College for Christ's Sake
A new book chronicles how one school prepares young Christians to compete in a secular world.
God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America By Hanna Rosin. Harcourt. $25.00
Journalists have always had trouble covering evangelical Christians. It's not for lack of interest: If anything, we're a little too fascinated. We gleefully report on the strange customs of this peculiar tribe. Their families have 20 kids! They home-school their kids! They think Harry Potter is satanic! The weirdness of evangelical Christians has become something of a cultural cliché. And considering that one-third of the population identifies as evangelical, the cabinet-of-Christian-curiosities approach to covering this community is quickly getting reductive.
Enter Hanna Rosin, author of God's Harvard: A Christian College on a Mission to Save America. Rosin, a religion reporter for the Washington Post, spent 18 months at Patrick Henry College, a seven-year-old evangelical institution in northern Virginia whose mission is "to prepare Christian men and women who will lead our nation and shape our culture with timeless biblical values and fidelity to the spirit of the American founding." (The college is named for the revolutionary war figure Patrick Henry, of "Give me liberty or give me death" fame). To be sure, Patrick Henry students have some of those evangelical traits we love to point and stare at: They don't date—instead they "court" (lots of parental involvement, zero making out); their DVD collections and iTunes playlists are carefully monitored by school officials for "inappropriate" content; and the dress code is serious business—cargo pants, sweatshirts, flip-flops, and bare midriffs are strictly forbidden.
But what makes Patrick Henry different from secular colleges isn't the focus of God's Harvard—what makes it the same is. Students read the Bible in class, but they also read Plato, Kant, and Nietzsche. They're not just future missionaries and preachers; they're also aspiring politicians, filmmakers, dancers, and thespians. A good number of Patrick Henry alums have gone on to work at GOP think tanks, as White House aides, or as interns for prominent Republicans like former Virginia Senator George Allen and Karl Rove. In a few short years, the college has earned the reputation as a Capitol Hill feeder. "Be in the world, but not of it" is a popular catchphrase among evangelicals. At Patrick Henry, it's more like, "Be in the world, and run it."
Exactly how to accomplish this goal is the subject of some debate at Patrick Henry—and that's where Rosin's story gets interesting. Michael Farris, the college's founder, advocates arming students against secular culture. "I don't care what Plato says," he quips in a speech to the incoming freshmen and their parents. "We don't need the world's knowledge and information to guide us. This is opposition research." Farris bristles when faculty members fail to imbue their lectures with a Christian moral.
But during Rosin's time at Patrick Henry, a group of faculty members begins to wonder: What is so unchristian about critical thinking? Government professor Erik Root, a favorite among some Patrick Henry students and a kind of ringleader of the more fed-up faculty members, elicits Farris' wrath by citing "a Darwinian" in the student newspaper. Later, Root wonders, "Is there a future for the evangelical college? Or is it an oxymoron?" Near the end of the book, when the administration begins to monitor Root's lectures, three of his students stand on their desks and recite Walt Whitman's "O Captain, My Captain" in protest. (Apparently Dead Poets Society is on the list of approved DVDs.) The campus turmoil isn't helped by the fact that the conservative Republican candidates that the school supports are beginning to lose. It's 2006, the tide is turning in Washington, and some at Patrick Henry wonder if its moment is over.
At times, Rosin can't quite stomach Christian campus culture. The college seems largely untouched by the winds of feminism. Administrators encourage students to be ambitious, but women who are too career-oriented are called "political animals" and "red leather stiletto girls" by their peers. Rosin finds this double standard irksome, and so do the female students who move off campus, where, she says, "there are no room checks, so you don't have to compete for future housewife of America." Occasionally, Rosin's frustration with Patrick Henry's dogma gets the better of her, and she resorts to heavy-handed descriptions. At one point, she refers to one student's "newly whitewashed room of a brain."
But in the end, Rosin has spent too much time with Patrick Henry students to portray them as one-dimensional. The fun of God's Harvard is in Rosin's perspective—it's clear that although she doesn't always agree with the kids, she likes them. With big-sisterly affection, she chronicles student Derek Archer's transformation from awkward, fresh-out-of-home-school freshman into comfortable, confident sophomore. ("He'd gotten a cell phone, and he was using it to carry on a fairly regular conversation with a girl.") The book is richer for the real relationships she's formed. As a secular reporter trying to understand an evangelical campus, Rosin is actually in a perfect position to empathize: She's in a world dramatically different from her own, but not of it.
Page 1 of 1 
I find this article, although well-written, to be lacking in research (although this may be partly the contribution of Rosin, the author of the book). The school administration does not moniter iTunes lists, nor does it allow or disallow certain DVDs. My own iTunes collection is mostly heavy rock, and some rap, some of which are profanity laced. I also freely own and watch DVDs of my choice... including R-rated movies and even South Park.
For myself, a recent convert of Christianity, I find the students, faculty, and administration to be sincere in their mission of putting God before all else, and in living lives of faithfulness and obedience to His word. However, like all human beings, we struggle too, and by no means consider ourselves perfect, or above others. (and some of us act normal too, and are free to do so)
The problem with so many of the students who remain at PHC is that they never knew the students who fought the DVD and iTunes battles for them. They can't imagine a PHC where the Dean of Student Life actively meddles in romantic relationships, to the point that he calls parents to rat on children. Such an oppressive approach to dating isn't imaginable at PHC today, because years before current students set foot on campus, a group of intrepid souls led a revolt, marching to Farris' office with signed letters from 20% percent of the student body and their parents who were writing the checks. This student doesn't remember DVD censoring because his predecessors fought it. They don't remember Student Life telling its girl students that they were bad people because they accidentally exposed their midriff. They don't remember the culture of the snitch, when students were told it was not only advisable, but their MORAL DUTY to tell on their fellow students for such minor violations as smoking behind a barn in the Virginia countryside.
I question whether or not they were present in 2006, when Michael Farris destroyed his own ideal of a Christian classical liberal arts education by driving away those who had worked so hard to establish this program? Does this student know that PHC's alums do not really donate to their alma mater. Further, its more successful alums tend to forbid the use of their image, story, or the like in any PHC promotional materials. Is this the mark of a successful institution?
I know Ms. Rosin, and I met her at PHC. I was on campus for the times she describes, her work is factually accurate, and current members of the student body should not listen as their administrators engage in a persistent state of denial about the facts presented.
I felt that this article was well written and reflected the author's dilemma to write about that which is inherently in oposition to liberty while liking the participants in the process. Ultimately, whether iTunes are monitored, R-rated movies watched, or hosts of other lists of "secular-identified" behaviors identified, the intention of the school is develop leadership that engage in the struggle to eradicate secularism. The author appears to have been affected by something akin to Stockholm Syndrome-she hates the goal but likes the participants.
What does it mean to "engage in [a] struggle to eradicate secularism"? Does Rosin discuss it in her book? Does Butler discuss it in her review?
"Stockholm Syndrome"? Did Patrick Henry hold Rosin hostage? Did I miss that chapter?
Why must Amy Harris invoke such violent imagery? What's wrong with empathy?
I'm a bit bothered by the rather loose translation of evangelical. I'm a moderate (some would say left) Baptist, no longer a Southern Baptist, but there are plenty of new splinter groups. I am not alone out there in evangelical world. It's just that the far right evangelicals get all the press coverage. I think because, as the author said, seculars, Catholics and Jews like to think and portray evangelicals as toothless, hillbilly, redneck mindfreezers. I've always found it curious that no criticism ever occurs of black evangelicals only the white ones. Does this mean blacks are already stupid or that only stupid white people would believe something widely believed by African-Americans. Either way, you folks perhaps need to reinvent how you think about me and my fellow evangelicals, many of whom are left, liberal, tolerant, and probably not attending a school like this. P
Fascinating story. These good people do not make suicide bombers from their own chidren. Fear Islam, not these wonderful people. Fear Mulims who chop off the heads of the infidels. Fear totalitarians who read the Koran. Do not fear these great Americans.
Oh, let's PLEAE grow up, America. True followers of Jesus Christ can and actually DO attend the REAL Harvard. These over-publicized PHC Pharisees are simply praying loudly in America's Pulbic Squares for our undivided attention, an act Jesus Himself both abhored and forbade. We grant these people more attention than their petty and simple-minded antics will ever deserve. There are Followers of the Lord quietly living sin-free productive lives in a far less obtrusive manner, who also allow others to live FREELY as they please who deserve the forum you media hacks generously grant these oddballs. These silly, on-dimensional psuedo-christian patriotic warriors of the 'culture war' aren't even remotely newsworthy. Why anyone would waste the effort of an entire book on this ridiculous lot is truly stunning and quite beyond me. That notwithstanding, I hope the author has connected the dogmatic rhetoric of these idiots to our loss of rights and liberties through the death of Habeus Corpus. These people are not patriots, but lobotomized minion-shills for nutty right-wing idiocracy. These idiots make up a good number of the preachers and pastors who will more than happily serve the Ministry of Homeland Security as our overseers during the coming police state. They're only purpose is to encourage us to drink the koolaid over the pulpit Sunday after Sunday. These people encourage fear of Muslim Madrasas, but practically publicly fund these parachial re-education centers, innocently dismissing their attendants and social behavioral descontructionists as a harmless eclectic collective of oddball patriots. It's time we abandon this social permissiveness that has allowed the inmates to run the assylum on the lone premise of political correctitude, particularly since these inmates wish to dispose of the Constitution and the Bill of Rights in deference to their interpretation of the Bible. Trust me when I warn that neither Jesus Christ nor Patrick Henry intended such chaotic idiocy.
To Tiedman,
The evangelicals don't decapitate, they drop cluster bombs and cruise missiles. At least the Muslim's get their hands dirty when killing off the "unbelievers".
Tiedeman, it's pretty obvious, from a quick google search, that you're nothing but a troll who likes to imagine himself as a right-wing activist. Obviously you haven't yet grasped the fact that you're wasting you're time here, and pretty much everywhere else, with your offensive ranting. Please stop. Please.
Much like the poorly built sprawl that borders the PHC campus, the oddly clashing college buildings were quickly constructed, and obviously designed with no common vision. Odd campus aside, this madrassas in Purcellville should not necessarily be indicted for its students. Most, I'm sure, are sincere and hard working, although I'm wondering how a real Christian could be working in the west wing with the likes of Karl Rove and his minion. Also, some PHC students get their "experience" by working for such folks as Eugene DelGaudio and Stephen Snow, two Loudoun County Supervisors that would pave over the entire county and destroy the rich historic legacy to enrich their developer friends. I guess those PHC students are ignoring the work many evangelical types are doing to offset climate change and environmental degredation.
It's the PHC leadership,though, namely Michael Farris, that we should all be wary of. Farris is a certified far right wingnut that envisions an American theocracy. He and his kind conveniently forget the Constitution to push their authoritarian dogma.
I don't believe this school. I'm not going to follow anyone who comes out of that place, at least intentionally.
You call that education? Is just an indoctrination camp for willing sheep.
Religious people have no rational foundation for their beliefs at all.
Their philosophy is based on nothing but free-floating abstractions.
If you ask a Christian to explain why they believe in their philosophy, they can't tell you, because they don't know why. In fact, they don't even think it is necessary to know why!
From this sort of absurd reasoning, Christians busy themselves spreading the 'Good News' with such conviction and enthusiasm that the absurdity of it is truly one of the most ridiculous sights you could possibly witness.
It’s like watching someone bow to a friggin statue of an elephant God with such solemnity and reverence, or a bunch of witches 'invoking' some make-believe fairy-tale invisible Goddess while they dance around half-naked.
What confuses me is how religious people can walk around pretending they're wearing the garment of Truth and Certainty while in the eyes of any astute observer, they are basically streaking?
The mental state of a Religious/Spiritual person can be compared to the mind state of the emperor duped by Guido and Luigi Farabutto in 'The Emperor's New Clothes"
Out of deference, respect, and fear, no one states the obvious.
I'm like the little child who exclaims, 'but he has nothing on!'
Ahh but what the hell, I'm sure you can still learn a few useful things at that College, if you can stomach epistemological fraud belying it all.
Of course, everything you learn that contradicts the school's stated Biblical Tenants is solely for the purpose of arguing against those in the world who actually believe such 'lies'.
Am I right in saying that churches are not taxed..If I am then I think churches should pay taxes and so should all the preachers that are making millions..It would help if religious contributions were not tax deductable if that is the case..
At times, Rosin can't quite
At times, Rosin can't quite stomach Christian campus culture. The college seems largely untouched by the winds of feminism. It is evident.
how to write a good english term paper
