Ivy League Indoctrination Camps

They arose in the early days of what would become our nation… They were created primarily to educate and train young men for the purpose of ministry and missions. Today we refer to these schools as “Ivy League” colleges and universities. Among them are Brown University (Providence), Columbia University (New York City), Cornell University (Ithaca, New York), Dartmouth College (New Hampshire), Harvard University (Massachusetts), University of Pennsylvania (Pennsylvania), Princeton University (New Jersey), and Yale University (Connecticut).

With the exception of the University of Pennsylvania, every collegiate institution founded in the colonies prior to the Revolutionary War was established by some branch of the Christian Church. And in the case of Penn it sprang up when Philadelphia churches denied revivalist George Whitefield access to their pulpits, forcing him to preach in the open, some of Whitefield’s admirers, among them Benjamin Franklin, decided to erect a building to accommodate the great crowds that wanted to hear him. The structure they built became the first building of what is now the University of Pennsylvania, and a statue of Whitefield stands prominently on that campus today.

All of these schools have as a central theme either in their charters, mottos, and statement of principles, the importance of Jesus, the gospel, and the training of students to that end for the future of our nation. It is all well documented and space doesn’t allow me to take and discuss each school. Consider Harvard, for example: the pilgrims established it just eight years after landing at Plymouth Rock. In a statement they said, “After God had carried us safely to New England, and we had built our houses, provided necessaries for our livelihood, reared convenient places for God’s worship, and settled the civil government; one of the next things we longed for, and looked after was to advance learning, and perpetuate it to posterity; dreading to leave an illiterate ministry to the churches, when our present ministers shall lie in the dust.”

In fact, Harvard’s “Rules and Precepts adopted in 1646 included the following essentials: ‘Every one shall consider the main end of his life and studies to know God and Jesus Christ which is eternal life. Seeing the Lord giveth wisdom, every one shall seriously by prayer in secret seek wisdom of Him. Every one shall so exercise himself in reading the Scriptures twice a day that they be ready to give an account of their proficiency therein, both in theoretical observations of languages and logic, and in practical and spiritual truths….’”  Further, the early presidents of Harvard insisted that apart from Jesus Christ there could be no true wisdom and understanding. And if calculations are accurate 52% of Harvard’s 17th century graduates became ministers.

Now you would never intentionally know these things were you to visit any of these campuses today. Most have tried to hide or deny their origins. But recent demonstrations have served to show just how far away these institutions have moved from their foundations. Protests on almost all of the Ivy League campuses have tragically manifested antisemitism including, in some cases, students calling for death to Jews. Further, most of the student protests have praised Hamas, refusing to call them terrorists, and even affirming them for their unprovoked and heinous atrocities committed against innocent Israelis. They have swallowed the perverse talking points of Hamas and believed the leftist, Marxist, teaching of  many of their professors. Most of the presidents of these schools have refused to challenge or restrict such racist and threatening activities… And so these once God focused schools have been reduced to nothing more than progressive indoctrination camps, hostile to truth, hostile to God, and tools of cultural rot. By the way, want to know how dumb many of these “elite” student protestors are? Were they living in Iran or other Hamas controlled regions, some of the very people protesting would be beheaded for their lifestyle! Not by Christians, but by the very terrorists they are affirming! Thank God there are still some Colleges and Universities that haven’t imbibed on the woke cultural kool-aid, but they are few. And thank God there are pockets of student revivals that continue to pop up on campuses. Pray for more!

And remember, God is always trying to take us someplace new. I love being your Pastor!

For God’s Glory Alone, Pastor Ray


Photo by Wei Zeng on Unsplash