What the Seminary is Really Like

(Taken from a non-catholic seminarian( http://springbored.wordpress.com/2010/02/15/what-the-seminary-is-really-like/), but applies, specifically to some Catholic Seminaries and their faculty)


René Descartes once said that, in order to be a real seeker of truth, one must at least once in life, doubt all things. I took that seriously when I decided to step outside the framework of Christianity and observe from a different perspective what it was that I truly believed. I had never had the courage to say to myself, “Maybe I might be wrong.”
The struggle through my faith began with an evaluation of the Seminary.
One of the first things that I was told at the Seminary’s freshman orientation came from the Director of the Ethics Committee there. He said that if any of us were ever caught looking at pornography, we were going to be kicked out of school. That was a stressful message to hear on day one.
“Hi, welcome to the Seminary, if we discover your inequities, we will burn you!” (Actual quote from a Seminary professor of mine.)
The Seminary touts many rules and regulations. I constantly feared for my academic life while in attendance. I was once pulled over by the campus security for wearing my hat backwards. Another time I was walking around campus at night and a security guard told me that he almost pulled his gun out on me because I looked “suspicious.” They give these nuts guns! I digress.
We had chapel three times a week and if we missed more than just a few, we would be unable to graduate. I guess they had to make sure that we were getting their propaganda beat into us one way or another. I can recall one afternoon during a chapel service in which our Seminary President was preaching on the topic of sin. It was a routine sermon with a routine ending. He challenged the men and women of the audience to get rid of the sin in their lives. I remember him getting dramatically quiet and slowing his speech (a common technique used by preachers, I should know). He said, “Guys, if you are out there and you are dealing with sin in your life, particularly the sin of pornography, I want you to know that today, the faculty’s doors are open and we want to help you. If you are struggling and need help, we are here for you. Please, talk to one of us.”
I thought to myself, finally, they are actually trying to help people (not just trying to build a $32 million chapel in the middle of the most impoverished area of south Fort Worth, but that’s another story in itself).
As they were encouraged to do, several guys went into their professors’ offices that day, many of which I know personally, and they confessed the sin in their lives. They were looking for help. They were looking for change. They were looking for guidance. I am pretty certain that it takes a lot of humility to walk into your superior’s office and explain not only that you have done wrong, but what you have done wrong. Men and women like that deserve to be commended.
As it turns out, the opposite happened. Every person that went in to ask for help was turned over to the Ethics Committee and was kicked out of the school. Before leaving the campus, the Director of the Ethics Committee said, “See, I tried to tell you.” When the President of the Seminary was asked about this he said, “We needed to cleanse the school of people who don’t belong.”
Don’t be surprised. This is the message that Seminaries throughout the country are displaying. “You aren’t like us, so get out.” Time and time again, the Christian leaders of Seminaries fail to do what they are Biblically called to do, and that is to embrace those who are different.
Shouldn’t the message of the Seminary be: “You aren’t like us, but we will love you unconditionally”? Shouldn’t this be the message of the world? I watched 14 people get kicked out of the Seminary in my four years there, 6 of which were my close friends, 1 of which was my roommate. My roommate was falsely arrested while at work, 6 miles from school, yet he was kicked out of the school because even being falsely arrested sends a bad message about one’s moral character – according to the Ethics Committee.
And, what kind of leaders would make these decisions with well-meaning people’s lives?
First: I want to mention the faculty members at the Seminary. To sum most of them up in one word - arrogance. I can honestly say that the Seminary has afforded me the opportunity of meeting the most arrogant men of my short life. I had a professor of mine say in class that “Everyone in the room was an infant Christian and (he was) the only one there that understood complex theology.” That same professor, while on a mission trip to Mexico, asked the translator to introduce him as “an extremely important man with several degrees.” I got so sick of professors gloating about all the great things they had done in life that I made extra efforts to avoid contact with them. I have countless stories of professors who have continually shot down my expectations. Take this one as a representative example.
Second: I want to comment on the President of the Seminary which I attended. If I have ever seen a man put on a façade and pretend to be what he is not, it’s him. He lived on the campus in what they call ‘Pecan Manor” and, despite being less than 100 feet from the school doors, he was driven across the street each day by one of his three assistants in his own personal golf cart. Why anyone needs three assistants, I have no clue, but these three men drove him and his wife everywhere, went grocery shopping for him, ran obscure errands for him and his friends, walked his dog daily, washed his Escalade and, I’m sure, wiped his ass from time to time (no offense to my good friend who is one of his assistants).
His excuse for getting these pretentious perks: “A man of God does not have time to do the little things in life, I need someone else to do them for me so that I can serve God better,” he says. Here I was thinking that I needed to be a celebrity, politician, business owner or sports athlete to get pampered, but I can go ahead and just be a ‘Man of God’ and get the same treatment! Sign me up.
I don’t have to list the number of Bible verses that teach selflessness. In my opinion, if you’re going to tell people to follow what is written in Scripture, and you don’t even adhere to it yourself, then that makes your entire message hypocritical.
I do want to make the point that there were a handful of professors that truly touched my life. It may be a stretch that these few men are reading this post, but I want the readers to know that Dr. Emir Caner, Dr. Greg Smith, Dr. Art Savage, Dr. Russell Bowers, Dr. Tim McAlhaney, Dr. David Bertch and (Soon to be Doctor) Billy Marsh were all men throughout my Seminary experience that I genuinely grew to respect. I’m sure there are a few more that I didn’t get to meet. I don’t want it to appear that I believe every leader in the Seminary is an evil person, and I do think there are still good men training the future ministers of the world.
Despite the few people that made an impact on my life, my Seminary experience was a disappointment.
A majority of the leaders do not live the lives that they teach others every day to live. For that reason, I questioned my own faith in ways that I had never done before. These men claim to be teaching the absolute truth, yet this powerful truth has not even changed their own hearts, the leaders of the largest theological Seminary in the world. How then can I believe it to be truth?
I don’t place all of my faith upon the actions of other men, but it is a huge factor when it is one of the only tangible piece of evidence that I have for believing Christianity. After taking a hard look at the Seminary, my belief in Christianity began to shake. I wasn’t ready to give up everything I believed, but I was definitely heading in that direction.
My story is to be continued.
- Carl White