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EDITORIAL: CHRISTIAN EDUCATION POLICY DOES NOT PRESERVE REFORMED WORLDVIEW Calvin College requires that faculty members send their children to Christian schools. People have two reactions to this: “that’s crazy” or “that makes sense.” This is the battle line, and the war is over something more widespread than professors’ children — the Christianity and “Reformed-ness” of Calvin College. Professors and administrators launch bombs, tightly wrapped up in rhetoric to those on the “other side.” Somehow, even among the most rational words, people feel their identity attacked. Chimes has jumped into this war, not to win, but find what is best for the community. We do not want to shoot down the “other side.” We hope that Chimes can be a place where the policy is debated in a healthy, helpful way. The news articles and comments from faculty in this issue were intended to fulfill the mission of Chimes, which says “we aim to inform, review, challenge and foster dialogue within the community.” That being said, the editorial board wishes to make a stance on the issue -- in support of a revision of the current policy. People disagree with the policy for a number of reasons: it may deter multicultural goals; there is a financial burden involved; spousal rights may be violated; and recruitment and retention of quality faculty is possibly more difficult. These are all valid concerns. However, many supporters of the policy claim that it is central to preserving the Reformed worldview at Calvin College. The loss of the Reformed worldview would destroy the Calvin College we know (and love). In our opinion, none of those other reasons for the dismissal of the policy would matter if the Reformed worldview were weakened on this campus. So the real question is: does this requirement help preserve the Reformed worldview of the faculty and in turn Calvin College? The short answer: no. When people send their children to Christian schools, it could be an outward sign of the inward Reformed worldview. Or not. It could be because the person believes the Christian schools in Grand Rapids will provide a better education for their children. It could be because they were also raised in the culture of Christian schools. It also could be because they want to protect their kids from public schools. While this kind of rationale would pass through the administration, it does not correlate with the Reformed worldview we are being taught at Calvin. Kuyper’s high view of Christian education shouldn’t be ignored, but neither should other ways of expressing Reformed thinking. Psychology Professor Justin Barrett is leaving Calvin because his family feels called to evangelize to non-Christians they meet through his children’s schooling. But this reason isn’t good enough for Calvin’s administration (Barrett was granted an exemption, but not on this basis).
We don’t understand how Calvin can decide how individual families should express their Christianity in their children’s schooling. Just because a family decides to send their child to public (or a non-CSI) school, doesn’t mean they don’t care about their child’s education or Christ. Just ask the almost 2,000 Calvin students who graduated from public high schools. Many public high school graduates have parents who are deeply committed Christians and care greatly about their education. |
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