I recently attended a wedding at Bates Chapel in Lewiston.  On the way out of the chapel my eyes were drawn to a plaque on the wall that read; “TO THE GLORY OF GOD AND THE WORSHIP OF HIS SON, THIS BUILDING IS FOREVER DEDICATED….ERECTED 1912, THE GIFT OF MRS. D. WILLIS JAMES.”

Bates College has a rich history of Christianity in its origin.   As with many New England institutions, religion played a vital role in the College's founding. The Reverend Oren Burbank Cheney founded and served as the first president of Bates. He was a Freewill Baptist minister, a teacher, and a former Maine legislator. Cheney steered a bill through the Maine Legislature creating a corporation for educational purposes. Initially called the Maine State Seminary, it was located in Lewiston which was Maine's fastest-growing industrial and commercial center.

Within a few years the seminary became a college. It was Cheney who obtained financial support for an expansion from the city of Lewiston and from Benjamin E. Bates, the Boston financier and manufacturer whose mills dominated the Lewiston riverfront. In 1864 the Maine State Seminary became Bates College, named after Benjamin Bates.

When founded in 1855, it was the first coeducational college in New England, admitting students without regard to race, religion, national origin, or sex. Several of its earliest students were former slaves. The Maine State Seminary replaced the Parsonsfield Seminary which burned under mysterious circumstances in 1854. The Parsonsfield Seminary was founded in 1832 by Free Will Baptists and served as a stop on the Underground Railroad.

Cheney assembled a six-person faculty dedicated to teaching the classics and moral philosophy to both men and women. In 1863 he received a collegiate charter. The college consisted of Hathorn and Parker halls and a student body of fewer than 100.

Bates's third president was Clifton Daggett Gray, a clergyman and former editor of The Standard, a Baptist periodical published in Chicago. Gray saw Bates through an era marked by vibrant growth and modernization, but also through the years of the Great Depression and World War II. On campus, renovations were completed on Libbey Forum and the Hedge Science Laboratory, and the Clifton Daggett Gray Athletic Building and Alumni Gymnasium were constructed. In the 1940s, when male students abandoned college campuses to enlist in the armed forces, Gray established a V-12 Naval Training Unit on campus, assuring the College students - men and women - during wartime.

When he retired in 1944, Gray had increased the student enrollment to more than 700 and doubled the faculty to seventy; the endowment had doubled to 2 million dollars.

My how things change over the years.  A few years ago, I attended one of the debates that Bates is famous for.  This debate, which was held in the Chapel, was on the subject of homosexual rights.  A bias was noticeable with three prominent liberal ministers in favor of homosexual rights debating Michael Heath, Executive Director of The Christian Civic League of Maine, arguing for marriage, common sense and family values. 

As with many colleges and univeristies, Bates started out as a training institution for Bible-believing ministers. Just a century and a half later, it is promoting politically liberal ideas and philosophies. 

Remember the plaque I mentioned?  A friend who viewed the plaque with me said, “The founders of this institution must be rolling over in their graves.” 

This is why so many Christians are concerned about the direction our society is headed in, embracing all sorts of evil and expressing scorn for anything Godly and moral.

Please accept my invitation to become involved with the Christian Civic League. It is a mission worthy of your support.