Christian Living

SHOULD CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS EXIST?

by Andre Lee
04/05/18
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SHOULD CHRISTIAN SCHOOLS EXISIT?

Andre Lee, April 2018

            I recently saw a story that took place a year or so back, about a young woman named Maddi Runkles, who was suspended from school, lost all leadership roles, and was prevented from walking with her classmates during graduation. Why? Because the school Maddi was attending was a Christian school, and Maddi… just happen to get pregnant.

            The school, Heritage Academy of Boonsboro Maryland, had a strict rule against sexual immorality, and each student was required to sign a contract at enrollment that stated that they promised to stay away from sexual immorality (and a few other particular sins) while they were attending. Maddi’s actions were a violation of this contract, and therefore warranted the consequences she received. While the school had endured much backlash from this course of action, they maintained that they are teaching accountability, and therefore, will not be moved on their decision. This, to me, opens up a very big question: Should Christian schools (particularly for teenagers) exist?

            The school’s standpoint on this situation is very understandable: actions deserve accountability. Especially for a contract that you willingly entered into. If they allowed her to go on as normal while pregnant, then they would be sending the message that actions have no consequences. However, this is where the problem occurs. Because in this aspect, Christians seem to run into one another, considering the evangelical message- the message that Christians present to the entire outside world to get people saved- is grace and mercy. Countless crusades and Easter services around the nation, and even the world, have highly promoted the idea that the hooking factor of conversion is forgiveness for wrongs; all sins are equal and mercy is for all who come. That is the message that we Christians publicize, and how we introduce others to Christ. It is what we have made people believe Christianity is. Whether or not we want to believe it, the world doesn’t know any better about our faith. So, is it wise to create another institution that is also very public by nature, openly displaying what the public would perceive as the exact opposite of the evangelical message? According to scripture, our purpose as Christians is not to turn people into well behaved, functioning members of society (John 17:16, 1 John 2:15), but it is to spread the Gospel. Doesn’t that mean we must favor using wisdom to control the messages we’re sending to make sure they’re not running into each other, over running an institution?

            Now, you may be asking, “What does this have to do with whether or not Christian schools should exist?” Well, allow me to paint a picture for you.

        Imagine, if you will, a young man who decides that he wants to be a firefighter. So he goes and applies for the training academy. When he gets there, the fire department chief quite casually tells him, “For your training, we’re going to have you drive the fire truck on the next real live fire emergency. You’ll also get all the equipment ready for Mark here when you guys get there. This is how we’re going to train you; you’ll be a master in no time!”    

            This is obviously a very bad idea. This young, man who really doesn’t know what he is doing, should not be trained out in the open where real life stuff is at stake. People’s lives can’t distinguish the fact that he doesn’t know what he is doing, his actions could still be fatal.

            The reality is, in order for a Christian school to exist, there has to be protocol. A strict set of boundaries that keeps the reputation of the School pure. But can that exist in a public setting where a pre-existing message of Christ is at stake? While the school’s standpoint was justified from a legalistic perspective, undercutting the progress of the Christian message as whole to straighten out a legal matter may not have been wise (1 Corinthians 10:23). Here’s the problem: A teenager is a teenager, Christian or not. They are all dealing with the same hormones and battling the same demons. So the worst thing that I could possibly do for the spread of the Gospel is to take a group of teenagers who are all hormonally haywire- almost guaranteeing the fact that I will have to publically discipline them- slap a “Christian” label on them, and put them on public display. Basically staging my own eventual contradiction. “Hey, here we are, we’re a Christian school. We will openly reprimand our students for doing what every other teenager in the world does, publically upholding intolerance while my Christian brothers publically announce grace and mercy.”…This was not very well thought out. Christians single-handedly destroy their own message.

            This is not at all to say that people don’t need discipline and correction, in fact, correction is a sign of love (Hebrews 12:6). But that is understood only by the weathered in faith . The onlookers, who we are supposed to be winning, will be turned off by what looks to be a contradiction, effectively voiding out our efforts. As these schools were establishing their guidelines, they should have really taken into consideration the over-kill on the grace message that our forerunning brothers in Christ put into motion, and realized that both entities are in the public eye. As Christians, there seems to be a blindness we have to our own atmosphere. The public doesn’t see it as a school trying to keep order, they see it all as a representation of the Christian doctrine, of which we are all responsible for how we display. We can’t say, “it’s not my responsibility how they see it.” It most certainly is (Matthew 28:19)! And the one thing that Christ taught directly against was punishing people whose sins were visible. If you can’t catch everybody’s sin, don’t make an example out of the one you see, it sends the message of favoritism or partiality (John 8:7). So, since the school’s message and the evangelical message collide, would it be expedient to get rid of one in order to save the message?