When the Rule Book Changes

I have been getting requests to address rule book changes at BJU. Now that IS a can of worms because the requests are running both fer and agin. Some are saying we should defend BJU against the criticism and the other group is deeply concerned about BJU changing directions. So what I do know is that I cannot speak for the FBFI because it would be impossible to issue an opinion that represents anything close to consensus. Let me just speak for myself for a moment.

As of this moment, I am not completely sure what those rule changes even are. I believe one of the changes is that sports uniforms must be two inches above the knee or longer. Based upon what I have seen on campus recently, that would be MORE strict than recent practice, not less. Another rule has something to do with expanding the times and places girls can wear slacks. There have been changes like this in the past. There was a really big rule book change in January 1984. I remember it clearly because it happened the day after I graduated—much to my personal frustration. I never got the chance to sit on a public bench and talk to my fiancé (now my wife) without it being considered loitering!

People seem quite obsessed with BJU lately. The change in leadership has made many suspicious, and every decision seems to carry with it deep concern.

To me, there is a much deeper issue at hand and I think it has been a terrible flaw in fundamentalism. As least as far as I have observed, our small sector of fundamentalism has been led by educational institutions. Loyalty to particular institutions has determined fellowship “clans”– and even created feuds. But worse yet, many church leaders have looked to educational institutions in cities like Greenville, Pensacola, Watertown, Owatana, Clearwater, and others for their standards of Christian living–so much so that when these institutions change or adjust, it is quite disconcerting. I remember hearing a prominent pastor talking about his music standards for his church. His standard was “if the University will use it, we will. If they won’t we won’t.” I wonder how many have actually let their respective institutions do their thinking for them. The really comical thing is that the institutions have often been doing their dead level best to faithfully represent their own constituencies. So each has been trying to follow the other. Meanwhile, the people who really know what they want are often the young people with neither the maturity nor experience to make wise decisions.

So let me make some suggestions.

Support the institutions that are truly helpful, do not support those that are not.

To a certain extent, this has been happening already. If you do not think a particular institution reflects your values anymore, don’t recommend it to your young people. If the experience of your young people at one of these institutions seems to be turning them away from your congregation, stop promoting it. If they ARE a help and do reflect who you are, then support it. Your obligation as pastors, church leaders, and parents is to God and to the young people God has called you to disciple.  Your loyalty to your alma mater should be much lower on the list. Fundamentalism should not rise and fall on the strength of its educational institutions but on the strength of its churches.

Remember that not everything is a moral issue.

Educational institutions have to have rules—lots of them. Most of those rules have nothing to do with morals, but more with functionality or educational effectiveness. If you think wearing slacks for girls is immoral, BJU crossed that line long ago. Some rules are about discipline. One of the things that really helped me at BJU was that they worked to convey an atmosphere of Christian professionalism. Students were taught how to look like a Christian and a professional as they were prepared for the work world they would soon enter. The institution worked to avoid the sloppiness and slovenly appearance that seemed to characterize secular institutions. That wasn’t a moral goal per se, it was an educational goal from a Christian perspective. If they have given that up (and I do not know that they have), that would be a degradation of the unique educational product they deliver, but it’s not a moral issue. Other institutions would likely pick up that slack and students with it.

Teach Christian lifestyle issues in your own church.

Teach it as if it’s the only place where they will get it. I need to be able to make my case to my own young people about biblical principles for Christian living. They must be prepared to stand by those principles not only in a hostile world but in a world where those who name Christ disagree. We have spent way too much time dictating lists and not nearly enough time teaching principles and answering questions. My lifestyle standards must clearly rise out of the scripture itself. If they do, a teachable person will hear and grow. If they are not teachable, no amount of forced conformity will be of help anyway. I am talking about young adults here, not small children.

Discipleship of young people is best accomplished in a church anyway. It has been foolishness to think that the best way for young people to learn how to live for God in the real world is in a dorm full of other young people struggling through the same life issues rather than in a solid, strong local church where they can draw on the wisdom, Bible-knowledge, and experience of mature believers of all ages.

Christian educational institutions are important. They give a Christian young person a Christian perspective on a vast array of academic disciplines. They can help develop critical thinking and much more. But they are not the best personal discipling entities. That job was given to Christian parents and the local church body.

 

PS.  I do think it is odd that not one Christian fundamentalist educational institution has ever asked why I think less and less of the young people in our ministry here are going away to Christian colleges. No pastor I know has ever told me he was asked either. I would think that is something you would want to know and not assume.