Is it a Christian School? Berea is a biblical reference, a town in the Roman Empire in which the early gospel was preached. I hate censoring at all levels.
This takes some explanation.
Berea started out as a Christian school and still considers itself to be one. However, the school has liberal roots. It was the first college in Kentucky and one of the first in the world to teach to both white and black students. This was in 1855, pre-Civil War. Throughout the years this has changed and their focus has shifted back and forth between Appalachian poor kids and black kids. Basically, it's a college mainly for low income students because everyone here has a full tuition scholarship in some degree.
However, Berea is also known for being a town with a lot of marijuana use among its students. While there is a conservative presence here, evolution science is defended, homosexuality is permitted and openly encouraged, and most of the professors and staff are liberal minded. Most who have Christian beliefs are similar to me: they respect Jesus for who he was and realize that mainstream Christianity has fucked over his original message greatly. The required Christianity course the college has basically explains that rather than what most required Christianity courses are at other colleges.
The thing is, the trustees come from several different backgrounds to begin with. They were the ones who made the decision to block the internet access. Basically, the trustees board is far removed from the student body as you can get, and like most old fuckers, they believe what they are doing is "right and Christian and the best for the kids." This philosophy is flawed, like a lot of other bullshit Berea has going on. We aren't kids. We are fucking adults. College is about becoming an adult, and honestly Berea does a poor job of doing that. Many people graduate from here with degrees and move into an apartment in Berea itself to get a fucking fast food job. No one really learns how to grow up here. I've seen a lot of people get fucked over.
Berea also doesn't allow the majority of the student body to have a car, requires all students have only the one job they are assigned at the college and doesn't allow them to have an outside job, and has a limited range of visitation (no guys in girls dorms after a certain time, vice versa, etc.) They explain all this as "keeping kids at the college where they belong, rather than having them run home to mommy and daddy all the time." No. That's not it, Berea. That's bullshit. It's your fucking "parent" complex trying to teach us a weird mix of mainstream Christian values and radical liberal political opinion.
But yeah, Berea's a Christian college only in the obscure weird ass bullshit rules sense. They still believe in recycling and sustainability and equal rights for all. It's just some aspects of the college are still in the 18th century.
