This morning Inside Higher Ed ran a story (What Would Jesus Do (in College) ) that caught my attention. It is a great piece in that it combines two favorite topics, religion and politics. It seems that conservative Intercollegiate Studies Institute has published a college guide called All-American Colleges
Top Schools for Conservatives, Old-Fashioned Liberals, and People of Faith . This book lists a large number of colleges and universities that fits within the ISI’s ideals:
At each of these diverse institutions, students who identify themselves as religious believers, conservatives, or old-fashioned liberals will find programs that connect in a special way with the core values of the American founding and the vibrant intellectual traditions of the West—schools and programs that are, in fact, often transformative.
The Inside Higher Ed piece examines how several institutions responded to be associated with ISI and some of the other schools on the list. What the administrators quoted struggle with is how to present their Gospel-formed social views in such a way that they are not equated with the "progressive left" and their religious commitments without being seen as the "religious right." Loren Swartzendruber, president of Eastern Mennonite University, said
“The growth of the right-wing Christian population in this country, or should I say, at least the visibility of the right-wing – which gets attached to ‘Christian’ in the minds of people – creates a disconnect for us. Because we are clearly Christian. We have no intention of giving up that identity. But we are, I think, a different kind of Christian.”
In my experience, if you hold social views that are associated with liberals then conservatives will see you as such (and perhaps even question your committment to the Gospel). If you are committed to the Gospel and, to use examples from EMU and Messiah College, have social standards that reject drunkeness and extramarital sex then liberals will see you as right-wing conservatives and attribute such political views to you as well. In other words, you are damned if you do and damned if you don’t. And I believe that is just what Jesus told his disciples .
