There is a trend in our Christian schools of late that is disturbing and bodes no good for the future of such schools. It is the trend (more often than not a deliberate trend) in CSI schools to get away from any specific reference to the Reformed creeds in the constitution of these schools. It shows a desire to get away from anything too specifically Reformed in our schools. We want to be “generally Christian” or “generally evangelical” or “non-denominational” (whatever that means). But the last thing we want is to be distinctively and unashamedly Reformed. That’s something we feel we have to apologize for in order to attract students from other backgrounds.
Sometimes it’s a concern about numbers that lies behind this trend; we want to attract as many students as possible. In times of declining enrollment from our own circles, we want to fill the gaps with other students. More students mean more money and a smaller deficit.
Of course, I’m not opposed to admitting students from non-Reformed backgrounds into our schools. I believe we have something to offer them. The Reformed faith is for everyone. But then we must offer them the best we have—and that is the Reformed understanding of things. Yet that is precisely what we are trying to deemphasize or get rid of all together. We have something so rich and beautiful to offer, but we think others might not appreciate it, so we try to tone it down. The end result is that we’re losing the very thing which attracted some of these other students in the first place.
I do not understand this mentality. I believe it is a very sad development and that we stand to lose far more than most people are aware of. The biblical understanding of the covenant, the world-embracing scope of God’s kingdom, the radical fall into sin and a similar radical redemption in Christ—these are all matters of vital importance for Christian education. The school is not a church, to be sure, but “doctrine” undergirds every school worth its salt. Without biblical underpinnings no Christian school can survive, let alone flourish.
The disease affecting our schools is the same one evident in our churches: a failure to see the biblical depth and beauty of the Reformed faith; a serious lack of well-developed, sensitive “Reformed feelers” among the great majority of our people, including many leaders. You find this lack among teachers, board members, and parents, and the result is that we are losing the Reformed character of our schools default. Where we fail, by other evangelicals come in to fill up the gap.
Better a broadly “evangelical” Christian school than no Christian school at all -at least if the educational standard is up to par. But I am not satisfied with something that is second best. I want the very best—I want my children taught in school what I teach them at home and in the church—and that is the unalloyed Biblical faith which we know as the Reformed faith. Why so many among us are willing to trade this in for something inferior I cannot understand. Our school boards must do a better job, and our Christian colleges too. For the future welfare of our children and also the future of the Reformed churches we must become knowledgeable about what the Reformed faith really is, and stop compromising with respect to it. It’s also time that more concerned parents speak up and insist on a solid, Reformed education. It’s worth fighting for.
