Thursday, November 19, 2009

I LOVE THIS COLLEGE --PATRICK HENRY! The Place is a Testimony!

Patrick Henry is a 6 day Creationist school as described
here.


And then the Student Covenant is found here --and printed below.

I, a student of Patrick Henry College, commit to love the Lord my God with all my heart, soul, mind and strength; to love my neighbor as myself; and to bring glory to God in obedience to His Word through the following principles:

I will present my body as a living sacrifice to God, honoring Him in all my actions and seeking a balanced, godly life. (Romans 12:1, 6:13; Ecclesiastes 3:1)
I will guard my thoughts, striving to maintain a pure and blameless mind. (Proverbs 4:23; Philippians 4:8)
I will guard my heart, being careful not to defraud others in my relationships. (1 Thessalonians 4:3-8; Song of Solomon 8:4)
I will guard my tongue, speaking that which is wholesome and edifying. (Ephesians 4:29; Exodus 20:7)
I will regularly meet with other Christians for worship, prayer, encouragement, instruction, and spiritual accountability. (Hebrews 10:25; Acts 2:42)
I will honor and obey all divinely appointed authorities. (Ephesians 6:1-3; Romans 13:1)
I will not judge others who believe differently from me, realizing that they have freedom in Christ in matters of conscience. (Romans 14:13; Colossians 2:16-17)
I will resolve conflicts with others directly and humbly, speaking the truth in love. (Matthew 18:15-17; Ephesians 4:15-16)
I will not become enslaved by anything except the love of Christ, which is the power to set me free. (2 Corinthians 10:3-5; John 8:32-36)
I will pursue knowledge and wisdom through Christ, for His glory alone. (Proverbs 2:2-5; 1 Corinthians 8:1)

Student Honor Code

We, the students of Patrick Henry College, fully aware of our daily dependence on the grace of God, commit to set ourselves apart in thought, word, and deed, to honor Jesus Christ, and to love our neighbor. We passionately aspire to live our best for the Lord by conducting ourselves in the spirit of Titus 2:11-12: “For the grace of God that brings salvation has appeared to all men, teaching us that, denying ungodliness and worldly lusts, we should live soberly, righteously, and godly in the present age.”

Therefore, I pledge, by the grace of God, to submit to proper authorities, to be honest, to respect the property of others, and to speak edifying words. I will refrain from using any substances, such as alcohol, tobacco, and drugs, in any way prohibited by proper authority such as the government, church, family, or school. I will reserve sexual activity for marriage, shun sexually explicit material, and seek parental counsel when pursuing a romantic relationship. Finally, I will seek biblical resolution and reconciliation in my conflicts. I pledge to hold my fellow students accountable to these principles and ask that they do the same for me, in order that Jesus Christ might be honored and glorified.

The Student Honor Code was enacted by votes of the Student Senate on September 22 and November 18, 2008, and approved by votes of the entire student body on September 29 and November 23, 2008.


What's interesting, in light of this very conservative Christian and spiritual perspective, is that the campus does have on campus formal and informal dancing and tells in their page on area attractions about a dance hall where students swing dance on Saturday nights and may study other dance, such as ballroom, salsa, etc.

I wouldn't mind being educated at Patrick Henry myself! There are many very good Christian colleges with distinctive aspects. Greenville, e.g., in Illinois, is known for contemporary Christian music major (Jars of Clay attended there and Chaz Corzine, manager of Christian groups), their acapella choir --link here and on my blogroll and their physics, pre-med, education, adult ed, and environmental science programs. And Yours Truly! Then there is Wheaton [Il] called the Harvard of the Christian schools and just as hard to get into, which sends out excellent grads in many fields. A recent Speaker of the House was from W.C.--and Billy Graham. You can hear a wonderful family/teen counseling centered broadcast every noon on WPOS, 102.3FM from a school at Azusa Pacific U. Azusa, Seattle Pacific, Roberts Weslyan, Spring Arbor, Greenville and Central in McPherson, KS --are all good Christian colleges affiliated with the Free Methodist Church. Huntington University (IN) (United Brethren) has beautiful facilities (thanks in part to Merillat fortune) and excellence in theater/musical theater and philosophy and religion. IN fact, all the Christian schools are good places for philos/religion majors. Moody Bible Institute in downtown Chicago and Taylor University (IN) (in the middle of corn fields) are other good schools in the area. Last I heard, if you go to Moody, tuition is underwritten: you only pay for room and board. Cedarville (Baptist & Calvinist) and Mt. Vernon Nazarene (Arminian) colleges in Ohio deserve inclusion in the list of many wonderful smaller Christian schools. Also, Indiana Weslyan, Liberty Baptist and Regent U.

Ultra conservative/fundamentalist schools include Pensacola in Fla. and Bob Jones U.

Of course, the bastions of atheistic education are the ones we pay for with our tax money--schools which started out as Christian schools also --like Princeton. The Christian schools today are the ones where the students still write their own papers, don't get to evaluate their own profs to the extent that they hold the prof's evaluations over their heads (which must affect the ability to objectively evaluate the students) -- and don't get into binge drinking every weekend and can't fornicate in the dorms.

Which grads are better educated, I wonder?



"God is not willing that any should perish, but that all should come to repentance and have eternal life."--the Bible

16 comments:

matthew said...

Cedarville is, as you say, a great school. Their engineering program competes with the big players in every way. It's not the least bit Calvinist, though. That should cheer your heart a little.

mud_rake said...

So, Matthew, she really does hate Calvinists? This is the 2nd time you mentioned that fact.

I ought to attend a seminar in Protestantism to get up to speed with who hates who in the world of Protestant thought.

Perhaps, barb, you could hold back on your homophobic passion for a few hours [or 10 minutes] and rank-order the various Protestant denominations from the most legitimate to the least. This would be of great help to we who know nothing of the Christian Revolutionists.

And, barb, if it does not interfere too very much with your homophobic obsession and with those many hours of church choir practice for the upcoming Big Event, perhaps you could compare the positives and negatives of Protestantism, Catholicism and Agnosticism.

But I know how your obsession with homophobia controls so much of your life that I won't expect any effort on that trivial stuff.

'Love one another.' - Jesus.

Barb said...

Matt, I assumed you and Beth K. were influenced toward Calvinism at Cedarville because the college was doctrinally Calvinistic and made the case in their religion classes. Not so?

No, Mudrake, I don’t hate Calvinists. Weslyan /Arminian/ Holiness churches disagree with Calvinists about Calvin’s five doctrinal points. You typically equate disagreement with hatred –but the hatred of disagreement seems to be experienced more by you, not me.

I do observe that Calvinists get more heated about the differences between us –but after all, they aren’t Weslyans with that 2nd work of grace, with hearts “strangely warmed.” ; ) We are the ones pursuing "perfect love" as evidence of the indwelling Holy Spirit.

Calvinists, on the other hand, tend to be like Jonathan Edwards, the Calvinist Puritan preacher, preaching about "sinners in the hands of an angry God." And thus if God is angry, perhaps Calvinists feel licensed for anger themselves.

Of course, I'm not above a little "righteous indignation" myself!

My answer to your question on the Big 3 is my next blog topic.

Jeanette said...

In a nutshell Calvinists believe they are predestined to be saved. Compare it to the Jews on the right living and the Jews on the left dying, only this would be God doing the choosing instead of the Germans.

We don't hate Calvinists but strongly disagree with their theology. We believe every person has the same and equal chance to become born again by free will and not by predestination.

Yes, God knew before He created us who would and who would not accept His plan of salvation through the death, burial and resurrection of His Son Jesus, but He leaves it up to us to accept or reject.

If we were predestined there would be no reason for the Great Commission given by Christ: To go into the world and preach the Gospel, baptizing in the name of the Father, the Son and the Holy Ghost.

Calvinists are usually arrogant in their belief they are special.

Presbyterians are Calvinists as are many churches with the word "Reformed" in front of their name.

BTW I don't know of a book called Daisy in the Field or whatever and from looking at your site to get clarification I can only say I have shown many of my friends your site so they can see the sick way you portray everyone who does not follow in your steps of belief, whether it be religious or political.

I would assume you have put my name in your blacklist and haven't tried to make a comment on your site for a long time.

I told you I was finished with you and I meant it then and mean it now. There are more people in my town than I, so I suspect you made up something or it was a friend who got tired of your hateful and spiteful ways.

Good try though, but I'm not interested in you or what you have to say except to sit there and glance at it and mourn how lost you really are.

AndThenSome said...

A six-day creation has been completely discredited by science, and no college that promotes such mythology should be given state accredidation.

Barb said...

So, a college that can whip the sox off of every other school in moot court competition should not be given state accreditation because they don't BELIEVE evolution is true--even though that school's statement says they TEACH evolution so their students know it well enough to debate it.

Isn't that a bit bigoted and narrow-minded to insist that people can't get a good education in such a school? When the evidence says otherwise?

AndThenSome said...

To put it bluntly, a six-day creation goes against the most basic principles and discoveries in geology, physics, and astronomy. It is on a par with teaching the "stork story" of human reproduction.

The fact that they are excellent debaters is beside the point. If they are truly being taught the Biblical account of creation is literally true, the school doesn't deserve accredidation for their science programs.

Barb said...

If you ever read any Technical Journals from Answers in Genesis --or material from Institute for Creation research, you'd find that these people are credentialed scientists and they know science better than any laymen --and yet they don't believe in evolution. They may or may not believe in a literal 6 days of creation. I don't know why that's hard to believe for people who believe in a Big Bang for the start of the universe! And who can make any sense of the Big Bang, anyway? What caused THAT! and from what does the universe come.

It's so mysterious --that we have any message from the Creator at all is amazing. To me, it all makes no sense without a Creator/God/Intelligent Designer beyond our universe --but then what is BEYOND that? Existance is incomprehensible!

matthew said...

Hi Barb,

No, we became Calvinistic in spite of Cedarville. I got kicked out as a drunken rebel and (after reading my Bible for a year) came back as a rebel of a different sort. Believe me, they're not too keen on Calvinism. Or infant baptism, for that matter, and our fourth child will be baptized next Sunday.

By the way, it looks like Mudrake is off his medication. I couldn't help but notice he's commented on every topic you've been posting.

matthew said...

Jeanette,

Your ignorance of Presbyterian doctrine is mind boggling. I'm not even going to dignify it with a response.

Barb said...

Just curious --where is Jeanette wrong about Presbyterians as Calvinists and what Calvinists believe about predestination?

Barb said...

Patrick Henry College is a member of the Transnational Association of Christian Colleges and Schools (TRACS) [PO Box 328, Forest, VA 24551;
Telephone: 434.525.9539; e-mail: info@tracs.org], having been awarded Accredited status as a Category II institution by the TRACS Accreditation Commission
on April 17, 2007; this status is effective for a period of five years. TRACS is recognized by the United States Department of Education (USDE),
the Council for Higher Education Accreditation (CHEA) and the International Network for Quality Assurance Agencies in Higher Education (INQAAHE).
Authorization to Operate
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia has awarded Patrick Henry College a Certificate to Operate an Institution of Higher Education
authorizing the College to offer degrees, courses for degree credit, or programs of study leading to a degree, in the Commonwealth of Virginia.
The State Council of Higher Education for Virginia is the Commonwealth’s coordinating body for higher education and is located at
101 North Fourteenth Street, Richmond, VA 23219. The Council’s phone number is (804) 225-2600.

You can't not accreditate a school that is so good in debate, moot court competition, etc. What would it say if Harvard were defeated by a non-accredited school? Not good for harvard!

Jeanette said...

Matthew,

I'm just quoting from a Presbyterian friend who was raised Baptist and converted to Calvinism and is married to a Presbyterian minister.

I have also taken the time to question my own pastor about the beliefs of Calvinists. Interestingly enough, we have a pretty solid conservative Presby church in our town that is as large as ours. Tuesday evening both congregations will meet at our church and both pastors will give a message and both choirs and orchestras will perform.

Having heard this Presby minister before I would have no problem attending his church every now and then.

Why do you baptize infants? Are they being baptized of their own free will? No. Was Jesus baptized as an infant? No. He told us to go into the world and preach the Gospel, baptizing them in the Name of the Father, Son and Holy Ghost. This sounds like it should be an informed decision.

Baptism has nothing to do with getting into heaven so why do you baptize infants?

I'm sorry to have offended a Christian brother over theological differences. I always thought we could discuss such things and agree to disagree. My deepest and most humble apologies to you.

matthew said...

Jeanette,

I'm not offended. I just think you're wrong and you misunderstand and oversimplify what Calvinists believe.

Really, I'm not offended and I don't want you to be, either. I'm sure you're a great lady and I'd rather not argue about it.

A discussion of infant baptism is not likely to lead anywhere in a setting like a blog, either. There are great books (most of them small and easy to read in a couple hours) on the topic if you're really interested. To whet your appetite, I'll just say that baptism is New Testament circumcision and got works covenentally through families. My children are set apart and holy because of my faith and the faith of my wife. They'll all need to be individually regenerated by the Holy Spirit, of course, and embrace Christ themselves or else their baptisms will do them no good.

I didn't agree with infant baptism until just a few years before I had children but it has become an important thing to me. My fourth will be baptized a week from tomorrow and then we'll have a big party after church. I think the house is going to be packed, otherwise I'd invite you and Barb and Denis.

Barb said...

Nice of you to almost think of us, Matthew! ;) Of course, Denis and I would've come together....

Barb said...

Notice my "Mom's 2nd career" topic --
http://thebarbwire.blogspot.com/2009/11/moms-2nd-career.html

I got a really nice comment from someone who used to work with her! I don't know how he happened to find this blog article. He then cross referenced it over at UBCentral.org --a news website for the United Brethren denomination.