Are we as Christians telling or insinuating that there is a place you can go and God can be ripped from your heart and spirit called COLLEGE? Has college become greater than GOD? Wow. Is this the language of Christian maturity?
Today's news coverage, commentators are either laughing at Rick Santorum or shaking their heads in utter disbelief at his statement regarding President Obama's conspiracy to send America's children to college to be indoctrinated against Christianity. Santorum said Obama wants Christian children to go to college to become "mini me' Obamas.
Having a background in religion with two college degrees from religious institutions, I have sat in classes and heard instructors rant how secular colleges steal their children by presenting secular education. Just as I was getting a college degree, they themselves had college degrees; just as Rick Santorum has college degrees. If the colleges each individual attended was checked, there may be some secular colleges involved in their (their) academic instruction.
I have taught MY children who I raised in the belief of Christianity, that they are responsible for their belief in God. If someone can walk up to them in one day and wipe away their belief in God, then maybe they never had a true foundation or true belief in God.
I wonder why so little credit is given to Christian children. It takes a month, a year, and puff, the Christian no longer believes. Is it the fault of the millions of people on earth one may come into contact within any given time frame in one's life to blame if one suddenly stops believing in God? This would be so simple. A genuine scapegoat that causes one to stop being a Christian.
In my Christian walk, there have been limitless occasions for me to decide I no longer believe in God. But I would always think about why I believe in God and those core reasons always win out over any and all things that may have caused me to wonder about the whole presentation of Christianity.
Let's be real. For a long time, Christianity taught that a black person was cursed by God, would always be a slave, was not on even terms with the other part of God's creation. Yes, you're right I'm black. And then I had to contend with the submission part of being the weaker sex and only the helpmeet to my husband. This is not secular society telling me these unfavorable things that should cause me to run in the opposite direction; it is the Bible, which is my instruction manual for living a holy life.
So, Rick Santorum, if a college told me these things as a black female and I decided these were just horrible statements and part of a religion I believed, would it be the college's fault if I said I wanted no part of it?
If I was told the Catholic Church remained silent during the Holocaust and during slavery preaching from the pulpit that giving slaves Sunday's off was godly; would it be the college's fault if I said I wanted no part of Christianity?
I always believed it was the lack of truth in rearing children in the church that left them vulnerable to the shock of the truth of religion. In America, we almost behave like the only Christian who ever lived sprang from America - the chosen place of God. Christianity began and had its ups and downs long before America was the great nation it is now. We are a baby in the history of the world, yet we have all of the answers and through the comments made by Rick Santorum we have all of the answers as long as no opposing questions are presented.
Give Christians more credit. Jesus sent them out into the world on the Great Commission to change the world not to live in a bubble and parrot back and forth to each other that have the same beliefs. A Christian is to learn and mature in their religion, but most leaders keep their congregation at baby bird status mouths open waiting for the worm to be placed into their mouths. Didn't Martin Luther have a problem with the Catholic Church for the droplets of knowledge allowed to their followers; drops of knowledge because they were not believed smart enough to handle God's truth on their own? And didn't Martin Luther split the church because the knowledge dispensed was corrupt?
If as a parent you know your child is not rooted enough in their religious beliefs to go into the world, then why do you let them go out into the world? The world will not change for your child, but as a Christian, your child is supposed to change the world.
College is great. I wish every child could go to college. There is a world of knowledge dispensed that does nothing to detract from God. Remember there is math, art, music, economics, etc., etc., being taught and the main thing being taught is to learn to ask questions, analyze, manipulate data to find new information and ways of doing things better. This level of critical thinking is important, and Rick Santorum might as well say what he really means: I don't want young people THINKING handling new concepts. I don't trust them enough to know what and why they believe.
God is bigger than any secular teachings. Christianity survived all sorts of pagan religions. I wonder if Rick Santorum thinks God did not know there would be all kinds of nay sayers in the world and He was big enough to even outlast them or whatever they came up with?
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