Huntington College and
the Age of Unrest

Bishop George E. Weaver
Bishop, 1969-1977

Our society is threatened by a movement dedicated to the destruction of the old order. Hippies, peace advocates, civil rights protagonists, advocates of student power or of black power, those voicing the cause of ecology, those engaging in the new morality, blowers of pot and users of hallucinogenic drugs, addicts of hard drugs, people who adopt strange and outlandish manners of dress, speech, and music--these form that angry mass which makes us feel threatened and uncomfortable.

The fact that much of the unrest centers on the college and university campus poses grave problems for Christian parents and educators. One can no longer responsibly say, "It makes no different where young people take their college training."

Responsible Christian parents certainly will not deliberately subject their youth to the social and moral pressures of a riot-torn battleground such as exists on some campuses today. Nor can responsible educators permit the plague of destructive unrest to permeate every institution of learning.

Campuses must be preserved where students and teachers may jointly engage in the serious quest for truth and knowledge.

This is not to deny the necessity and desirability of change. No living and creative society stands still. The horizons of knowledge are expanding with breath-taking rapidity, and the forms of culture must keep pace--but not at the price of anarchy.

There cannot be the throwing off of all restraint and the denial of fixed authority. Change must indicate growth and maturity, not the infantile urge to destroy that which we do not understand or which we think inhibits our personal urges for self-expression.

At no time in history has it been more important for the distinctly Christian college to fulfill its purpose. And yet, there has never been a time when circumstances have been more adverse.