#198 Christian Colleges Solve the Woke Problem

The Christian Economist | Dave Arnott

The market will take care of the woke problem in higher education, as consumers choose Christian colleges over corrupt state institutions. John Ellis wrote a fire-breathing editorial in the Wall Street Journal titled Higher Ed Has Become a Threat to America. Subtitled Our corrupt, radical universities feed every scourge from censorship and crime to antisemitism. He’s mostly right. But his prescription is wrong. As with most problems in a free society, the market will take care of the problem. The Council for Christian Colleges & Universities There is an alternative form of education that Mr. Ellis overlooks: Christian Higher Education. 150 members of the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities suffer from almost none of the maladies Mr. Ellis points out in his scathing article. He writes, “Every one of these degradations can be traced wholly or in large part to a single source: the corruption of higher education by radical political activists.” Okay, let’s see. I have been on the faculty at Dallas Baptist University for thirty years, so I will speak for my university, and safely assume that applies to most of the other 150 CCCU members. There are no radical political activists on our campus. Never have been. Unless you count the very conservative Young Americans for Freedom, who recently hosted a speech by retired Lt. Colonel Allen West. There’s also the Pro-Life Patriots organization. On President’s Day, their Facebook page invited students to “Join us, this Presidents’ Day as we remember some of the most Pro-Life presidents in history!” The announcement was accompanied by photos of both Presidents Bush, President Reagan, and President Trump. Biblical Justice Ellis again, “Children’s test scores have plummeted because college education departments train teachers to prioritize “social justice” over education.” Nope, not at our university nor at just about any of the other CCCU members. We like to study “Biblical justice.” A phrase you might hear in a classroom is “There is neither Jew nor Greek, there is neither slave nor free, there is neither male nor female; for you are all one in Christ Jesus.” Mr. Ellis complains, “Censorship started with one-party campuses shutting down conservative voices.” That’s never happened at DBU. Recently, we have hosted former CIA and State Department head Mike Pompeo, former President George W. Bush, former Secretary of Defense General Jim Mattis, and Kristen and Keith Getty. That last couple writes and performs Christian praise songs. Recently we also hosted retired Army General David Petraeus. We’ve never had a protestor, and we don’t expect to have one this week. Our students think, and don’t allow their feelings to control their lives. I unpack more on that topic in podcast #97 titled Thinking vs Feeling. During speeches, our students show respect for competing ideas, they don’t shout them down, or demand the speaker be ushered off campus. They treat guest speakers as guests, as they do all campus visitors. Be Fruitful and Multiply Ellis again: “The drive to separate children from their parents begins in longstanding campus contempt for the suburban home and nuclear family.” It’s the total opposite at our university. Dennis Prager spoke in chapel, then hosted his national radio program from our campus, with some students visiting him in the studio. He cited an article about three women featured in a recent Atlantic Magazine article, who stated they would not have children because of climate change. Mr. Prager asked our students how many of them wanted to get married. In the small sample in the studio, all of them raised their hands, and having children was beyond question: of course, they planned to get married and have children. Opining about the border crises, Ellis states, “Open borders reflect pro-globalism and anti-nation state sentiment among radical professors.” Of the approximately 4500 students at DBU,