IRD: Will Christian Universities Collapse or Give Strong Witness?
Several Christian colleges and universities are poised to depart the Council for Christian Colleges and Universities (CCCU) by the end of the summer if two institutions that revised their employment policies to allow the hiring of faculty and staff in same-sex marriages remain members.
World magazine reports that the CCCU, a coalition of 180 Christian colleges and universities around the world, initially said it would address the issue of Eastern Mennonite University and Goshen College at the annual members meeting in January. But on July 28 the CCCU board said it would begin contacting each member president to discuss the matter sooner.
Union University, citing a slow process and general discontent with the CCCU’s direction, this week became the first institution to withdraw from the group.
IRD President Mark Tooley commented:
“CCCU’s seeming ambivalence so far about two of its member schools adopting secular sexual ideology, prompting another member school to quit CCCU in protest, is disturbing.
“Current cultural challenges make a strong witness from Evangelical education more important than ever.
“The last century is full of countless tragic examples when Protestant-founded colleges and universities surrendered their Christianity in favor of secular acclimation. Evangelical academia will follow the same unfortunate trajectory if groups like CCCU do not unequivocally affirm Christian teaching.
“Let’s pray and urge CCCU to clearly affirm its support Christian doctrine and ethics, and for religious liberty, in a time when traditional religion is under cultural assault.”
(Source: Christian Newswire)
