Oberlin College

Christian education should impart knowledge, develop thinking abilities, and perpetuate spiritual and moral values.

On September 2, 1833, Oberlin Collegiate Institute (later known as Oberlin College) was founded as an independent, self-supporting college to educate students “thoroughly, and train them up in body, intellect and heart, for the service of the Lord.” By the early 1840s, students were being trained in manual labor; eating a vegetarian diet and avoiding tea, coffee, and strong condiments; adopting a modest dress code, eliminating tight dress and ornamental attire; using the Bible as their textbook; and being discouraged from reading novels. There is no direct link between Oberlin College and the Seventh-day Adventist educational system. But following the inspired counsel of Ellen White, many Adventist boarding schools adopted similar educational and health standards. Early Adventist educator Edward A. Sutherland even commended Oberlin College as a model for Christian education. But, while many Adventist educational institutions still abide by those principles, Oberlin gave them up decades ago.

This raises a crucial question: Why do educational institutions that were originally guided by solid biblical principles tend to reject those principles and be absorbed by their surrounding culture? In his book The Dying of the Light, James T. Burtchaell examines how colleges and universities lost their original religious identity. He argues that, first, religion became an individual matter rather than the overall culture of the institution; and, second, the original doctrinal emphasis was replaced by a more subjective form of religion, opening the door to secularism and acculturation.

Long before Burtchaell wrote his book, Ellen White warned, “If a worldly influence is to bear sway in our school, then sell it out to worldlings and let them take the entire control.”3 When we strengthen our Adventist educational system, we shape the future of our church. May that system remain faithful to the biblical principles on which it was originally built and that are the reason for its existence!