Progress — In the Wrong Direction

The New York Gazette contained some interesting information in its June 3, 1752 edition. The information was in an advertisement for an educational institution. Here is what this institution hoped would encourage students to enroll:

The chief thing aimed at in this college it to teach and engage young people to know God in Jesus Christ, and to love and serve Him in all sobriety, godliness and righteous life, with a perfect heart, and a willing mind.

The institution placing this ad was King’s College. It is now Columbia University.

Another present-day Ivy League school had a very strong religious “flavor.” The early motto of this institution was Veritas Christo et Ecclesiae, meaning “Truth for Christ and the Church.” The institution about which this is written was originally known as New College or The College at New Towne, but it now bears the last name of a young preacher who donated his library to the school: Harvard.

Yet another of the present-day “elite” Ivy League schools was founded by ten Congregational ministers. Their purpose was to train ministers and “lay leaders” for religious service. We know that institution today as Yale.

To say that these three institutions have strayed far from the intentions of their founders would be a huge understatement. There are two (at least in my mind) glaring reasons for making that statement.

First, these institutions have stretched the concept of inclusiveness or ecumenicism to the extreme. In case you doubt that, please continue to read. 

On the webpage of the Harvard Divinity School, there is information on various “faith communities” in the area close to the campus. The implication seems to be that the students may feel free to identify with any (or none) of these “communities.”

The list includes, but is by no means limited to, groups that would at least refer to themselves as Christian. That list also includes such groups as Buddhist, Hindu, Muslim, and Sikh. One of the more interesting listings I found was the listing for a “faith community” with this heading: Humanist, Secular, Agnostic.

The second reason for my contention that these institutions have strayed far – very far – from the principles upon which they were founded has to do with their history. As we have seen, these (and other) institutions of higher learning in our country were founded to uphold, teach, and defend the Bible. Sadly, most of them are now known for strong opposition to anything resembling Christian teaching and/or morality.  

Today, God and His Word are no longer welcome at most institutions of “higher learning.” In fact, they are the subjects of ridicule and open attack. It should not surprise us, then, that the same atmosphere is found today throughout our society.  

Those people who came to the “new world” came, in large part, in order to have freedom for religion. They expressed a desire to worship, but they did not want to be told how to worship. They established institutions and passed laws with that in mind.  

Sadly, we now live in an environment that seems to want all people to have freedom from religion. Many today see no need and have no desire to worship at all. Those established institutions have been changed and laws have been passed in order to accommodate this thinking.

Is this progress? If it is, it is progress in the wrong direction.

Whenever I hear the song “God Bless America,” I continue to hope that He does, but I also increasingly wonder why He would.

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AUTHOR: Jim Faughn