Secular Colleges with Christian Names

Isn’t it odd when it is the government that tells the Church that their institutions are no more sufficiently religious to be considered such legally. And no this is not a conservative “get the government out of the Church’s business” rant. Reading the article below just made me sad for the church that our institutions have in many ways become so secular that even those outside the church know we are just playing their games on their fields.

I can remember when my alma mater ran a full page ad in the Tribune advertising every major they offered except the church worker programs. Oh, it made sense from a secular perspective (there were not a lot of Tribune readers looking to be Lutheran Pastors who just didn’t know if such a school existed in their area) but it really gave the sense that CURF was just another school competing for prospective students to make its financial model work. And in many ways, it was.

Our schools are probably a step away from many so called “Catholic” schools. We still do value the programs in which we train workers for the Church and provide opportunities for Christian laypeople to grow in their knowledge of Christ and receive his gifts at our campuses. But I pray it will not be soon that our schools will be judged by the unbelieving world as simply not religious enough to qualify as such. That would be sad for the Church and the world.

clipped from www.religionnews.com

Catholics spar with federal officials over unions

A small Catholic college in Riverdale, N.Y., last month got some news that sent shivers across religious higher education: part-time faculty have a right to form a union on campus.

But that wasn’t the worst of it. The National Labor Relations Board also isn’t convinced that the Catholic school is actually Catholic.

Religious colleges are being warned, observers say, to show their core purpose is to “propagate religious faith” or else be treated as a secular enterprise. That could pose a special problem for liberal religious organizations, which seldom require students and faculty to endorse specific creeds or doctrines.

“There are more and more—particularly Catholic institutions—that are broadening their missions profoundly so that you’ll have an institution where neither the students nor the faculty are Catholic,” Broyde said.

“These (government) actions are forcing Catholic institutions to re-evaluate what it means to be a genuinely religious institution,” Reilly said. “That may be a healthy thing.”