Extremely strict colleges...your thoughts?

You really did not answer my question although you did give some reasons why you do not like the rules. So let me ask this;

How is rules in a college grace-killing? Are you saying that grace means no rules? Or rules that do not fit a certain criteria?

And lastly what harm do these rules cause? In other words how do they keep the child of God from being what he is suppose to be doing? Living godly. For instance how is having a lights out rule hindering a person in their calling to live godly?

 

From the college's student handbook:

Rbell's translation:

 

If that is the case then it looks like someone outright lied.

 

My college was actually stricter. You had to do all of these things plus...

You could only spend a couple of hours a day with your girl friend.
You could not leave the campus at all without signing out and signing in when you returned.
Everyone was to be in the dorms by 9:30. Lights out by 11.
No mustaches or facial hair of any kind were permitted.


It's this kind of crud that is really hurting the Gospel witness in this country.

These freakish standards-obsessed movements hurt all of us.
They are popish (pope-ish) and unbiblical and they don't care.

 

I attended one and you are right. This is exactly what the school put out- little automatons who were carbon copies of the staff.

Those who did not become automatons became resentful toward fundamentalism and many went so far that they despised church and anything to do with it.

 

You should have seen me my first year in Bible college. I got booted because I couldn't and wouldn't keep rules that were far less restrictive than those mentioned. Then I went in the army and got straightened out by a DI and a desire to learn how to live when I went to a much harder college of Viet Nam.

It's harder to learn self-control and self discipline when you are older but it can be done.

Whenever I broke a bone (choose one, I've probably broken it), they put a cast on it that restricted everything I could do with it. The reason so my bone could mend and become strong enough to be able to stand alone. Some kids need strong rules to act as a cast.

 

Okay, since I am a product of strict fundamentalist schools, according to the good folk on this thread so far: apparently I’m an automaton, I’m a legalist, I simply “regurgitate” what I was taught instead of thinking for myself, at college I lived in a “stone room with daily penance,” I was not taught to “hang around” with “real sinners” like Jesus did (the yakuza gangster coming to my church would be surprised to hear that), I was “dehumanized” by the rules I obeyed, and I became one of a group of “little automatons who were carbon copies of the staff.” Oh yes, and my wife (a graduate of a different strict fundamentalist school), not to mention my three sisters, may have been sent there because of her “questionable reputation.”

Why is it that as soon as the subject of fundamentalist standards comes up, the knives come out? To judge by the comments on this thread by non-fundamentalists, we are the worst Christians ever. But that’s okay. As my fundamentalist father used to say, “I’d rather be criticized for my position than for my disposition.” And frankly, I'm currently judging some of you critics on this thread for your lousy dispositions. :saint:

 

I agree with that and confess that it is perfectly valid. And I am not trying to be argumentative here, either.

But we need to also recognize along with this that these kinds of rules are stifling to certain personalities too. The army literally is making automatons. There is no individuality in a troop. The army does not want a bunch of individuals with individual goals and individual mindsets. They want a bunch of guys who are NOT free thinkers but who simply do as they are told.

That should not be the primary goal of a seminary. God made each one of us who are having this very conversation differently. We think differently, we have different temperaments, different likes and dislikes, and God intends to use those traits.

Peter and John were not alike at all. But God used them both.

My college suffocated individuality and free thinking and strong wills. And the weak were the only ones who truly got educated there because they were the only ones who did not buck against the pillows over our faces.

 

That's very funny! Good job John.

Nobody said all of these things were true for everybody who attended one of these bible bootcamps. We are saying it is the tendency. You and yours may have escaped it. Many thousands, no doubt, do.

But many more become disillusioned with fundamentalism and quit the ministry bitterly or turn out to be little automatons who just pretty well are carbon copies of their professors.

That's my educated opinion based on having attended one of these silly colleges of which is in question on this thread and observing fundamentalists around the country.

 

Admittedly there are fundamentalists who have turned out to be automatons. However, in my experience they usually grow out of it as they walk with the Lord.

Again, it is true that there are bitter ex-fundamentalists. However, I usually take criticism from ex-fundamentalists with a grain of salt. In my experience, no matter what the movement is, people who leave a movement become critical towards it. I know I became critical towards the "Up With People" movement when as a teen I quit my gig as a guitarist with their local group. Still don't have a good opinion of the group.

I have an uncle who used to be a fundamentalist pastor. When he left the movement he split his church, changed everything from his Bible version to his church government (to elder rule), cut off from friends of a lifetime, and ended up with a group that called themselves "free churches," supposedly free from legalism. I asked him one day what they did at their pastors' meetings, and he said wryly, "We sit around criticizing the groups we've left." :smilewinkgrin:

So my point is, to you who used to be fundamentalists: don't be bitter, don't be critical, just get on with the life God has given you. Witness for Christ, live for Him, and leave us fundamenalists up to Him. He is well able to give us what we deserve! :saint:

 

Kudos from another guy whose life was ruined and effectiveness for God destroyed because I went to one of those schools. My dear wife's pre-college reputation is also in doubt because she went to the same place.

 

One thing that is positive and amazing about our IFB schools is how many thousands of missionaries like you and me have been called and/or inspired at college, and have gone out to the ends of the earth for the cause of Christ.

 

You know, I've been thinking about this and am wondering about something. According to you, the numbers who come out okay from a strict college are "many thousands," but those who are ruined are "many more" than "many thousands." How do you come by these figures? What are the exact statistics? Who did the survey? Or is this simply your completely unsupported opinion?

 

Rbell's translation:

The handbook actually says that dorm students are "free to come and go from the campus as they please," but overnight absences from campus require that a form be submitted to one's RA.

 

Was Jesus 18 years old at the time?