Accreditation and Christian Higher Education

It’s happening already. Headlines this week feature a call on the presumptive Biden administration by an LGBTQ group to drop accreditation from Christian colleges and universities that abide by their biblical convictions concerning the gay and related lifestyles. Trouble is just around the bend.

In the early 2000s controversy broke out among fundamentalist schools regarding the appropriateness of accreditation for Christian Colleges. There was a lot at stake and the stakes were rising. Funding through the GI Bill, Pell Grants, and other scholarships were in view. It seemed to be unfair for tax-paying citizens to not have the benefits of those taxes available to their children just because they choose to attend a Christian Institution. At the 2002 FBFI meeting in Troy Michigan, Les Olila (Northland Baptist Bible College) argued strongly for avoiding accreditation while Maranatha Baptist Bible College (at the time) had already obtained regional accreditation. Other educational leaders weighed in on both sides. Tensions were high. We all knew that there was a lot to consider. Eventually, all of the fundamentalist schools obtained regional or national accreditation, and the process not only made financial resources available to students but also forced the institutions to improve the quality of the education they provided.

The concern was not really about what was right at the moment, but the potential danger in the future. What would happen when our institutions become dependent upon the benefits of accreditation but are required to compromise their convictions to keep it? Everyone acknowledged the potential, and the high price it might exact when the day might come. It looks like it might be coming soon.

Hopefully, there are enough safeguards built into the accrediting agencies to protect the basic religious values that are under attack today. We fully back the right and necessity for Christian Colleges to fight in the courts or however necessary to maintain accreditation status. Applying an “LGBTQ” test to the educational process violates the fundamental religious rights of Christian Institutions and students who should be able to choose institutions that reflect their protected religious values.

However, Christian Colleges also need to face the prospect of losing accreditation. Bible-believing Christianity needs Christian Colleges and Seminaries. Preparing the next generation of Church leaders is essential to our Great Commission purpose in this age. These institutions must find a way to continue and thrive even without accreditation if necessary. Technology, distance learning, and church-based ministry preparation is one way we can keep moving forward.  However, church-based education cannot prepare Christian doctors, businessmen, engineers, artists, and musicians. We need a generation of young people with a solid understanding and a Christian world-view who will participate in our society at all levels. We must not abandon liberal arts education to the secular institutions.

I do not pretend to understand the pressures mounting against Christian Colleges today. Many have closed over the past decade, others seem to be on verge of it. It is not my purpose here to criticize or to condemn, but rather to encourage as best as I can.

There are two potential tragedies that can arise–giving in or giving up. The first would be the tragedy of compromise. To give in to the demands of the age makes a Christian College pointless. Why attend a Christian College that will not act like one? Typically fundamentalist schools that compromise do not survive anyway. Those that do survive become a disgrace to professing Christianity. However, it would be equally tragic for the schools to simply choose to close because the revenue streams associated with accreditation dry up.

In the end, the real need of the moment is the supernatural protection of God for institutions that choose to obey and honor Him. That spirit is how these institutions started. I remember listening with awe as Myron Cedarholm described the miraculous way in which Maranatha Baptist Bible College started.  All of these institutions started as visions of faith by men who depended on God and were willing to take huge steps of faith to meet the needs of the moment. They also were creative and willing to see the greater need and work to overcome obstacles that stood in their way. A return to that creative vision of faith is essential–a vision that sees the essential nature of Christian Education in the Great Commission purpose God has for His people in this age.

However, it must be a return to faith, not foolishness. There is a difference between faith and foolishness. Foolishness can look like faith, but it lacks the clear direction of God, is often based upon carnal or selfish thinking, and therefore lacks the blessing of God. Understanding and doing His will is the key issue. That is the greatest danger of accreditation—the tendency to drift from pleasing God to pleasing accrediting institutions. It does not have to be this way, but it can be.

To all the leaders of our Christian Colleges and Seminaries our prayers are with you in these trying times—may God grant you surrendered hearts, the knowledge of His will, wisdom to navigate the dangers ahead, the supernatural protection from the enemies of God in the world. May you not only survive but abound in the riches of His grace.