoughtful, complex students who can interact with the world around them on realistic terms.
This brings me to my primary concern. How will Covenant handle the fact that that the Soul Force Equality Ride will be visiting its campus on April 2? Will it instill in its students a sense of cultural protectiveness as they interact with homosexual activists? Will the subtle message be "You can talk to them and be nice to them but make sure to keep your guard up?" After all, this is the kind of mentality present in the new alcohol abroad policy. They are in essence saying "You can live next to them and talk to them in the marketplace but certainly DO NOT accept any invitations to drink with them!" It concerns me greatly. The Soul Force visit is a great opportunity for Covenant to show to Soul Force that it stands heads above other colleges in its willingness and competence to engage other cultures and mentalities outside the Presbyerian world. Will Covenant utilize this opportunity? Will they treat this group not just with a protected sense of civility, but with a genuine vulnerability, humility, and grounded openness? Will they be good listeners? Will they truly engage? Conceding any kind of ground to an open homosexual in a thoroughly Christian environment might seem to some a threat against the "consistency" of a tightly knit, uncompromised Christian lifestyle in the clouds. But I hope Covenant students truly wont see it that way, and that they will step out and allow themselves to be challenged by this truly unique opportunity.
Posted by todd at February 8, 2007 03:53 PM