I may not be on the rooftop anymore, but I haven’t stopped watching the horizon and what I see coming out of Washington should concern every American who believes in purpose, service, and religious freedom.
It’s called the “One Big Beautiful Bill Act.” Sounds nice, right? But buried beneath that pretty name are policies that threaten to cripple Christian higher education and punish students who choose to live by conviction instead of chasing cash.
At first glance, this legislation claims to make education more accountable. But the fine print tells another story.
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Under this proposal, colleges, especially Christian ones, would be judged by how much their graduates earn compared to high school dropouts. If your calling doesn’t come with a big salary, if you’re a teacher, a pastor, a social worker, your degree is deemed less valuable. And the school that prepared you? Financially penalized.
That’s not reform. That’s economic discrimination against purpose-driven education.
Let me break it down even further.
• Christian colleges—the very institutions that train leaders for ministry, mission work, mental health, and community transformation would be slapped with millions in penalties simply because their students go into service instead of sales.
• The government would impose loan caps that make it harder for first-generation, low-income students to attend the college of their choice.
• They want to eliminate Grad PLUS loans, gut parent aid, and restrict Pell Grant access for part-time students, cutting off lifelines for families who are already scraping by.
• Faith-based institutions that aren’t tied to a denomination, yet live out biblical values every day could lose key religious exemptions under new tax language. That’s an attack on religious liberty, dressed up as tax reform.
Let me be clear: I’m not against accountability. I believe in stewardship. But this bill punishes institutions that serve the public by preparing graduates for the trenches, not just the towers.
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It punishes schools whose alumni become counselors instead of consultants… church planters instead of corporate climbers… healers instead of hustlers.
We don’t need a country where only profit-driven paths are rewarded. We need a nation where calling still matters.
One out of every three students at CCCU schools is a Pell Grant recipient. One in three is a first-generation college student. Over half come from families earning under $50,000 per year. They don’t need Congress stacking the deck against them. They need pathways to flourish.
So from the South Side of Chicago, I’m calling this what it is: a beautiful-sounding bill that could do ugly damage.
Let’s not destroy the very schools that teach integrity, character, and Christ-like service. Let’s not choke the pipeline of hope that flows from classrooms to communities across this country.
Christian colleges are not elite ivory towers. They are lighthouses in some of the darkest corners of our culture.
And in a time of moral confusion and public chaos, we’d better think twice before snuffing out the lights.
