Now, the fight has catapulted to a war in the backyard of my own alma mater. It was heartbreaking enough to be among one of the many who watched the decline of one of God’s great institutions.

When did God leave our educational system? Why did he leave? Is he coming back? These are questions that many Americans are finally asking. This is based on information I have been reading on forums and social networks like Facebook concerning the major assault of adverse theology in our Christian colleges. Living in an area for 17 years and connected deeply with a very small Christian college I was unaware that quietly and slowly it was being stripped of its heritage, values, morals and most of all the Christian foundation it was created upon so many decades ago.

The atmosphere changed over the time period I lived there. The college was in the middle of a battle it was not prepared to fight. This endeavor emerged from those who had the desire to change the foundation of God’s church to meet the current ambitions of an American society that is caught up in a travesty of selfishness, greed and political correctness.

The fallout of the mess hit my family directly. My husband along with many who worked there were in various ways shown the door. Basically, many good Christian families’ lives were torn apart by an invisible enemy that slyly crept through each facet of the campus like a snake. We and those others in the same boat had to pick up the pieces, and start over somewhere else leaving family, friends and many years of hard work behind. It was devastating.

At the time, I was not aware of the devious plan of the enemy. He would take one school and pick it apart and then move onto another.

Now, the fight has catapulted to a war in the backyard of my own alma mater. It was heartbreaking enough to be among one of the many who watched the decline of one of God’s great institutions. I cannot wrap my brain around the surge of in-fighting, bickering and name calling that has become the speech on Facebook and other websites about the college I graduated from along with many of my family members dating back to my grandfather.

It makes me sad. We have allowed our greed, personal causes and selfish desires to run God out of our public schools, neighborhoods, government and now our Christian colleges. It is one thing to be called a liar, yelled at through cyber space or questioned by many who decided they knew more than I did and I lived in it! I witnessed this demolition in one college; I don’t want it happening again especially where I received my degree.

In my effort to reach those that I hold dear through forums it became technological warfare. I was trying to warn them. This occurred in about a 24 -36 hour turn around that I was extended hate, verbal abuse and even informed by a certain past alumnus who claimed to be “gay” he would not give another dime of his money to that institution until their liberal agenda was accepted. His sly attack on me started with a message that questioned the validity of what I had written. I have never met this man or heard of him, but he let me know in no uncertain terms that he disagreed with me almost as a threat.

As far as his withholding his contributions I am sure that God can get money anytime from anywhere and that his would not be missed.

Writing my entries on the forum I told them “the names may have changed, but the game is still the same.” It has just found a new home to do business. Apparently, very few agreed with me and the ones who did not as I wrote lashed out at me with a vengeance. I had to make sure I was not on a secular website that hated Christians. No! I was on a forum of my own alumnus from a Christian college! I became acutely aware that they didn’t believe me or that I had already been a pawn in this clever scheme of the devil. We had “already been there and done that.”

This so bothered me that I lost sleep over it. I never dreamed that anything like this would happen to the cherished college of my family and so many friends that I thought were friends. The divisions are so thick you “can cut them with a knife.”

Within a 48 hour period of making the effort to warn this family of friends, the Lord showed me these words of his, Titus 3: 9-11: “But avoid foolish controversies and genealogies and arguments and quarrels about the law, because these are unprofitable and useless. Warn a divisive person once and then warn him a second time. After that, have nothing to do with him. You may be sure that such a man is warped and sinful; he is self-condemned.”

The storm that is now on the other side of the horizon had worn me out physically and mentally but I knew what God wanted me to do. It is like watching your adult child make mistakes that you know will eventually catch up to them. They refuse to listen because they believe they know everything and don’t need advice. God was telling me to leave this group to their fate. I had warned them.

Leaving the love I have for this great institution to follow Jesus I wrote my last entry. I warned them once more of the fate of our alma mater if they didn’t stop the fighting. If a non-Christian had stumbled onto this particular forum he would have decided he never wanted to be a Christian if this is the way we act. No wonder our country is in the mess it is in. The Christians are setting an example that we are no different than anyone else. You cannot give what you don’t have, and if Christians do not exhibit the love of Jesus in their hearts even with each other, we have all lost. There was no love in the comments written that I could see; it felt like an all out attack on the cross of Jesus.

In the end of my entry I wrote that the words spewing out on the pages of this forum were not making God happy. That was when God revealed to me the Scripture from 1Corinthians 14:33, “For God is not a God of disorder, but of peace.” There was nothing peaceful about what I was reading or the actions being taken among those involved with the actual decisions of the future of this Christian college.

This unsuspecting assault would never have happened if Christians would follow the truth of God’s Word; not twisting his Word to meet our own agendas. Following God’s Word as he wants us to understand it would show us how to live our lives so that we will know how to keep his institutions in line with what he desires.

So let me ask you again: When did God leave our educational system? He left when God’s church stopped standing up for the truth. Why did he leave? He moved out of the way because he is a gentleman and will not force us to love him or to do his will.

Is he coming back? I hope so. But we need to ask him and really intend on doing things his way.

Cathy Craig Neil and her husband Mark own their own property management business. Cathy is a licensed PMIC and a graduate of Erskine College. She is also a columnist/author for www.believersbay.com.