On the Home Front

October 2, 2007, 1:30 am; posted by
Filed under Articles, Steve  | 8 Comments

More than half of the Bweinh!tributors went to Houghton College, so I hope the rest of you don’t mind indulging me for just a moment, as I address a current event on campus.

Every time I go back to the school — which is frequently — I make sure to do four things. Gape at the rapidly changing architecture, visit the secret book in the library, spit in the direction of what was once South Hall, and chuckle at that constant presence, the Christian college revolutionary.

He is there in the pages of the Star, inarticulately demanding that the school cease any involvement with ROTC (I’m looking at you, Inti “Che” Martinez). She is present in the Campus Center, shrieking her insistence that Jesus would never ever vote for either a Republican or a Democrat. I’ve even seen him decrying the Vietnam War in the pages of the college newspaper, years and years ago, in the thorough archives the library keeps.

Modern-day Don Quixotes, taking aim at windmill after windmill in a fruitless hunt for giants.

I remember the breed well from my own days at Houghton, six or seven years ago. Job and I sat at a table with several of them my senior year, in a late-night powwow to plan a town hall meeting on the problems besetting the student body. I had written a then-infamous article quoting the VP of Finance as saying “The student body has no right to run the college,” so they apparently believed me to be one of their own. I let them run the show; I just took notes on the conspiracy theories.

The Christian college revolutionary: so sincere, so noble, so energetic — and so frequently misguided.

Apparently the latest incarnation has come to town in the guise of “La Revolucion,” a charming outfit that swept into the newly remodeled chapel last Friday and struck a blow for freedom and liberty by stealing the chapel scanning equipment, valued at between seven and ten thousand dollars.

Following a warning email from the VP of Student Life, the electronics were returned, but not without (of course) a publication from the culprits. I don’t (yet) have access to what they said, but I don’t really need to see it. I’m familiar enough with the genre to write it myself: a dash of moralizing, a heavy dose of navel-gazing, and for the big finish, some “deep” questions intended to shake the college to its very core. “Do we go to chapel to meet with God, or just because they make us? And if they have to make us, does it mean anything anyway?”

What went unsaid in the excitement over my article on that VP of Finance was that I agreed with him, to a point. Students aren’t qualified to run a college, and have virtually no idea what their best interests are — they want higher grades, less homework, better food, more entertainment, and no Friday classes. The average person falls into habits of self-interest and inertia that are nearly impossible to break. The redeeming part of the revolutionary is her willingness to identify a problem, overcome that inertia, and passionately fight for what she believes in — right or wrong, small or large.

Here the problem can be posed in eternal terms: the depravity of the human heart, the battle between law and grace. In the eyes of La Revolucion, I’m sure the chapel scanners were liberated to address a point 95% of the earth-bound student body never considered — is compulsory worship meaningful, and should its neglect be punitive?

It likely won’t surprise you to learn that I think the answer is yes to both. Those who attend the college do so with full knowledge of what is required and expected of them. Required chapel attendance is designed to protect students from their own sloth (guys) or perfectionism (girls), not strip them of precious autonomy.

And herein lies the problem I have with the Christian college revolutionary in general. In a fallen world where so much is going wrong, this group choose to make its stand, its noble gesture, its violent assault on the cultural cords that hold so many captive — for what?

To protest a Christian college’s requirement that its students attend chapel — a policy that, were it repealed, would immediately marginalize the ministry.

Have at it, Don.


Comments

8 Comments to “On the Home Front”

  1. Connie on October 2nd, 2007 10:39 am

    Bravo.

  2. Josh J on October 2nd, 2007 1:35 pm

    Maxon,

    Although I agree with the heart of your article, allow me to state my displeasure and disappointment with your supporting anectote. You have misquoted and misrepresented your own article and positions.

    The real quote from the article that got many students – yourself included – riled up was, “the students don’t need to know….”

    While you and I both agree that the students need not always know the entire rationale of all decisions made or given any input therein, they certainly deserve – and need – to know what those decisions are. On this occasion a highly important staffing decision was made and completely and intentionally hidden from the very students who pay for that position to be filled. All this succeeded in doing was fueling those conspiracies. This was in fact your reason for writing said article, and your inclusion of that quote was no accident.

  3. Steve on October 2nd, 2007 1:51 pm

    True. Both our quotes are accurate as far as I remember, though; I’ll put up the exact quote when I get back to the lair.

    Either way, what you say about the article’s point is right — I’ve sold myself out a bit too far, I think. In that situation, information about what was effectively embezzlement by a trusted member of the community was clearly something we should have been told.

  4. Houghton Update : Bweinh! on October 2nd, 2007 2:11 pm

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  5. Mollie on October 2nd, 2007 2:14 pm

    what’s the secret book?

  6. Steve on October 2nd, 2007 2:16 pm

    I’ll tell you, Mollie — but not on here!

  7. Steve on October 2nd, 2007 10:11 pm

    Josh, the quote was:

    “There are a lot of things we don’t tell students because they don’t always need to know,” Spear said. “The student body has no right to run the college.”

  8. Last One, I Promise : Bweinh! on October 4th, 2007 8:48 am

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