Churches located near military bases know the challenges of serving military families.

Long separations from family, multiple moves, unpredictable schedules, and the potential of death or injury during training or deployment leave families with many unknowns and a lack of stability. Marital strains, parenting issues, financial concerns, and even suicide are everyday pressures. The GI Bill was created to help offer some relief to many of these common issues.

The GI Bill, originally known as the Servicemen’s Readjustment Act of 1944, was a law that provided a broad range of benefits for returning World War II veterans. While the original bill expired in 1956, the programs established have continued and expanded over the decades. Some of the many benefits included low-cost mortgages, low-interest business loans, and payments for tuition and living expenses to attend college or vocational school. Participation in the bill included 49% of World War II veterans and a whopping 72% of Vietnam veterans.

The program continues today in various formats, including the Post-9/11 Veterans Educational Assistance Act of 2008 and the Forever GI Bill of 2017. One result of these programs was that veterans could attend university, trade school, and seminary at reasonable or no cost. This is appropriate, as veterans sacrificed so much in their service to the country. Extended separation from families, risk of life and limb in training or combat, and years of continual moving of families from one base to the next provide more than sufficient justification for these types of benefits.

For years, the Reformed Presbyterian Theological Seminary (RPTS) served its veteran community well, but recently the Veterans Association changed the requirements for qualification of educational institutions. The current federal administration implemented a new regulation requiring all certifying institutions (of which RPTS was one) to be part of Title IV, the Federal Loan program.

RPTS exited the federal loan program in 2019 after extensive research and investigation. Some rationale for leaving the program included burdensome administrative requirements, a small number of students borrowing, and a general increasing tendency of federal programs to require “inclusive language” in institutional documents. The seminary did not want to be forced to admit students who did not fit biblical standards. It was a good time to leave the program, as there were other ways to help students with funding.

When RPTS withdrew from the federal loan program, veterans’ benefits were not connected to the loan programs. According to RPTS’s Veterans Administration (VA) contacts, leaving the program would not impact the ability to certify veterans for seminary studies. This meant veterans could attend RPTS having their tuition covered along with a monthly living expense stipend. Seminary staff praised the work of local VA contacts who clearly have a heart to serve the men and women who have sacrificed for our country.

However, in 2021, the Biden administration signed the American Rescue Plan Act, which stated that the GI Bill was only allowed for schools connected to the Title IV federal loan program. Working with local VA staff, RPTS filed extension requests and documentation requests. Ultimately, RPTS was decertified for failing to accept federal loans.

Thankfully, students certified as of fall 2022 were grandfathered into the current veterans program and allowed to use their hard-earned educational benefits at the school of their choice.

The impact of the change in government policy affects veterans in two significant ways. First, tuition and fees will no longer be covered by the government. Second, veterans lose their monthly living stipend. Of the two, the stipend is the more significant, as some stipends can reach $1,500 to $1,800 monthly for full-time students. Most of RPTS’s veteran students rely on the stipend to pay rent, utilities, food, and other expenses.

Imagine losing $1,600 out of your monthly income. The result is devastating and seemingly insurmountable. Graham Smith (MDiv 2022) noted that these policy changes would have forced him to attend RPTS part-time to permit him to find employment to cover the missing stipend. His studies would have taken him ten or more years, delaying his ministry entry by over a decade.

RPTS has worked hard to make available affordable housing for students by owning seven apartments adjacent to campus. Friends of the seminary own an additional four apartments. Rents in Pittsburgh, Pa., have continued to rise, especially with the presence of Google, the University of Pittsburgh, Carnegie Mellon University, and many teaching and research hospitals. Rents in the area surrounding the RPTS campus outpace general rents in Pittsburgh. To combat that, RPTS has kept rents 40% to 50% lower than market rates. Sadly, even affordable housing cannot blunt the impact of lost stipends for veteran students.

The impact of this new federal direction penetrates even deeper. Many veteran students that RPTS has serviced were RPCNA or Presbyterian Church of America (PCA) members. Both denominations provide tuition support for students under the care of presbyteries. Historically, veterans used their VA benefits to pay for tuition, relieving the denominations of the burden. This is no longer the case.

What, then, is the solution? Attempts have been made to get this policy change reversed, but there is a sense that no one in charge wants to listen. RPTS has worked with its accrediting agency to garner support for raising these issues with various legislators overseeing veterans affairs. Some seminary staff and board members have gone as far as seeking help from their elected officials. As of this point, there is no indication the situation will change.

The seminary’s Board of Trustees is working hard on alternative plans to assist veterans wishing to attend RPTS. President Barry York has suggested one possible alternative: creating the GI Bill Match Program. This program, offered for up to two men pursuing an MDiv or chaplaincy, would replace tuition, housing, and other stipends typically provided by the VA, allowing vets to use their earned educational benefits for future study. Funding will be sought once the program is finalized, as these expenses are not included in the seminary’s current budget.

This means that veterans who wish to serve the RPCNA face the dilemma of choosing either finances or theological preferences. Shane Helton, a current RPTS student, served in the US Marine Corps as an ordnance disposal expert. If he were starting the seminary selection process today, he admitted, “I would likely select the seminary that would allow me to use the full benefits earned during my military service,” even if it meant attending a seminary not affiliated with his denomination.

The loss of the ability to train a population of men for ministry in RPCNA pulpits presents a potential risk to the denomination. There are several very good, Reformed seminaries in this country, but none of them will teach some things that a minister in a Reformed Presbyterian pulpit should know, which influenced the denomination’s decision to start its seminary 213 years ago. For example, other seminaries teach little, if anything, about the mediatorial kingship of Christ. They might present a short lecture about exclusive, unaccompanied psalm singing as a “quaint habit” of several small denominations and yet completely ignore RP history and the Testimony of the RPCNA. Not only are these topics taught at RPTS, but they are woven throughout the curriculum.

If RP men are forced to other seminaries because of a reliance on government money, much of our theological foundation will be missed during training.

Joshua Smith (MDiv 2022) is the pastor at Westminster (Prairie View, Ill.) RPC. “Most veterans joined the military to serve,” reflects Pastor Smith. “Veterans who attend seminary do so to serve the Lord. Any means of assisting veterans to be able to do this would be an incredible blessing. Lacking the ability to utilize the benefits we sacrificed for, which we served for, which many of us lost friends for, will greatly hinder future veterans from being able to learn at RPTS.”

Jason Thoman (MDiv 2020) is the associate pastor at College Hill (Beaver Falls, Pa.) RPC. His 21 years in the United States Army prepared him for service in Christ’s kingdom. Experiences with fellow soldiers and knowing the need for God’s truth helped affirm his call to the pastorate. Sitting under the teaching of the pastor–professors equipped him for ministry, specifically in the RPCNA, as these wise pastors shared the impact of theological learning in the lives of the average church member.

Shane Helton thanks those who support veterans in prayer or other ways. “The veteran demographic is often overlooked in this country,” says Helton. “Sadly, the very government they served fails to provide for these men and women. The kindness of people can make all the difference in the world to a vet who has fallen on hard times. Everything done for vets, no matter how small, truly matters.” This is especially true as RPTS explores how best to serve those called to serve Christ.

As RPTS seeks to be reinstated with the VA as a certifying institution (without re-enrolling in the federal loan program), please join us in prayer for the denomination’s veterans. Please get in touch with your legislators and ask them to petition to remove these restrictions. As details about the GI Bill Match Program are available, please consider contributing so that men in our denomination might attend their own seminary.