At a Senate Health, Education, Labor, & Pensions Committee hearing, Sen. Josh Hawley (R-MO) questioned witnesses about the challenges facing Christian colleges, and the problem of antisemitism on secular college campuses.
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00:00Next is Senator Hawley.
00:02Thank you, Mr. Chairman.
00:03Thanks to all of the witnesses for being here.
00:05Dr. Lindsay, I want to start with you.
00:07You lead at Historically Christian College.
00:10We have a number of faith-based, including explicitly Christian colleges, universities in Missouri, which we're very, very proud of.
00:16In fact, I think you mentioned College of the Ozarks in your opening testimony, which is right where I live.
00:21And we're extremely proud of College of the Ozarks, as well as our other religious institutions, Christian institutions.
00:27Let me just ask you about the challenges that Christian colleges and universities have faced, particularly in the last four years.
00:34I've heard from our institutions in the state of Missouri that under the last administration, they had major problems with accreditation.
00:41They had problems with financial aid.
00:43They had problems getting certified in various programs.
00:45We had threatening letters sent from the Department of Education to numerous of our religious institutions.
00:51We're talking about colleges and universities that have been around for 100 years or more in the state of Missouri.
00:54Our Baptist universities, our non-denominational universities.
00:59So can you just speak to the headwinds that Christian colleges and universities have faced and the importance of preserving this distinctive form of education in this country?
01:09Yeah, thanks very much, Senator Hawley.
01:10I think one of the key challenges all of us face are the sort of demographic challenges.
01:14We're in a competitive landscape and we need to be able to recruit the right kind of students.
01:17But the particular challenge we face at faith-based schools is not everybody understands our commitments and understanding.
01:24And they make assumptions about what kind of students we have or what kind of campus cultures we build.
01:28But I find that when people actually come to our campuses, they actually fall in love with the students.
01:33They see that this is a place that really is trying to help students to thrive and to do well.
01:38You are right that the regulatory environment can be challenging and that there are certain actors in the political landscape that can make it more challenging.
01:45I'm grateful for progress that we've been able to make in recent years, which has made it easier than it was, say, 10 years ago.
01:51But it is a real particular issue.
01:53And I think all faith-based institutions have to do a better job of making the case of the difference that they make in their local community.
01:59I think as people begin to see that we're not enclaves, we're actually trying to serve and bless our local communities, that's the key of making the difference.
02:06Let me ask you about this piece of legislation that I'm proud to co-sponsor called the Equal Campus Access Act,
02:11which ensures that religious student organizations can operate in accordance with their faith-based principles
02:16and it would prohibit funding for public institutions of higher education if they deny rights or benefits or privileges to faith-based student organizations.
02:23Now, obviously, you are a faith-based institution.
02:26But wouldn't you agree, as a person of faith and as someone who educates people of faith, many of whom will go out and probably teach in public universities,
02:33that it is important that if you are a person of faith, whether you're leading a university, whether you're teaching in a public university,
02:40that you are accorded the same rights and privileges as everybody else.
02:43There's no discrimination on the basis of faith.
02:45It's a bedrock principle.
02:46Wouldn't you agree with that?
02:47Well, certainly we recognize public institutions have a particular obligation to uphold the constitutional right for freedom of speech
02:53and a recognition of clear conscience, free conscience.
02:56And so it seems antithetical to the very premise of what we're trying to inculcate in our students at public institutions
03:03if the students are not allowed the opportunity to organize around their religious convictions
03:08and to be able to have a chance to express those.
03:10It has had a chilling effect on many campuses as overzealous administrators have said that they're going to try and shut down
03:17some of the activities of faith-based groups, but I think that there's a real hopeful opportunity
03:22and certainly I support the expression of those constitutional rights, public and private institutions.
03:26Very good.
03:27And I just want to come back to the first point that I made.
03:29I think it's absolutely vital that we do everything we can to protect Christian colleges, universities,
03:33and their rights to exist and educate students on an equal plane with every other form of university.
03:39The truth is, in the last four years, we saw a constant effort to undermine, constant effort
03:45to undermine the mission of Christian colleges and universities by the Biden administration.
03:50And I'm glad that the Trump administration has reversed course, but the Congress needs to do more
03:54in making sure that we inscribe into law the equal rights of Christian colleges and universities
03:59so that no one is discriminated against on the basis of faith.
04:02Now, you've said several times, Dr. Lindsay, you've talked about loving your neighbor.
04:05I want to switch gears just a little bit and think about the crisis of anti-Semitism that
04:10is currently afflicting many universities and, frankly, many parts of this country.
04:15And what makes me think about this is I was having a conversation just the other day with
04:19a dear rabbi friend of mine who said to me something interesting, caught my attention.
04:23He made a reference to the book of Ruth in the Bible, and I happened to catch it.
04:29And so he said, you know, part of the challenge we face now is that so few people, so few students
04:38in particular, are taught any kind of biblical history.
04:41They're certainly not taught the history of Israel.
04:44They don't understand the spiritual foundations that link the people of Israel with historically,
04:52with the United States of America, our shared moral principles.
04:54Here's my question to you.
04:56Do you think that Christian colleges and universities have a special role to play now in rooting out
05:03this terror of anti-Semitism, this scourge of anti-Semitism, by recalling us to those things
05:10that we believe together, to our common moral principles, and also to those foundational commitments
05:16like love of neighbor that you've been talking about?
05:18A couple years ago, I had a chance to visit our honor students who were studying at Jerusalem
05:22University College.
05:23It's one of our partner institutions, literally built within the wall around Jerusalem.
05:29And getting a chance to see up close the Holy Land and to see the impact it was having on
05:33the lives of our students, I think really did change their understanding of the experience
05:37of Jewish people around the world.
05:39So part of what we want to try and do is to help our students to actually engage a much
05:43wider world, for them to understand friends and neighbors from a wide variety of backgrounds.
05:48And I think as you get to that, you move beyond just sort of a mediocre, small level kind of
05:54commitment of inclusion to actually pursuing an ethic of love and care.
05:59Let me just, in my remaining seconds, put a little finer point on this.
06:03Wouldn't you agree, don't you think that Christians in particular have a particular
06:06obligation to stand up and speak against anti-Semitism and hatred of Jewish people?
06:14That that is a particular obligation.
06:15I say this as a believer myself, that we cannot shirk or look aside from, but we have
06:19a particular obligation as people of the books, people of the Bible, to stand in solidarity
06:24to say, we're against hate always, but we have a particular obligation to stand up and speak
06:28against anti-Semitism.
06:30Don't you think that's right?
06:30Absolutely.
06:31Thank you, Mr. Chairman.