College Life

This is a "paper" I wrote in a few afternoons after being at school for a while. Not sure why, but I felt like posting it. Criticisms or comments on writing and content is welcomed.

"Regardless of his religious beliefs, a young person must not be subjected to rules that are made up because of the ... beliefs of a teacher or for the convenience of a school administrator.”

I am a student attending at a Baptist Christian college. I agree with their views on most everything doctrinally, and am very thankful that Maranatha is in existence: for there are very few colleges who stand firm on the King James Version and hold to the Calvinistic view of salvation, just to name a few. However, their Pharisaical approach to the rules and guidelines is most disturbing.

The most interesting part about this though, is that the makers of these rules understand that they having no real backing. The Dean of Students, Mr. Richards, said multiple times during freshman orientation that they did not hold their rules to be morally right. They would not condemn us in our homes if we did not abide by their rules because the rules are without Biblical backing. The only reason they are in place is because the founders of the school put them there. These rules include the following:

Girls must wear nylons before 12:20 on class days.
Guys must wear ties before 12:20 on class days.
Females are not allowed to wear blue jeans, unless they are in their dorm.
Girls are not allowed to wear any type of slacks to class.

What is the point of these? Modesty? If modesty were the issue, all pants on girls would be banned from any activity. Girls would not be allowed to wear pants to a basketball game. Guys always would have to wear ties. But how are ties modest? How are nylons? How are blue jeans worse than black jeans? How are things that before 12:20 are wrong, suddenly become acceptable afterward?

I understand the desire for students to be dressed appropriately for class, the desire for them to look nice. However, wouldn't consistency say that either you require the students to dress up the same amount for all classes or you let them go without nylons or ties as they choose? Why are morning classes more important than afternoon classes? How do these rules make any sense at all?

Is it really necessary to require girls to wear skirts on days when the wind chill is more than 20 degrees below 0? Oh, you have a bus taking them from their dorms to the main campus? Well, that makes it better then. Say again? Students have actually gotten frostbite during the walk from the main campus to their dorms. How does this not scream lunacy? Mostly likely this hasn’t been changed because the students come to school anyway. We agree to abide by these “standards” and are then bound by our word, much to the displeasure of our reasoning faculties.

These rules are not only logically unsound, they are also spiritually blind. This college is supposedly based on the Bible, supposedly run by Christian teachers and staff who wish only the betterment of the spiritual welfare of their students. And though I have personally witnessed an amazing amount of kindness and an eagerness to help from this blessed group of people, they are still holding to these rules which were created much for the same reason the Pharisees created their traditions. They are created to safeguard the keeping of the law.

Eve told the serpent that she and Adam were not even to touch the fruit when God had commanded no such thing. Had Eve only touched the fruit, she would not have died. She created a rule to safeguard the law of God. This should not happen. This does not need to be. God’s law is sufficient, and pure, and holy. By creating excess rules, we are, in effect, declaring His standards to be ineffective. We are mocking the work of the Spirit of God in the hearts of His people.

Should there be standards? Most assuredly, yes! But wouldn’t it be wise to have Biblical backing for such standards? Wouldn’t it be wise not to contradict such standards within your own rules? For a young Christian who does not understand, these rules will be all the more confusing! Why am I allowed to do some things at certain times but not at others? Why is alright for me to ride with a boy to church (as long as there is an odd number of us) without needing special permission but not to Wal-Mart?

Do you see where someone might be confused? Do you see where these rules make no sense? Do you see how there are so many flaws in them? These rules are not hard to get around. No kissing? How many couples do you think have kissed and never been caught? How many have not filled out passes when they were supposed to and were never found out?

These rules do not greatly hinder those who are going to break them anyway. They only succeed in making life more difficult for those who will abide by them in the first place, those who have their own standards for life and their own boundaries.

As the quote at the beginning of this paper states, students should not be under rules that are devised for the sole purpose of the convenience of those running the school. The administrators should not make rules that makes things easier on them if such standards are to the detriment of the rest of the campus body, whether student or teacher. Rather than seeing the hurt of one student, dorm supervisors are only seeing the student whose shoes are too casual for class at that particular hour. Rather than helping the one who is struggling spiritually, they are making sure that all the girls are wearing nylons and the men have ties. These are the outward things that the Pharisees were so careful of. This is the washing of hands before meals and not gathering corn on the Sabbath.

This Pharisaical element of many of the rules in place here at Maranatha, is only harming those who already have their foundation in the Bible, who are already more than willing to listen to the leading of the Holy Spirit, and it is misleading those who do not know better. How easy it is to be like the Galatians and go back to keeping the law! Rather than enable us, should not college be the place where we learn to develop our own standards which we will carry throughout life? Should not the school and teachers be available for advice and Godly counsel, rather than the recitation of the school rules?

College is to be the place where a young adult comes into their own. It is a separation from home and from the rules and confines of it. It should be a breath of the fresh air of freedom and as such should be a time to search the Scripture to see where your personal convictions are. It should not be yet another place where the rules are laid out for you and in strict adherence you remain unprepared for life in the real world, life in an ungodly world; a life where there are no human rules other than those you impose on yourself.

God will not hold the college accountable for me. He will have my parents give account. He will have my pastor give account, but this college has no Scriptural rule over me. This college is not watching for my soul. And as such, this college should in no way assume to have authority over me and other adults who are attending when it comes to matters of spiritual discernment. If you truly believe a student is violating the law of God, then follow the guidelines in the Bible and talk to them about it. If they continue, take it before one or two witnesses and then before the church bring the situation to light, and as God has prescribed in His Word, let that be the system.