Letter to the Editor: To All Parents of Students Considering Attending Gordon College
PRESIDENT D. MICHAEL LINDSAY
SOCIOLOGY MAJOR
https://www.gordon.edu/president/bio
CURRICULUM VITAE:
Gordon College, 255 Grapevine Road, Wenham, MA 01984
978 927 2300 | admissions@gordon.edu | info@gordon.edu
Gordon College is a nondenominational Christian liberal arts college in Wenham, Massachusetts.
Unleashing Opportunity: Why Escaping Poverty Requires a Shared Vision of Justice
Michael Gerson, Visiting Fellow at the Center for Public Justice and syndicated columnist with the Washington Post - Gordon College Convocation - Friday November 20, 2015
SEE: https://www.lighthousetrailsresearch.com/newsletters/2020/newsletter20201130.htm;
republished below in full unedited for informational, educational & research purposes:
LTRP Note: Since the inception of Lighthouse Trails in 2002, we have been researching and warning about what is happening in today’s Christian colleges, seminaries, and universities. The letter below from Manny Silva (co-founder of Concerned Nazarenes) (posted with his permission) illustrates the great dilemma in which many Christian parents find themselves today, and it is utterly heartbreaking. Over the years, so many parents and grandparents have told us how their child’s or grandchild’s faith was turned upside down after attending a Christian college for even just a short time.
We wrote the booklet Epidemic of Apostasy in 2013 (from a report we released in 2011) showing how the Christian schools were incorporating Spiritual Formation (i.e., contemplative spirituality) into their students’ lives. We warned that doing this was going to turn these young people emergent. If anyone reading the following letter thinks for a minute that the huge emphasis on contemplative spirituality in the church these last two decades has not produced “social-justice warriors” in our young people who are joining (or at least sympathizing with) the Marxist, Black Lives Matter, pro-hate, anti-biblical movements currently happening, then he or she has not done due diligence in understanding what we’ve been warning about for nearly 19 years. We have always stated and will continue to warn as the Lord allows that the Spiritual Formation movement (now in the majority of Christian colleges) is a disguised effort by our Adversary to lead followers away from the Cross and into deep deception! Want to have a socialist, anti-moral, angry, and disillusioned child or grandchild? Just send him or her to a school that promotes Spiritual Formation.
And do not think that today’s Christian leaders are not much to blame for what is happening with our young people and the colleges—just read Roger Oakland’s book Faith Undone and Ray Yungen’s A Time of Departing* to understand the roles Christian leaders have played and the links involved in bringing about an emergent “social-justice” Bible-rejecting revolutionary movement within the church.
To All Parents of Students Considering Attending Gordon College by Manny Silva:
Manny SilvaMy son is a freshman at Gordon College. We enrolled him because we believed the school is a solid Christian college. But now, we have serious issues with what is going on campus this semester. We and many other parents of Gordon students are extremely concerned with the direction things are going. So if you are considering sending your student to Gordon College next year, please contact me at my e-mail address.
The biggest symptom of what we see is a falling away from the biblical principles that the school stands for, is the division being caused on campus by the Black Lives Matter movement. Student BLM activists have been exhibiting less than Christ-like behavior, such as racially divisive signs on campus. And one of the most serious concerns is that students who oppose BLM, or oppose social justice/Critical Race Theory are being vilified, intimidated, harassed, and even coerced into participating in activities which they do not agree with! These are all symptoms of a bigger problem, in which social-justice ideology is supplanting a biblical worldview on a college campus which we were certain would provide a solid basis for my son’s learning and spiritual growth. That is all in doubt now!
I have attended or listened to chapel messages where Scripture was twisted (by college professors!) into a social-justice theme. My son has not learned much about God’s Word in many of these chapel services. Racial issues seem to be overly-discussed in many classes, and activities and events are almost all themed on racial issues—but again, always slanted towards those who support BLM and social-justice causes. If you disagree, you are disapproved of, or you are forced to stay silent.
This in unacceptable on a Christian campus. Therefore, this is a clear warning to all parents considering Gordon College. We have not given up. We have started a group for concerned parents, and we are working hard to see if we can help rescue Gordon College from going over the precipice, where it will become undiscernible as a Christian school, and it will turn into just another secular, godless school in practice.
If you are a prospective parent, or know if a prospective parent of a student, please let me know, and I will give you further information, including joining the Concerned Gordon Parents group.
Related Material:
Lighthouse Trails List of Christian Colleges Promoting Spiritual Formation
Critical Race Theory, Southern Baptist Convention, and a Marxist “Solution” That Will Not Work
Various research articles by Lighthouse Trails on Nazarene schools
Emergent Manifesto of Hope Despair Revisited—How It Has Affected Today’s Church
(photo of college scene from bigstockphoto.com; used with permission)
*If you have never read these books and cannot afford to buy one or both, e-mail us at editors@lighthousetrails.com, and we will send one to you.
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SEE ALSO: JOB POSITION IN SOCIAL JUSTICE, ETC.
https://www.gordon.edu/genderstudies
https://www.gordon.edu/socialimpactministries
https://www.gordon.edu/socialwelfare
https://www.gordon.edu/politicalscience
Social Sciences
ECB 101 - Principles of Microeconomics - Credits: 4
ECB 349 - Leadership in and of Organizations - Credits: 4
HIS 244 - World History: Globalisation and Modernity, 1500-Present - Credits: 4
HIS 344 - Classical Islam and the Middle East - Credits: 4
POL 104 - American National Politics - Credits: 4
POL 312 - Justice - Credits: 4
POL 322 - American Political Thought - Credits: 4
PSY 180 - Person in Psychological Context - Credits: 4
SOC 101 - Introduction to Sociology - Credits: 4
SOC 102 - Why We Want: A Sociology of Desire and Consumption - Credits: 4
SOC 103 - Social Movements - Credits: 4
SWK 201 - Introduction to Social Work and Social Welfare - Credits: 4