“We want to take the hick out of the word ‘evangelical.’” That according to Marvin Olasky, provost of The King’s College in New York City. Olasky’s response was part of an exposé by the New York Times. Their article, In a Worldly City’s Tallest Tower, A College with a Heavenly Bent, asks the question:
What is an evangelical Christian college doing in the middle of New York?
That question, like it or not, is as much a reflection of contemporary Christian culture as it is the secular mindset towards it. The assumption on the part of the NY Times writer is that Christianity is out of place in a cosmopolitan urban center like New York City. Thankfully, King’s leadership sees otherwise:
“We see ourselves as a value-adding school, where we are bilingual; we can speak ‘Christianese’ and also express our ideas in ways that change people’s views,” said Andrew Mills, the chairman of the college’s trustees. “We wanted a school that engages in debates, and it’s hard to have those debates from the middle of a cornfield in Iowa.”
‘Course there’s nothing wrong with the church in “the middle of a cornfield in Iowa.” The “plains preacher” is as much a part of Americana as is the traveling evangelist. The problem is when the Church eschews the City for the Cornfield.
Its setting, college leaders say, was a deliberate move. They wanted students to be exposed to new ideas and hone their intellectual chops far from the “holy huddle,” places that are religiously and ideologically sealed off from the rest of the world…
The college’s mandate, Mr. Mills said, is to encourage students to engage people with differing viewpoints, and ideally to shape public discourse “in a way that is winsome, and not screechy from the Christian right.”
This concept of “engaging people with differing viewpoints” is pivotal to the geographic placement of the Church and, apparently, King’s College. The question that arises, at least for me, is why a Christian college seems so anomalous to downtown New York City? How have people come to believe that the Church belongs in the cornfield, rather than the city?
In some ways, that misconception is the result of Christians, rather than secularists. Early fundamentalism was characterized by cultural withdrawal. For many, holiness came to be associated with abstinence from “wordly” pursuits and institutions. Refraining from drinking and dancing, movies and makeup, became articles of faith for Fundies. By mid-century, Christians of orthodox persuasion were scarce at institutions where, in many cases, they were prominent just two centuries earlier: newspapers, publishers, eastern universities, etc. There was a great exodus out of Hollywood, while Christian musicians brooded over Jerry Lee’s hellraising and Elvis’ hip-shaking. The metropolis was viewed as a Babylon or Gomorrah — something to be fled from, rather than engaged. Fundamentalism, in part, forced Christianity into a cultural cornfield.
We are children of our spiritual ancestors’ flight, and the current Christian subculture is the byproduct of that retreat. Christian art — film, fiction, literature — emerged as an “alternative” to worldly art, something we could consume without feeling unholy. Rather than return to the marketplace, we created an “alternate sphere” of culture; we left the City in favor of the Cornfield. Instead of sprinkling our influence throughout the culture, we distanced ourselves from it, created a parallel universe free from secular influence or critique. We surrendered the University to the heathen, established our own centers of learning, our own studios, far from Broadway and Nashville.
It’s no wonder that the secular world sees Christianity as acclimating better to the cornfield than the city — we’ve given them little reason to believe otherwise. In this sense, the NY Times question — What is an evangelical Christian college doing in the middle of New York? — is, indeed, appropriate.
Excellent points, Mike. Very well played.
However, as an actual Iowan in the middle of an actual cornfield, I do have to point out a few things.
The rural/urban divide, historically, is a much different one than that of today. Rural America has a long-standing tradition and record of leading national debate, not listening to it. Lincoln-Douglas, anyone? Chataqua?
It wasn’t until urban centers started to become increasingly powerful magnets, virtually flipping the population from one that was a more blended rural/small city demography to a sparse rural/intense urban demography, that this nonesense about “Christ for the bumpkin” became en vogue in the American mindset.
Even today, some of the greatest debates still occur, in all places, in the middle of a cornfield in Iowa. And even there, the Christians can, and do, lose to the powers that be. See also http://www.discovery.org/a/4064
And though the city is a place of much debate, I also don’t recommend that you walk through the Upper West Side with a McCain-Palin button, either. http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=nQalRPQ8stI
This in no way is a knock against your argument, simply a support from a different perspective: Christ does belong in the city, and we are the only ones who can ensure the Gospel even reaches the most spiritually lost and remote backwaters of our society, like New York.
After all, it was a lost debate in a rural, sparsely populated Garden that indirectly led to the creation and progressive debates of a civilized metropolis called Nod.
As always, good thinking stuff. Thanks Mike!
This reminds me: Just as the Church retreated (philosophically) from the City, the City retreated from the Country. In this sense, the University needs the “rural mind” like the Church needs secularized culture. Though Christians need saved FROM the Cornfield, the City needs saved BY the Cornfield. Great points, Xd. But asking me to believe that “actual cornfields” really exist is a stretch…
excellent. i love the way you engage culture without repelling it or snobbing it … and the way you taught your kids to do the same. how aprapos that your work move into the secular publishing world and away from the christian publishing world. it’s just who you are. not many can do what you can do. not many have the knowledge or wisdom or intelligence or experience to do what you can do. your life and talents would be wasted in the christian community. God has prepared you for this work, for this place to reach into the minds of those who’ve never heard and touch places few christians know exist and/or have the ability to touch. God has places cut out for us … each unique. i love the uniqueness of the place God is cutting out for you in this life. VERY cool to watch and to have been able to watch from afar for several years. ver y cool 🙂
Ironically, President-elect Obama may be helping in this area by inviting Rick Warren to be part of his inauguration. It’s a small step, but I think it helps to illustrate that there is hope. Hopefully actions like this can lead to more intelligent debate and less divisive shouting matches.
Although, judging from some of the response to Mr. Warren’s invitation, we still have a long way to go.
Mark, that’s a good observation. I just had a similar conversation last night and hope to blog about the subject soon. The fact that Warren is getting it from all sides — both Christians and anti-christians — is interesting. The great Welsh preacher, D. Martyn Lloyd-Jones, once said that “Grace will always be misunderstood.” I’m wondering that some of the misunderstanding — both of Obama’s offer and Warren’s acceptance — has to do with an element of grace. We tend to draw lines and judge those that cross them. Which is what I think is happening to both men. Thanks for the comment, Mark!