In a previous article we traced the staunch
historic commitment of Dutch Reformed people to provide authentically
Reformed Christian schooling to covenant children and youth. We
saw how in North America, God richly blessed both Reformed church
and Reformed school through this commitment up to the mid-twentieth
century.
Let us now survey what has happened to Reformed Christian schooling
in North America since 1950, and assess what the prospects appear
to be for its future. As may be guessed from the title of this article,
the author believes that the past fifty years have witnessed a dramatic
decline in Reformed Christian schooling, and that -- apart from a
special blessing from our God -- it has a doubtful future amongst
us if present trends continue.
In the 1950s, by reason of both its long history of support and
its relatively large size, the Christian Reformed denomination was
the ecclesiastical champion par excellence for the cause of Reformed
Christian schooling in North America. But in the l950s, the post-World
War II CRC was beginning to change significantly in its theological
direction.
Extreme tensions between "progressives" and "conservatives" in
Calvin Seminary resulted in most of the seminary faculty being removed
by the CRC Synod of 1952. R. B. Kuiper, who at the age of 66 had just retired as Chairman of the Faculty at Westminster Seminary
in Philadelphia, consented to serve as Acting President of Calvin
Seminary during a period of transition and rebuilding. But in 1956,
in his last report to the Board of Trustees, Kuiper expressed his
"disappointment with the present interest of the seminary community
in distinctive Calvinism."
The selection process for the next president of Calvin Seminary
also proved to be a disappointing struggle -- both at the Board of
Trustees level and at the synodical level. Though Kuiper was a conservative
Reformed stalwart, his successor in 1956 - J. H. Kromminga --
was not, and Kromminga was to hold this most influential post for
the next 25 years.
These developments of the 1950's at Calvin Seminary arc rightly
seen by both conservative and liberal CRC historians as a turning
point in the CRC ‘s theological history. James Bratt writes that
1959 was the last unqualified Synodical tnumph of the CRC conservatives
(or "Confessionalists"), and that by the mid-1960s it became clear
that "[t]he Confessionalists' dominance was broken on the official
level". The "progressives" had seized the wheel of the CRC ship.
A new course was being set.
The old direction had been to maintain Reformed confessional
distinctiveness and to emphasize the antithesis between the world and Christ; the new direction was
to emphasize common grace, the universal love of God, and the need
for freedom from Reformed traditions.
This new direction reflected itself in the Christian schools.
Throughout the 1970s, 1980s, and l990s there was a gradual erosion
of commitment to the Reformed creeds and to Reformed distinctiveness
in the CRC-dominated Christian schools. References to the Reformed
creeds in school by-laws were in many cases excised or diluted.
Requirements for teachers and board members to subscribe to the
Three Forms of Unity or to be professing members of conservative
Reformed or Presbyterian churches were relaxed or ignored.
Possible curricular offences to dispensationalist or charismatic
or other non-Reformed constituents -- which comprised an increasing
percentage of the student body -- were more and more avoided. At
the high school level, Reformed Doctrine classes using texts such
as Berkhof's Manual of Christian Doctrine were eventually changed
to "Christian Doctrine" classes with less rigorous texts that were
more broadly evangelical in nature. For non-religious subjects too,
secular texts were increasingly preferred over texts written from
a specifically Christian perspective. After all, one can rely on
the world to get it basically right (there is so much common grace
out there, you know) -- and one can rely on the teachers to add (like
frosting on the cake) a Christian perspective.
Christian School teachers were often taught at "Reformed" colleges,
such as Calvin and Dordt, that adopted the same progressive! liberal mindset that had overtaken
the CRC Seminary. Upon their graduation from such colleges, most
new teachers had a great appreciation for the thought of social
Darwinists such as John Dewey, but little acquaintance at all with
antithetical Reformed thinkers such as Cornelius Van Til. However,
the general decline of Reformed education at the college level is
beyond the scope of the present article.
In many of the established K-l2 Christian schools, historically
dominated by CRC, there is now less of the antithesis in these schools,
not only in theory, but also in practice: dress codes have been relaxed; junior-senior banquets have given
way to proms and dances; athletics on Sunday have become more common.
Evolution has become the way God created, and Biblical teaching
on male headship must be re-interpreted in light of modem culture.
One is reminded of the complaint of Brummelkamp and VanRaalte
in 1846 regarding the nominally "Reformed" public schools in the
Netherlands: "a general moral instruction is given which may offend
neither Jew nor Romanist." Our Reformed forefathers came to America
to avoid schools that were "Reformed" in name only, and to set up
authentic Reformed schools instead! A hundred and fifty years later,
this cycle sadly begins to repeat itself.
In the early 21st century the Baptist/Arminian school in town
is probably still Baptist/Arminian, the Charismatic school remains
Charismatic, the Lutheran school is probably still Lutheran, and
the Roman Catholic school continues to be Roman Catholic. But the
erstwhile Reformed Christian school gradually has become broadly
evangelical. Reformed distinctives in these schools that remain
tend more and more to be but artifacts -- forgotten attic furniture
left over from a deliberately abandoned heritage.
Conservative Reformed parents, who found themselves dissatisfied
with the existing Christian schools, increasingly have turned either
to home-schooling orto the Arminian, charismatic or dispensational
schools that happened to be locally available. If these alternative
schools did not even pretend to be Reformed, at least an antithesis
between Christ and the world was often recognized. At least the
dress codes were stricter, evolution was not taught as fact and
Christian textbooks were used. Often these schools were less costly
as well, seeking more to serve the needs of their own churches filled
with plain folk than to seek their own institutional interest.
On the positive side, home-schooling, when diligently done by
capable Reformed parents, has proven to be a viable form of Reformed
schooling for some, but not an option that all families are able
to do, or to do well. Another hopeful development in recent decades is important
and should also be mentioned: conservative Reformed parents from
nonCRC churches such as the Protestant Reformed, the Netherlands
Reformed, the Canadian Reformed, and lately, the United Reformed,
have begun to establish small Christian schools of their own, often
parochial or quasi-parochial in nature.
But though such schools typically accept students whose families
attend non-sponsoring Reformed churches, the fragmentation of the
Reformed school community must overall be seen as something of a
weakness. In the first half of the 20th century the schools begun
by conservative Reformed parents typically served students and parents
hailing from a variety of Reformed denominations (CRC, PRC, Netherlands
Reformed, OPC, RCA). Today there are sometimes two or three small
quasi-parochial Reformed schools struggling for survival in a region
whose conservative Reformed population, if united, could more firmly
establish a single Reformed school offering a greater variety of
programs.
For parents for whom a full-blown athletic or music program is
very important, or for those who seek a wide variety of study options
(foreign languages, vocational training, etc.), the distinctive
Refomied nature of the smaller Reformed schools is, sadly, not always
a sufficient attraction.
One factor in this is that there is not so much of the "immigrant
glue" remaining, as there was in earlier times, to provide added
motivation to the Reformed folk to use their own schools, or even
to live in the vicinity. Our immigrant forbears are perhaps three,
four, or more generations distant from us. We have become thoroughly
comfortable in our identities as Americans. Proximity to Reformed
church and school seems generally to be regrettably low on the list
of priorities when new job opportunities or relocations are considered.
We have dispersed ourselves willy-nilly across the country, not
mindful of our covenantal duties.
As a result of these various trends, new small Reformed Christian
schools struggle to maintain their enrollment numbers, much less
to grow significantly. Overall, in North America it is clear that
the number of students in authentically Reformed schools in 2006
is proportionally much diminished compared to what the numbers were
in the 1950s. This is a great loss! One, at times, wants to cry
out with the prophet of old "Where there is no vision, the people
perish" (Proverbs 29:18).
Though there are some hopeful developments, an honest evaluation
of recent trends leads to the conclusion that -- humanly and generally
speaking -- authentically Reformed Christian schooling has a doubtful future in North America.
It is well to remember, however, that the same depressing assessment
might well have been voiced in the 1840s. Nevertheless, at that
time, and also again in the 1890s, our sovereign God stirred up
His people to an increased commitment to the Reformed faith and
to the living and teaching of that faith. We are the beneficiaries
today of that outpouring of blessing and to that exercise in faithfulness.
Let us seek, as did our pioneer forefathers more than a hundred
years ago, to build one another up and to stir up amongst ourselves
the vision of providing covenantally-faithful Reformed Christian
education.
God remains our hope for the fuhire! May we pray to Him for revival
in our commitment to Reformed Christian education and for His blessing
of our small works begun in His name! "Establish Thou the work of
our hands" (Psalm 90:17). Let us not despise "the day of small things"
(Zech. 4:10). May God give us not to become weary in well-doing
in this duty which is both to our covenant God and to His covenant
children and youth. He may yet richly bless both church and school.
Mr. David Kloosterman is an Elder at the Covenant United Reformed
Church in Kalamazoo, Michigan. He was instrumental in beginning
the Reformed Heritage Christian School in Kalamazoo, Michigan.
