Why are you here?

<p>It is really sad that it seems some ppl on here came to this sub forum with the sole intent of complaining that about the title of the sub forum. This is ridiculous. A) a sub forum is created bc of an abundance of requests about a specific topic (read specific) B) If you are not interested in Christian colleges why would you come here? We obviously don't go to the forums which we have no interest in, so why come to the Christian one and start bashing Christians. The topic has nothing to do with offending ppl, I am sure we could start a sub-forum about Jewish college or Islamic or Hindu colleges, but there was not a large request for information on those types of colleges so the mods obviously did not name it as such. Really. Get over it.</p>

<p>Dbate:</p>

<p>Jesus is love. Lose the hate. Get on board.</p>

<p>Haha are people mad that there's no Buddhist college sub-forum or something?</p>

<p>I don't think anyone's advocating for separate sub-forums for Jews, etc. I think all the complaints are that this forum was called "Christian Colleges" instead of "Religious Colleges."</p>

<p>I understand that the number of questions concerning Christian colleges are more abundant than other religious college questions, but the way the title is now, people who have questions about Jewish colleges, etc, can't post in this relatively small sub-forum and are forced to have their questions get drowned out in the sea of the outer-forum. </p>

<p>I don't see why it's a big deal to just change the title from "Christian" to "religious" and that way we can keep all the religious questions separate in their own, neat corner.</p>

<p>If I have questions about Hindu colleges, where can I go to post?</p>

<p>"If I have questions about Hindu colleges, where can I go to post?"</p>

<p>College Search and Selection. There you are much more likely to get an answer, because your post will be seen by people who may have information, but who aren't specifically here to look at info on religious colleges.</p>

<p>Firecube -- If you want a serious response I would suggest you give the "Study Abroad" forum a try.</p>

<p>wow that was an a hole remark.</p>

<p>I think the OP was asking a reasonable question, and as someone who occasionally visits this forum as a voice of dissent, I think I may be the type of poster to whom s/he posed the question.</p>

<p>I’ve been a senior administrator at two universities – one a state university and the other a self-described Christian college (by this I don’t mean merely a denominational school, but one with a theological view that intentionally places restraints on what can be taught and discussed, what speakers and performers may appear on campus, and what viewpoints may be tolerated from the students). I left the Christian college for the state school because of a personal ethical quandary over suggesting to students that they have the foundations of a higher education when they’ve been taught to reject outright any points of view that conflict with pre-determined theological positions. </p>

<p>But that experience isn’t in itself my reason for coming to this forum. I found that at the Christian college, there were many students who were investing their time, energies, and finances into a degree that they felt the larger society would enthusiastically embrace. Because they came from a community, a church home, and a family that all shared the same narrow values, they’d assumed that the rest of our culture had the same respect for an educational experience that was constrained by unassailable values. It isn’t so. They were being guided by well-intentioned people who were urging them to pursue degrees that would not only fail to open doors, but in many cases may label them to others – perhaps inaccurately – as close-minded people who would be immune to new ideas because they’d been taught to mistrust them.</p>

<p>So I come to this forum periodically to share that point of view with the thought that it might reach some posters and make them think about their full range of choices. I also respond to posters on CC who are liberals seeking a “liberal” campus or conservatives seeking a “conservative” campus to ask whether all they want from their “education” is to have their current status quo reaffirmed so that they feel good, or whether they want to be stretched in new ways that require them to reassess their current assumptions.</p>

<p>The notion that a higher education should encourage reassessment of traditional values poses a dire threat to many Christian colleges. Religious conservatives often cite the critique of traditional vales as one of the evils that characterize non-evangelical colleges. But think about the process by which our society continues to reflect more humane values and become increasingly civilized. Reassessing “traditional values” put an end to slavery, gave women the vote, and overturned Jim Crow laws that created two very different levels of citizenry. The “traditional values” that my parents taught me as a child included squandering girls’ intellectual potential, segregating public schools by race, and vilifying gay young people to the point that their suicide rate reached six times that of straight young people.</p>

<p>I have no problem with students or anyone else embracing traditional or conservative Christian values – or any other values, as long as they don’t victimize others. But young people who head to colleges that are intolerant of free minds aren’t really choosing any values, if those values are the only ones they’ve ever been allowed to consider. And if they are being led to believe that the world will congratulate them for learning intolerance and rigid doctrine, they’re being victimized themselves.</p>

<p>So – that’s why I’m here.</p>