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Saying No at Goshen College

9/18/2014

 
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I love many of the people that work and attend Goshen College, but the institution itself needs an integrity check.  Over twenty years ago, I was a student at Goshen College.  I transferred there to finish my final two years after Hesston.  I would give nothing but glowing reviews of my experience at Hesston and its commitment to quality education. I had professors that presented not only their own perspective, but also gave a fair and helpful understanding of other points of view.  I cannot say the same for some of my professors at Goshen College.

Two stories will illustrate my concerns.  When I took a race and ethnic relations class, I heard only one very narrow perspective and understanding of racism.  In another context, I was introduced to the book by Shelby Steele called The Content of Our Character. I met the professor outside of class.  

Me: "I wondered what you thought of this book."
Prof: "I have that book, it's not credible."
Me: "So you've read it?"
Prof: "No, but I've read some reviews."
Me: "And the reviews weren't positive?"
Prof: "No."

That was the end of the matter.  There was no engaging with the ideas or wrestling with perspectives.  To my surprise, he came to class a few weeks later with the book and a chapter he had copied for everyone to read.  The chapter he chose was an autobiographical disclosure by Steele revealing he is a middle-class black.  He began the class discussion by asking the class to decide (before hearing his ideas) if he was a credible voice about racism based on his middle class status.  Once the professor had the class thoroughly enraged at the temerity of a middle class black writing about racism, he then led them in taking apart Steele's perspective.   My concern is not that I think Steele's perspective was correct. My concern is the inherent racism of a white, middle class professor as he dismissed out of hand the perspectives of a conservative black man because of his economic location.

The second story is from the human sexuality class I took.  Already in the early '90's, the class had a clear push to move students toward embracing and affirming gay marriage.  The class was large enough that we met in small groups with teaching assistants.  As we were nearing the end of the trimester, I asked my teaching assistant to point me to some of the better resources in psychology and social sciences that would help understand sexual identity from the perspective of what the church teaches.  He told me he would check with the professor and get back with me.  A week later, he came and flatly said, "There aren't any."   A year later, i was a student at Associated Mennonite Biblical Seminary and I asked a professor there the same question.  He referred me to a number of helpful and excellent resources.

I also know that there are many professors at Goshen College that do give a high quality education, who provide the best of what is known about a variety of subjects. My objection to Goshen College is that, in some areas, its educational quality is at a very low level and it fails to address that problem. Professors teach to indoctrinate students to their beliefs, some of which are opposed to what the church says it believes in the Confession of Faith. They're more sophisticated in their methods than fundamentalist religious schools, but they do not introduce students to the best of other viewpoints in a dispassionate way. They become demagogues, and classes become about activism and intimidation.  

I continue to hear stories like mine from past and current students. In the end, it's a shell game.  A professor withholds information, doesn't present other perspectives in a competent manner, and fails to give the tools to students to articulate alternative points of view.  Then when the student writes a paper that comes from a different perspective, they can lower the grade because it is not credibly sourced.  

But the heart of the problem is an integrity issue.  For years, it seemed the college would try to have it both ways by pretending to be one thing through its admission and church relations office while in reality having a very different campus environment.  That seems to no longer be working as the facade is crumbling.  I would challenge the college to work differently, to either publicly acknowledge the demagoguery in its midst or to ensure that it's classroom and campus environment is one that equips students to understand the best arguments both for what the church believes and for other points of view.  It is a church institution.  The church's perspective should be given due process in the classroom.

UPDATE 9/19/14 - This article has gotten a lot of readers and responses and I did a follow up post today highlighting some of the ambivalence I felt about writing this article.  All comments are moderated and I will not post any that are personal attacks or use coarse language.  If you do comment, I encourage you to simply describe your experience, and minimize language that describes motives or paints a broad brush.  There are many fine people at Goshen College, and I think we are best served by simply unveiling the truth of our experiences.  The pattern through the years is that the college will simply ignore criticism that is layered with too much vitriol. Thanks. JT

-John M Troyer

Concerned
9/17/2014 09:16:43 pm

Thank you for your column. Do you believe that this holds true for most campus pastors and students? We have children considering Goshen as a way of meeting like-minded people. If it is only a place where they will be ridiculed or their faith marginalized or "converted", we have no interest in spending the additional $25-75K for the privilege of attending a "church" college. At least at state schools the sheep and goats run in different pens and students know to be on their guard for false teachers.. How can we as alumni and constituents exert influence to help the college return to an organization that builds and does not tear down the larger church?

John M Troyer
9/17/2014 10:47:06 pm

The campus pastors are friends of mine and I hold them up in prayer. I think they work at caring for and supporting all students, but I do frequently hear that the campus environment can feel very repressive if you are a conservative student, theologically or politically. Students will also have different experiences depending on the major they choose. Others who attended more recently could probably give better perspective.

Frankie
9/17/2014 11:46:05 pm

Amen!!! And I thought I was the only one who thought this way. I only went their a year or year. & half. I had to take a break Bc I was so fed up with what I think are Games they play. But growing up in a passive community you are known as the Wild one or MeaN Bc you question things. Or address Push Envelope situations. I did love my Art. & French classes but I felt like I was in this pond of people that were brainwashed. & blind!!!

Les
9/17/2014 11:52:19 pm

In the final paragraph you proposed an either/or challenge to GC. Is there any reason we couldn't expect both options?

Christian Swartzentruber
9/18/2014 12:10:48 am

I believe this article hits at the heart of this issue. Some background information about myself - I attended Goshen College during the 2011-12 school year as a first-year, Mennonite student who was/is conservative in my beliefs. My father attended GC and graduated in the early 1980s.

Throughout my time there, the liberal side of the sexuality issue appeared to be at the top of GC's agenda. This stance, which conflicts with the Church's Confession of Faith, was the primary reason I transferred to a closer, state institution. I discussed the sexuality issue with many publicly liberal students - they had zero biblical backing to their beliefs on such a topic. Clubs and organizations were and are devoted to the LGBTQ (Lesbian, Gay, Bisexual, Transgender, and Questioning) society. I expressed my stance and I was told that I was judgemental, closed-minded, and did not display God's love. *I want it to be known that I said that I did not support their sin (just like every other sin), I never said I didn't love the individual. But that is unfathomable to most people on the opposite side if the issue.

Within the past year, a Goshen College student created yellow shirts that said, "Peacefully, I support Goshen College's current hiring practices." This was in response to purple shirts, that have been around for 3-4 years, that say, "Where's my LGBTQ prof?" Many outed guys and liberals came out and said they felt "threatened, unsafe, and ridiculed." It's unbelievable to see how they are to feel threatened, as the Goshen College student is expressing his stance using the same medium as the hundreds/thousands before him (a t-shirt). Unfortunately for GC (or fortunately for the male himself), he left Goshen. *I would advise reading up on these recent happenings.

Additionally, in regards to academics, evolution was a topic in my biology classes. The professor lacked motive to link evolution and how the bible explains the Earth was created in Genesis.

Lastly, if you were to ask me whether I would send my conservative student to this "Mennonite," let alone "Christian" institution. I would advise you not to. Save your money, and allow your son/daughter to worship and grow in their faith in organizations/groups at another institution.

Mary E. Hershberger
9/18/2014 03:21:53 pm

I am so glad I switched to a state school.

Recent Goshen grad
9/18/2014 12:37:37 am

Thank you John for your point of view. I graduated from Goshen College this May and would like to add my point of view.

From what you wrote, you and I seem to share the same side of the belief spectrum. I was raised in a conservative home and I am still conservative.

I think John, the experience for the individual is not the truth for all. I came to Goshen College with very much a negative attitude towards its liberal beliefs, but after my 4 years there, I found a much more caring and open environment to learn and grow than I ever had in my conservative surroundings. I think it is not fair to extrapolate your individual experiences to paint Goshen College as a school that pushes beliefs into their students.

Again, after 4 years there, I am conservative, I am against gay marriage and disagree with key beliefs the bible department teaches. On the other hand, I now have a huge appreciation for professors there, I never felt their beliefs were pushed on me, and I never felt disrespected because of my conservative outlook.

In response to the user "concerned", yes I could have gone to a state school and spend 25k to 75k less, but the way to think and look at the world that is taught at Goshen College, I don't think I could have gotten in any state school, and that for me, is worth more than any money I could have saved.

Right now I am happily with a job making good $$$ and with no regrets to have graduated from Goshen College.

John Troyer
9/18/2014 01:01:51 am

I appreciate your reply. I agree that it is important not to extrapolate individual experiences. I am also surprised by the number of responses I have already received from students and former students for whom this post does clearly name their experience.

Dawn
9/18/2014 04:38:01 am

I feel your pain, as they say. I graduated from GC in 91, and here are two of my memories. My father passed away very suddenly. I missed a week of classes for he funeral. The week I returned I had a paper due for my religion class. I asked for any extension, considering my circumstances. I was told no, that I needed to get on with life. I wrote the paper and handed it in, only to have him tell me it was unacceptable and to do it again. I sure wasn't feeling a lot of God's grace or mercy from that prof. My other experience also relates to the homosexuality issue. I can't remember the name of the class, but I do remember the prof. Anyhow, we were to write a paper on homosexuality, based on the Bible. I did just that, quoting passages that showed God's condemnation on such a life style. I was given a poor grade because I didn't have the same belief as my pro-homosexuality teacher. It's sad, but we won't encourage our children to attend our alma mater when the time comes.

Ryan Smith
9/18/2014 09:54:07 am

This is the exact truth of Goshen College. My name is Ryan Smith and I am the one who made the yellow t-shirts. When I visited campus, I was shown a distorted view where they blocked out all the far left hand environment, loved it at the time....then I attended.

People who have conservative beliefs such as myself are always attacked and suppressed. It really got to me that people who claim to be open-minded, accepting of other cultures/beliefs, and believe in peace would be so full of hatred to someone who disagrees with them. I took it into my own hands to give the conservative side a voice because everyone I talked to who had my belief were too afraid to vocalize it. So, I said yes to GCTV and the Record (school newspaper) to do interviews. The GCTV interview was done by someone who helped me with the t-shirts and got my full view in context. The Record, however, distorted my main points and made me look pushy, when they came to me! They also let a girl on campus look at my interview then counter everything I said in her piece, which was put out in the same issue. On the Record's site, the comments were very harsh towards me. They have to approve comments and part of me wonders how some of those comments got approved! I was called names that I never heard of before, and I wasn't extremely sheltered as a child. I was raised in a household that I had no idea the political views of my parents. Not even a hint looking back at it.

So when conservative students heard what people said about me, it made them fear even more! My objective was completely destroyed because of that. People were very nasty to me. I was the talk of the college. People said very bad things about me behind my back that I was told about. I can't imagine the things I didn't hear about!

I will also agree with the one-sided classes. They don't teach students to think. They teach students to think THEIR WAY! Even in chapel, they never mention the Word of God. It's all against what the Bible teaches.

I am also a Creationist and I was told by a faculty member that if I didn't accept Evolution that I didn't accept the truth God set out for us and hated God. Yeah... This was also a hot topic because of the Bill Nye/Ken Ham debate.

I am actually still here at Goshen College. I was going to transfer, but it didn't work out financially. I am on an athletic scholarship so it's very affordable and was my best option. Even less than a month into the school year, conservatives are being attacked. Many of it is behind the scenes and students, especially freshman, never see it. I'm afraid if I give up certain information I could get people in trouble, so I can't go into detail. Long story short: They are accepting, peaceful, and loving.....if you agree with them and accept their biased brainwashing. If you decide to think for yourself, it's not so pretty if you vocalize it.

If I had to guess, I would say about a third of the people here can maturely handle me having a different belief and not hate me for it. I do have close liberal friends here, but an overwhelming majority just can't and won't even look my way.

Mike G
9/18/2014 11:46:36 am

Hang tough and stand firm Ryan! Praying grace and strength for you.

concerned
9/18/2014 10:37:18 am

Is there enough momentum and commitment outside of the college to support the board, administration and faculty to uphold the teachings of the wider church? If there were one Anabaptist college that would take a chance and firmly uphold the teachings of the church, how long would it take for us as alumni, constituents, donors and parents to send our children and dollars there?

Could we find 100 more (read that $3 million annually increasing to $12 million after 4 years) strongly committed young disciples of Christ each year to sway the tide on campus? Is there leadership among us to change this tide, or will we return to our silent hand wringing and complaining about how are youth are leaving the church?

Pray with me that God will raise a leader.

Mary E. Hershberger
9/18/2014 03:18:19 pm

I wish I had chosen Hesston instead of Goshen back in '93. Goshen was the biggest mistake of my life.

Karla
9/18/2014 10:12:21 pm

I am a fourth generation graduate of GC. My oldest is a high school senior this year. We took her this spring on a campus visit on a perspective student weekend. On the tables during lunch were table toppers inviting discussions about LBGQT issues. We had to google some words we were unfamiliar with. We saw other parents picking them up and shaking their heads. The admission counselor asked if we had any questions, so we told him we were surprised these were on the table over perspective student weekend. He made no apologies for it. I was so upset, I wrote an email to the president about it. Three weeks later, I received an email from someone he assigned to respond to me expressing the benefits of diversity. I am not impressed! While the issue was around in the early 90's it was a small portion of the campus. It appears now to be very present. I am heartbroken because my daughter wants to go into marine biology and GC has a great science program. However, a few weeks later, we visited Bethel (IN) College. We were so impressed with their value system! The president came out to talkt to all the perspective parents and students (we never saw GC's president.) Part of the application process is signing a lifestyle covenant which includes abstaining from all pre-marital sex, including homosexuality. This made me curious, so I looked up GC's policy. It was a very general statement on tolerance and respect for others. No wonder admission at GC is now down to around 900 students and they are closing a dorm! I do not regret my time at GC. I had a good experience and met my wonderful husband there and many good friends. I have a lot of family there and it saddens me that there will not be a fifth generation graduate in our family. I feel that the Mennonite church needs to have a stronger stance on our institutions upholding the Confession of Faith. Our colleges are suffering because of it. So many Mennonite youth are choosing to attend more conservative colleges, like Bethel (IN, a Missionary Church school). Some body better pay attention to the conservative voice and stop trying to squash it by calling it unloving and intolerant. We all have desires and urges that we are born with, that doesn't make them right or good for us. Jesus came to free us from all that. The fact that he never specifically addressed the homosexuality issue does not condone it. Rather, it seems to suggest that nothing in the OT law on the issue needed change.

Sonny Swartzentruber
9/19/2014 12:06:39 am

Is anyone in administration there listening? Does anyone in administration care?

Ted love
9/19/2014 11:17:07 am

I have wondered about this for many years. As an Alumni of Goshen I have said to many people that I would talk to the administration if I thought someone really wanted to listen. Our children did go else where because they saw it with their own eyes. I would have supported them going to Goshen but it would have been painful for our family.

rusty edwards link
9/19/2014 12:43:29 am

Great perspective JT. I had many similarly discouraging realities about Goshen College during my time there in the early 90's. I still refer to GC as the nation's most liberal 'almost' Christian college. When you live on campus you experience life at GC behind the 'Christian' facade they use to raise money and convince Mennonite parents to send their kids to the land of Goshen. My experience was quite disappointing especially because almost every social issue from abortion to homosexuality to political areas was so relentlessly pushed away from what the Bible teaches at a very fundamental level.

Even now they are wrestling in a formal manner whether homosexuality is really a sin? But that is our culture crippled by political correctness and even the religion of science being given more credibility than God's own words.

I finally had to walk away after 2+ years of it even though I was only 6 months from graduating because I didn't want to be a graduate of a school that had so readily turned from God. Later I had to laugh because the evidence of the fruits of their choices became obvious when they closed the Rec Fitness Centers pool and enrollment was down terribly. Other actual Christian colleges like Indiana Wesleyan were building several more multi million dollar dorms and expanding their reach across the state. IWU may have issues like colleges do but they sure we're committed to Jesus and the students were taught very good Biblical truths.

Anyway, I will forever tell people to avoid GC and spend their money at Grace College or Bethel or IWU if they actually want their kids to build a foundation in Christ. If parents want even basic Biblical teaching, GC is NOT the place to go. I imagine if they turned from the path they've been on since the 80's, the Lord will restore good fruit but I don't suspect they are interested in such things.

alum
9/19/2014 04:48:45 am

My husband and I are both GC grads. Our son, who is now a senior, thought about looking at Goshen. After speaking openly and honestly with several current students, he is no longer interested. After hearing things like "there's no spiritual nurturing on campus" we affirm his decision to look elsewhere.

Aaron maust
9/19/2014 08:28:14 am

I was looking into going there but i decided not to amd completely drop it from my list of patential scjools after observing the studants and community i went to bethany so i have many friends that went there and i know u know them and many of there views and you know me so u can obviously see why i will not be going there

Robina Sommers
9/21/2014 10:04:16 am

Hi, John. I grew up in the Anglican Church in India and was introduced to the Mennonites when I came to Hesston and then Goshen. I was very conservative when I attended Goshen College, but felt supported by the faculty and developed lifelong friendships. Later I decided to become an Anabaptist (I was rebaptized as an adult) and am now a Mennonite.
I agree with you that it is a matter of concern that our Mennonite youth are not considering Mennonite colleges. I worry about the future of our denomination if our pastors are encouraging our young people go to non-Mennonite schools, never to return as leaders in the church they wish to change.

Mary E. Hershberger
9/21/2014 02:52:14 pm

I wonder why you would conclude they could never return as church leaders. There are nondenominational seminaries that can arrange Mennonite ordination, are there not? I believe Union Theological Seminary in New York City provides such a path for those with a recommendation from a Mennonite clergy member. In any case, I doubt Mennonite seminaries do not give equal consideration to graduates of state schools.

Yoder
9/21/2014 01:14:16 pm

My grandparents attended GC as did my parents. I however decided to not to attend the school, not so much because of the liberal agenda of the school (I would identify myself as more conservative) but because I felt as though I was an afterthought. I'm a Bethany grad and while I looked into GC it wasn't serious and was only my fall back option; I could live at home and they have a great science program. But it didn't seem like they tried to recruit me to the college, just assuming that because I attended Bethany and my parents had gone to Goshen I'd go there as well. The Bethany assumption proved somewhat true; of the 42 kids in my graduating class I think 12 attended Goshen. The only reason I kept Goshen on the my school list was because of Tavi. I wanted to play soccer and I liked him as a coach.

But the suppression of the conservative viewpoint did affect my decision in choosing not to attend Goshen. I felt GC would be just an extension of my graduating class at Bethany who as a whole leaned more towards the liberal side of the spectrum. My classmates often told me I was free to believe whatever I wanted to believe, but yet would end up attacking my beliefs as being wrong and not right like theirs. I felt like I'd be under the same pressure if I attended GC, and according to Ryan, I would have been.

But this isn't just a modern issue. Goshen has always been one of the more liberal Mennonite colleges. The conference closed the school back in the 1920s for a year or two (if I remember correctly) for being too liberal. It's something that has been ongoing.

Truth be told, I'm glad I never attended Goshen. I just would have ended up more frustrated than I am here at Bluffton University (where I currently am a junior). The main reason I came here is because Bluffton gave me a scholarship that made my total cost cheaper than what a state school would have been. But I don't feel scared to voice my beliefs, I'm not pressured into believing what the professors believe, and I don't get marked down just because I disagree with a professor. I don't know if the "openness" of Bluffton is the result of the diversity of the student body (only 12% Mennonite) or the fact that they used to be affiliated with the General Conference, but I feel better here than at Goshen.

Jennifer Schrock link
10/15/2014 11:33:29 am

I seem to be a bit behind this blog, but I will respond anyway. While I can’t speak as a conservative, I have worked at Goshen College for twelve years and I would say that the comments posted here do not reflect my experience. I teach a course entitled, Faith, Ethics and Eco-justice in the Sustainability Leadership Semester (SLS) offered at Merry Lea Environmental Learning Center of Goshen College, Wolf Lake, Ind. Among our learning outcomes for this semester is the intent that students hear and engage with multiple, often dissonant, points of view. I would expect (and likely get) a swift reprimand if my grading were biased against students solely because they disagreed with me or if I expressed my opinions in ways that made others feel unwelcome.

Our program has weekly field trips, and the last time I taught my course, I took students to two churches near Merry Lea to hear what the pastors had to say about caring for the earth. My criterion for selecting these churches was neither, “What are the greenest churches?” nor “What are the churches with theology most similar to mine?” I chose churches we could bike to. (This is, after all, a sustainability semester.) I was a bit apprehensive in advance. Would students be respectful of these congregations I knew little about? Worse yet, would my colleagues think we were wasting our time with country preachers whose credentials (other than being Christian leaders) were merely that they were our neighbors?

I need not have worried. Everyone was quite excited as we pedaled out the driveway. Students had prepared good questions. My teaching colleagues in the SLS program wanted to come and dialog with our local pastors and made a special effort to be there. As I expected, our dialog partners were quite conservative. One of the churches had a young earth Bible school and a pastor whose passion was biblical inerrancy. He also had a winning personality and was clearly a wise and gifted pastor. After our conversation, one of the most liberal members of our faculty invited this pastor out for coffee to continue the conversation. They have become friends and still get together. Another professor pronounced it our most significant field trip, and that was saying a lot.

Like everyone, we are committed to certain viewpoints and grit our teeth at others. We all feel, for example, that addressing climate change is a matter of “discipleship or denial,” to quote Ched Myers. But I also feel I have witnessed grace and welcome and fairness and just plain curiosity at Goshen College that transcends whatever the “right” perspective is.

In a few weeks, a new set of students will return to the church described above. We will also explore another nearby congregation and their food pantry ministry. This pastor tells me he is pursuing a doctorate in missiology and wants to write his dissertation on the relevance of exorcism and the demonic in Western culture. Never a dull moment at Merry Lea!

Transferred from GC
10/21/2014 02:54:45 pm

I'm a former student of GC who transferred (mainly for academic reasons) but also because my voice was silenced by the "tolerant" crowd. It's funny how a campus that claims to fight for justice and standing up for those that don't have a voice would have such a double standard that silences and oppresses those with opposing views. I never thought people who promote "peace" could be so vicious and hostile towards individuals that just wish to stand up for what they believe in. They also claim that they love diversity, but definitely not diversity of thought, opinion, or belief. The list of double standards goes on and on.
This liberalism is catching up with GC. Goshen is losing money and students fast because of all this "progressivism." Many of Goshen's alum and donors have stopped giving money to the school because of the direction it's going in. This is why you see the budget cuts and closing of dorms. More and more Mennonite families aren't sending their sons and daughters to Goshen because of this. Last year Goshen had 960 undergraduates enrolled. This year they have 828. This number will only get smaller, until the school will run out of funds and have to close.

Joseph Liechty
11/4/2014 11:05:40 pm

John, I'm slow at most things, so why not respond to your blog post almost two months after you wrote it? I'm professor of Peace, Justice, and Conflict Studies at Goshen, and the general topic you raise is the subject of my Religion, Conflict, and Peace class this week, as we turn our lens from the world to ourselves: How well does GC actually do at being inclusive? Who's in and who's out? We want to be tolerant, but who do we actually tolerate, and who do we exclude in some way? What do we do well, and what are our weaknesses and blind spots? I always find students refreshingly willing to address the challenge, admit failures, and strive to do better.

I thought I'd tell you how I try to approach the challenge you raise--whether I'm successful or not is another matter and really for others to say. I don't know the GC of your student era (I graduated in 1978 and left the country for a quarter of a century), and I won't try to speak for my colleagues, although the ones I know best take at least a broadly similar approach.

My least safe class is Dynamics and Theology of Reconciliation, because of the sometimes horrific events we study. I learned early on that achieving some version of safety for students means sustained and specific attention to lament and hope. What I insert below comes from the lecture in which I first specifically open up the lament theme in the Reconciliation class, but it names the approach I try to take in all my classes, many of which deal with contentious issues, and students will come with very different perspectives.

Peace Studies, it seems, may be the most depressing major at Goshen College, and Reconciliation is probably my most depressing course. Not long after starting teaching at GC, the college counselor told me that Peace Studies students were especially prone to depression, and as we talked about it, it became clear that part of the reason is the content of the courses. What can we do about that? I have one respected colleague who expressed a sentiment I hope he’d take back on further reflection: if looking at the South African Truth and Reconciliation Commission causes distress, then perhaps I should be teaching something else. How ironic that in order to combat depression we should avoid looking at one of the preeminent signs of political and social hope in the twentieth century! No, I don’t think peace studies can possibly do its work without taking an approach named by the nineteenth-century English poet and novelist Thomas Hardy: "if way to the Better there be, it exacts a full look at the Worst.” (In Tenebris–II) That approach won’t stand on its own, but it’s a necessary part of the whole.

For profs, then, everything depends on how we take that “full look at the Worst” with our students. Some ways are irresponsible, even abusive. There is an approach that would amount to, “here student, jump in that cesspool, swim around awhile, and when you’re about to drown, we’ll drag you out and have a chat about the Meaning of Life.” It’s a model of deconstruction: we’re here to strip you down, take away your naive beliefs, and then build you back up with correct beliefs and send you on your way as a proper GC grad. I reject this deconstructive model of education utterly, especially in regard to religious faith and belief, but sometimes I’ve found it a little hard to identify what I believe is the right model. Some of my colleagues say, well surely we’re about change; our task is to promote change. This approach has some appeal, but I recoil from it, too. Not that I don’t identify things in students that I would like to see change, that I think would be better off changed. Some of the things I believe in most deeply, I’d be thrilled if you saw things similarly. But my respect for the integrity of the individual has brought with it a deep reluctance to imagine that I have any right to change you. Instead, my approach, or at least my well-meaning intent, has become something like this. First, if at all possible and to whatever extent possible, validate where each person I encounter or work with is starting from—whether they are students, colleagues, new acquaintances, whatever. This is who you are, this is, therefore, in some deep way holy, and this is where we start from. I don’t always achieve this, but it’s my ideal. [Parenthetic remark: In my years here I’ve had one student whose presenting persona I really didn’t want to validate, and I failed ever to figure out what were those affirmable, validatable aspects of her character. I knew they were there, but I failed to find or see them. I may have failed numerous other times, but this time it was so obvious.] Given this starting point, then, my task in the classroom is to say to you, to do the topic of this course justice, here are some of the stories we need to hear, her

Joseph Liechty
11/5/2014 10:36:54 pm

It looks like my post was too long! Here's the rest of it.

here are some of the questions we need to ask, some of the claims we need to consider. We will do this together, and there is every chance that the things we consider and our interaction together will change you. In fact even if, at the end of this class, you hold exactly the same beliefs and ideals as you did before the class, you will have changed, because you will have worked with others to consider these things more deeply. But perhaps you will change some ideas or positions. That change is a mysterious and holy process, partly a work that will more happen to you than you will control, partly something that you may invite me and others to participate in to some degree—but never something that is appropriate for me to think I ought to engineer and control. Concerning things like lament and hope, then, what we mean to say in PJCS to our students, and what I would take to be the approach of the colleagues I know well, is something like this.
Many of you entered Goshen College with a naive optimism. You are inclined to believe that all problems can be solved, that if you just try harder, you can always make things better. That isn’t true. In peace work it is possible, at an extreme, to commit yourself to some worthy work, and in a lifetime see no overall progress, even to see things fall apart. For this reason, your naive optimism isn’t good enough. In fact it is likely to smooth the path to disillusionment, despair, and resignation. What we want to work with you to acquire, therefore, to begin to acquire, is a mature hope that can sustain you when naive optimism receives the inevitable buffeting of experience. We wish that this journey from naive optimism to mature hope could be a smoothly rising trajectory, and perhaps for some of you it will be. But we know from experience that for at least some of you, the journey will take a detour through what John Bunyan, in The Pilgrim’s Progress, called the Slough of Despond. Our commitment is that if you find yourself floundering in that painful, sapping place, we will be there with you, or at least we will be there for you, to encourage you on. Your classmates will be there, I will be there, your other profs will be there, God will be there.
Now if we’re going to take you on a journey that may well go through the slough of despond, we have many and strong responsibilities, presence with you, of course, but also a responsibility to help you discover and acquire the perspectives, stances, and skills that can sustain you for a lifetime commitment to peace. As I see it, these perspectives, stances, and skills are bound up with faith, and two of the pervasive and most necessary faith themes are lament and hope.


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