When good morals corrupt

I was at Lake Norcentra Park at Rochester College for a volunteer work day.

One volunteer was a Rochester alumna who told me stories of what the property looked like when the college first bought it in 1957. She expressed her great pleasure at how the Lake Norcentra Park project is enhancing and restoring the beauty and function of an important place at the college and in the community.

Then she said: “You know, when I was a student here [back in the early 1960s], we weren’t allowed on this part of campus.”

“How come?” I asked.

“Because,” she said. “The administration believed that if students were allowed to be here, they would–you know–get into [sexual] mischief.”

Time out for a minute. If you’re not familiar with Rochester College, allow me to give you a brief history. Rochester opened in 1959 as North Central Christian College. The name changed to Michigan Christian College in 1961 before changing to Rochester College in 1997.

A confederation of Church of Christ congregations established the school. They appointed some of the best-known Church of Christ evangelists and missionaries as administrators in the early years. To work at the school, you had to be a member in good standing at a Church of Christ congregation in good standing.

As a son of the Church of Christ, what I remember most about growing up there is the rules. Think of the movie ‘Footloose’ if you want to get it. Think Deep South Bible Belt. Think Dana Carvey’s “Church Lady” or Ned Flanders on ‘The Simpsons.’

As a Church of Christ kid, you knew you had two goals in life: 1) Achieve absolute moral purity, so you could 2) Stay out of hell on the Day of Judgment.

Moral purity meant staying away from drinking, gambling, and smoking.

It also meant abstaining from anything that had anything to do with sexuality. In the Church of Christ, that meant dancing, “mixed bathing,” movies that rated PG-13 or R, and, of course, pornography or anything suggestive. Not to mention premarital sex or even premarital touching. I was part of a popular movement in college in which Church of Christ kids like me vowed to not hold hands or kiss until marriage.

You get the point.

Now, these aren’t necessarily bad guidelines. As a grown man, I’m actually really glad for them in some ways.

However–and this is where we get back to the story the Rochester College alumna told me–“moral purity” can be destructive. It can be anti-Christ in the name of Christ.

So, the story.

One school year in the early 1960s at Michigan Christian College, the entire student body (about 200 students at that time) got into playing cards. Every day or night, the common areas and dorm lobbies would be full of students playing cards. They weren’t gambling, just…playing.

Betty, the alumna who told me the story, said it was a special time. Even with only 200 students, many cliques formed at Michigan Christian College. If you were into music, you hung out with other students who were into music. If you were an athlete, you hung out with other athletes. You get the picture.

For about two weeks, however, all 200 students unified in their common enjoyment of playing cards. If you walked into a common area and saw three tables of students playing cards, you could sit down at any one of them with an empty seat and join the game. It didn’t matter who was at the table. You were welcome. Athletes and musicians, poor kids and rich kids, Church of Christ kids and kids from other religious backgrounds. Around the card table, social barriers came down. Strangers became friends. People got along. It was a season of extraordinary goodwill and harmony.

The problem was that in the early 1960s, the Church of Christ ethic held that playing cards was a sin. Even if it just for fun and not for money. Playing cards could eventually lead to gambling. Therefore, playing cards was itself an invitation to the devil to have his way. A young man or woman of high moral character would never do such a thing.

But like any teenagers, these kids at Michigan Christian College ignored their parents and went right on playing cards. And they had a great time doing it together. A real sense of community and understanding was taking shape among them. And they were having fun.

It all came to an end when a donor–a prominent lady from a local Church of Christ–came to visit campus one day. She was horrified and dismayed to find the students of Michigan Christian College rollicking in an orgy of clubs, diamonds, hearts, and spades. The entire school was now corrupt. Within 24 hours, the administration raided the common spaces and dorms and shut down the card games. It would be many years before another student cracked a deck of 52 at the college.

The outcome? Moral purity is presumed to have resumed.

Do you know what else happened? The social integration that was taking shape became social dis-integration once the school shut down the card games. Everyone went back to their own group and own kind. Empathy and understanding dissolved. Community weakened.

Read the Gospel stories and tell me: If Jesus Christ were on the scene at Michigan Christian College in the early 1960s, would he be at the card table or would he be patrolling as the morality beat cop?

It depends. It’s gray.

In this case, however, I believe he would say: “I’m here to bring people together. To make sure nobody is left alone. To give people a chance to find out how much they can love others and be loved by others. Your rule about playing cards is harming, not helping, that community of love. What’s more important? To love your neighbor in community or to be morally pure in isolation? If you can’t answer, follow me to the places I hang out and see for yourself.”

I’m so thankful for growing up in the Church of Christ. Morality is a good thing and I’m grateful to my parents and teachers for raising me to be a man of good morals.

Along with good morals, we also need to develop a sense of discernment and wisdom. Above all, we need to cultivate the love of God. When all we know and practice are “good morals,” we can actually work against what God is trying to accomplish in our lives and in our world.

Read the paper today. How much human anguish starts with someone imposing their own good morals on someone else?

Good morals can and do corrupt and divide. Thus, they cannot be the highest ideal and the objective of our faith. Good morals alone are empty.

Let’s practice and pursue the love that Jesus Christ showed us.

Even if that means playing cards with the sinners.

Grace and peace to you.