How often do you place your trust in a institution that repeatedly fails you? We have become dependent on institutions that are meant to help us. And in turn are forced to bend over backwards and take it. Until one day, you have had enough, and the result is losing faith in the system.
Anger tearing us apart, we bicker, each voicing our frustration.
Each octave gets louder, more pronounced, drowning out my calm and my daughter's despair.
My husband is pissed off, his accusatory tone indicates that our daughter isn't doing enough.
Exasperation takes over and I fumble with the phone to take her off speaker phone.
Trying to deescalate a problem that is out of our control and not worth the tears.
The Broken System
Who hasn’t been to war with one institution or another that has wronged them? What do you do when it happens to you? Do you keep fighting or throw in the towel? There is no point in fighting a broken system. It’s especially true if you don’t have the tools to put up a good fight.
Losing faith in a broken system.
My daughter joined the military, Air Force National Guard, for a couple reasons.
- To Serve – She is a girl who likes to give back.
- Tuition Reimbursement – She needs funds to pay for College and Grad School.
She has sacrificed every white-out game at Penn State for her weekend military obligation. Despite this, she has had a positive military experience. After all her commitment has contributed to her opportunity to attend a top-ten school. But slowly, the strain of dealing with the institution takes it’s toll.
As she wraps up her commitment, she is experiencing first-hand, what to be part of the broken system. The state level, PHEAA, has dropped the ball. The result is college students and universities trying to move forward without the funds promised to each of them.
This isn’t anything new. In America our system of government is broken and has been for some time. Our forefathers put in a system, a democracy built for the people. Today our forefathers would be turning over in their graves if they only knew what it has turned into.
Are we teaching our children the coping skills needed to deal with the broken system?
How faith helps us to fight the broken system.
Our forefathers were men of faith with varied religious views. Faith and religion differ. Faith is total trust or confidence in someone or something and religion is the belief in and and worship of a superhuman power or powers. When we face a challenge it’s best to have a strong foundation, that is when faith is important.
Thomas Jefferson, the namesake of my daughter’s grad school, was a founder of American religious freedom. It was his idea to have a separation between church and state. He didn’t push his religious views on others, nor do I.
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My lack of faith is what destroyed me during the time that I lost trust in our system. I didn’t have the coping skills to deal with the frustrations of fighting a broken system. Instead of placing my trust and faith in God, I chose alcohol.
Having a strong faith would have helped me cope with the broken system.
Losing Faith You Never Had
Generation Z, ages 12-27, is less religious than prior generations. Today’s teens and young adults are not being introduced to religious practices. In fact, there are universities that have been accused of discriminating against Christian students and religious groups.
Statistics of Generation Z and religion:
- Within Gen Z, almost 40% of women describe themselves as religiously unaffiliated, compared with 34% of men.
- 34% of Gen Z identify as religiously unaffiliated, and 9% identify as atheist or agnostic.
- Gen Z teens are less likely to believe religion has a positive impact on society than millennial teens were 20 years ago.
Generation Z has experienced struggles that the prior generations haven’t. It is during these times of struggle when having faith is most important. The higher level of education isn’t necessarily to blame. However, they are at fault for not teaching tolerance and an open-mind.
It’s not the university’s responsibility to teach Christianity, but it is a disservice to not integrate the mind, body, and soul?
The Necessity of Faith
Students go to colleges and universities for enrichment. To learn how to achieve material success and given tools to get a head in life. What they are not teaching is words like “grace,” “sin,” “redemption” and “virtue” that would enable them to get a handhold on what’s going on inside.
David Brooks, a New York Times columnist, author, served as a senior fellow at Yale Jackson School of Global Affairs. He mentions in “The Cultural Value of Christian Higher Education, ‘I visit many colleges a year. I teach at a great school, Yale University. These are wonderful places. My students are wonderful; I love them. But these, by and large, are not places that integrate the mind, the heart and the spirit. These places nurture an overdeveloped self and an underdeveloped soul.’”
The students are not being nurtured from the inside to promote healthy develop, rather a research perspective. Both spiritual and character development are not being fostered to produce well-rounded students.
I visit many colleges a year. I teach at a great school, Yale University. These are wonderful places. My students are wonderful; I love them. But these, by and large, are not places that integrate the mind, the heart and the spirit. These places nurture an overdeveloped self and an underdeveloped soul.
David Brooks, New York Times columnist and author of the best-selling book The Road to Character
Students are left starving for something greater, because the education they get doesn’t satisfy their soul.
Losing Faith isn’t an Excuse
Even when life doesn’t go our way as a believer, we shouldn’t be pointing blame at faith. After all God gave us a brain to use and expects us to use it. What we need to do is to stay informed.
History Lesson
Thomas Jefferson, often talked about and questioned religion. He respected other’s views and promoted the separation of church and state. He had evolving views but maintained his core beliefs.
Jefferson appeared to be a skeptic when it came to prayer and biblical miracles, still encouraged prayer to a sovereign God. His views of Christianity were complicated, rejecting resurrection, atonement and the original sin. But believed Jesus was the “first of the human sages.”
Jefferson cited that Christianity was the best religion for a republic, like the United States, most friendly to liberty, science, & the freest expression of the human mind. Thomas embraced Jesus’ moral and ethical philosophy.
The universities are doing students a disservice by not teaching them Christian virtues, but setting them up for failure.
Lesson from Mom
It wasn't when we (me, my husband, and the alcohol) spent a year together on lock down.
It's wasn't from the defeat of an election, fraught with fraud.
It was from when I needed to step-up and be an advocate for my mother. Read A Cost of Victory: a daughter's story of defeat and celebration for the full story.
She lay helpless in a hospital bed, a quadriplegic from a flu shot.
The system wanted to give up on her and it left me feeling defeated.
I did everything right as her advocate and the system failed us.
If only I had the faith I have now.
I was raised in a “Christian” home (using the word loosely) and reborn at the age of fifty. Read “Growing Out of My Shame” to learn about my rebirth. Over a three year journey in recovery I have learned many valuable lessons.
When problems arise I have skills to deal with each. These are skills not taught in the collegiate classroom but in the recovery rooms (the classrooms of life).
What is needed:
- Educating Ourselves – We should not allow our pride to keep us from learning the truth.
- Communication – We need to clearly explain our situation and not expect others to understand.
- Asking the Right Questions – We need to know what to ask and boldly ask.
- Demanding Transparency – We need to not settle but demand the truth.
- Keeping Your Cool – We need to maintain an attitude of calm and not resort to the anger that causes bitterness and resentment.
Building a relationship with Christ helps us. His attributes provide what is needed when faced with challenges. When we act on our emotions and our mind that is when conflict defeats us.
Faith is what is needed to fix the broken system.
Leave your troubles with the LORD, and he will defend you; he never lets honest people be defeated.
Psalm 55:22 GNT
Fixing the Broken System
Christians on college campuses are losing the battle to express their faith. Christian Academics Cite Hostility On Campus and are being silenced. Maybe it’s time the higher system of education takes a lesson from one of their most prominent forefathers.
Thomas Jefferson didn’t say, students can’t practice their faith. He valued the practice of religion or the choice to not practice religion. We have the right to choose and not take away someone’s right.
Universities do offer philosophy classes that include generalized information about Christianity. Still condemn Christianity a proven method for coping. The result is a weak generation not equipped to deal with the broken system. They, in turn, rely on recreational and prescription drugs.
Maybe it’s time the higher system of education takes a lesson from one of their most prominent forefathers.
Karen Esbenshade
The system isn’t easy to fix. However, we can fix ourselves. The coping skills are available and found from within. It’s about being self-reliant and God gives us everything we need.
What is happening at college campuses? These campuses are producing students who do not consider Christianity a viable option to learn coping skills.
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