Kalvin is bummed out. He initially enrolled at Taylor University-Fort Wayne right after graduating from high school, majoring in Pastoral Studies. But the finances weren’t there, and even before school started, he had to back out.

So Kalvin waited two more years, saved up, and this fall was excited to enroll at Taylor. But a week ago, he had to drop out–again, for financial reasons. He was doing very well in his classes and was thoroughly enjoying college life. He was working for pennies in the college kitchen and tried to get work elsewhere (hard to do without a car, often a fact of life with poorer people). But in the end, he had no choice. Taylor no doubt bent over backwards to help him, but costs are costs.

Pam and I care deeply about Kalvin. He began attending Anchor as a youngster, became a Christian and was baptized at Anchor, and we’ve watched him grow over the years. We’ve invested a good portion of ourselves in him. On Saturday, yesterday, we spent about six hours with Kalvin, as he helped us move Pam’s sister from one house to another. He explained the whole sad situation to me yesterday. He had no other option but to drop out. I wonder if he’ll ever get another shot at a Christian college. If maybe he has crossed this dream off in his own mind.

Kalvin doesn’t come from a home with money, and he’s the only Christian. His parents can’t help him. He has a strong work ethic, which has impressed Pam and me over the years, but there’s not much that fits his current skills. He’s applying at a coffeeshop right now. A far cry from his original hope of becoming a minister.

The cost of attending Christian colleges seems out of control. The constant quest for income-bearing students feeds a cycle of continually trying to one-up each other with fancy buildings and new programs and various academic bells and whistles. They craft and build marketing edges. I’ve watched this happen over the past 20 years, in a frog-and-kettle kind of way, and have grown gradually dismayed to the point where, now, I’m on the verge of total disenchantment. I’m not interested in donating money to help middle-class white kids go to college. I’m interested in people like Kalvin.

Under the Bush Administration, the divide between the rich and poor has increased, and permanent tax cuts for the wealthy will further cement this divide. Christian colleges are doing the same thing, with their ever-spiraling costs and pursuit of “Best College” lists. They are creating a two-tier system. Middle-class and up kids will go to our Christian colleges, emerging as our future ministers and college professors and missionaries. Poor Christians, meanwhile, will resort to state schools. These may be good schools, but they lack the Christian atmosphere which played an important role in my own life.

Kanje West, not one of my favorite persons, said the Bush Administration doesn’t care about black people. That statement was overboard, just as is this statement: Christian colleges don’t care about poor people. They care. They send their students on work trips to help poor people, they build houses for them, they tutor them, they do all kinds of things in a mission and service context. They just don’t make it very possible to enroll poor kids as students.

Most of this is pure, fact-free opinion from a reckless bozo with a blog. I can’t point to studies to verify anything I’ve said here. I’m sure the admissions departments from scores of Christian colleges would castigate me, would show comparative costs with other types of schools to justify their tuition level, and would point to valiant efforts and large scholarship pots to make education affordable. I imagine there are plenty of anecdotal poor people attending classes in every Christian college. So I’m sure I’m being unfair, unreasonable, irresponsible, and stupid.

And yet…these are my gut-level, totally subjective views based on many years of “what the heck’s going on?” observation. Christian colleges fully engage in a cycle of costly one-upmanship which none of them have the fortitude or vision to break out of, and they see it as necessary to attract more (white middle class?) students, who evidently crave pampering. Fancy buildings trumpeted for all of their features which no other college has. Stuff like that. The divide between rich and poor Christians will increase in the selectively idealistic world of Christian academia. And people like Kalvin, about whom I care deeply, will be left behind.