America’s Christian colleges promise students not just an education but moral and spiritual enlightenment. The coming fall semester presents a new moral quandary: Can a reopening that poses serious health risks be justified in the eyes of God? Does the decision to hold in-person classes represent a brave step forward — or a reckless turn away from honoring the sanctity of life?
Kevin Timpe, a professor of Christian philosophy at Calvin University, in Michigan, said public health is clearly a moral issue that should concern all colleges.
We’re called to care specifically for the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the marginalized.
“But I also think the Church, especially, has reason to care about how the pandemic disproportionately affects some parts of our communities more than others,” Timpe wrote in an email to The Chronicle. “After all, we’re called to care specifically for the disadvantaged, the vulnerable, the marginalized. If we don’t take seriously our responsibilities to these groups, we fail to live up to our mission.”
At one Christian institution after another, though, leaders are citing their spiritual mission to explain decisions to bring at least some students back to campus. Most are planning to reopen under a hybrid model that pairs online instruction with in-person lectures, according to the Council for Christian Colleges & Universities, which counts 140 American colleges among its members.
The Master’s University, in Southern California, is opening for hybrid instruction in a Covid-19 hot spot, even though other nearby colleges are staying fully remote. The university, which is not a member of the council, says on its website that the mission of learning and growing as instruments of God’s glory is “of utmost importance, and while it must be done with health and safety as a clear priority, it must be done! This is why it is so important that we do all we can to reopen our campus this fall.”
The website of George Fox University, an evangelical Christian college in Oregon, similarly states: “The world is different now. We need Christ-centered education more than ever. And this is why we plan to open our campus in the fall.”
Not everyone agrees. A small group of students at George Fox responded with a joint letter to the administration, saying they are “greatly troubled” by the plan for face-to-face instruction as the primary mode of teaching.
“We are troubled not only because of the obvious danger this puts every member of the faculty and staff, student body, and surrounding community in, but also because of the blatant disregard for Christ-like values of love, sacrifice, and honesty, that this university claims to uphold,” the students wrote.
They’re parading around with this banner of Christ-like values, while sort of ignoring them on the down-low.
“They’re parading around with this banner of Christ-like values, while sort of ignoring them on the down-low,” said Tyndal Longstroth, one student who signed the letter. She noted that a retirement community is located across the street from the campus, and said it felt “flippant” to bring students back to campus so near a high-risk community.
Rob Felton, a George Fox spokesman, said the university doesn’t expect much interaction between the campus and the retirement community, because the public is not allowed on campus this fall and the retirement community places strict limits on visits.
In response to Covid-19, the institution has expanded its online course offerings and designed a reopening plan that is comparable to nonreligious colleges in the region, Felton said.
“That said, our administration and faculty are committed to providing an educational experience that encourages spiritual development and positive healthy relationships between students and mentors,” Felton wrote in an email. “We believe the best way to achieve this is through in-person experiences.”
Inspired by Martin Luther
At Wheaton College in Illinois, often described as the Harvard of Christian institutions, the president, Philip Graham Ryken, said administrators were taking many steps to make the campus safer: canceling intramural sports, requiring students to submit a negative Covid-19 test result before attending class, and making face masks mandatory for students and employees.
Students who refuse to wear a mask will be disciplined, Ryken said, and repeat offenders “will not be permitted to remain on campus.”
Ryken said that Illinois had achieved some success in limiting the spread of the coronavirus, and the state’s current health recommendations allow colleges to reopen. But if conditions on the ground worsen, he said, the college may be forced to switch to remote instruction.
Early in the pandemic, Ryken said, he read some of Martin Luther’s reflections on bubonic plague as the illness ravaged Germany in the 16th century. Luther’s view balanced a desire to limit the spread of disease with a willingness to take action, he said, and even risk infection if it meant helping others.
As Christian colleges weather the current pandemic, Ryken said, they feel a particularly strong yearning for in-person instruction.
“There is a kind of life together, as a community, that we think is ordinarily healthy for the people of God, that we would do everything we could to promote,” he said. “We believe strongly in worshiping together as well as learning together.”
Nevertheless, the monthly All School Communion is being moved from the chapel to an outdoor location, with social-distancing requirements. Wheaton’s regular chapel services will continue three times a week, but will happen virtually.
“We won’t be able to gather as one campus congregation,” Ryken said.
Some Christian institutions have decided that welcoming students back to campus is simply too risky.
Paul W. Ferguson, president of Azusa Pacific University, said the path forward requires balancing a variety of different goals, including health and safety, academic excellence, and spiritual formation. But in the end, Ferguson — a longtime professor of toxicology and public health — decided that the college should remain fully online, citing the scientific information in front of him. The campus is located in Southern California, a Covid-19 hot spot, and local health officials are recommending that no college reopen, for now.
A Politicized Decision
Ferguson acknowledged that some students had questioned the decision. They wondered whether the virus was really that serious, or whether the university should even be taking its cues from the government.
The student body at Christian colleges often tilts conservative. And the Covid-19 pandemic has become highly politicized, largely because of President Trump’s resistance to wearing masks and his repeated attempts to minimize the dangers that coronavirus poses to the public.
“I do see a lot of students on campus sort of disregarding the importance of it,” said Longstroth, the George Fox student. “There’s a lot of misinformation, especially in more conservative circles.”
Longstroth predicted the mask issue would be a source of friction on her campus this fall, even though the university is requiring masks.
Some Christian colleges, like their secular counterparts, have created a social contract or compact that students must sign, pledging to follow health and safety precautions. At Christian institutions, the compacts can include references to Scripture, to underscore the importance of acting responsibly.
The King’s College, in New York City, cites in its compact Philippians 2:4: “Let each of you look not only to his own interests, but also to the interests of others.”
New Saint Andrews College, in Moscow, Idaho, has gone in a different direction. The college, which enrolls fewer than 200 students, will not require face masks when it reopens this fall. The institution highlights that fact in its marketing posts on social media:
“No riots. No masks. In person. This Fall,” says one Facebook post from earlier this month.
Ben Merkle, the college’s president, said that the local city government requires six feet of physical distancing, or masks in case distancing is not possible. He said the student body’s small size had enabled him to redesign spaces so that six feet of separation is always possible.
“We don’t forbid masks,” he said, “but we don’t think it’s our place to require them.”
Merkle said the college’s mission is to graduate future leaders who will help shape the culture. And by persevering through college, despite the risk of Covid-19, the students will be taught the importance of “learning to face danger, learning to face fear, learning to face hardship.”
The college, on its website, says it teaches “clear thinking in unthinking times.”
“What we offer is so potent,” it states. “You’ll want to be here in person.”
