My college wasn’t the easiest place to be a Christian.
First of all, it was located in Portland, Oregon, a city notorious for its celebration of earth-based spiritualities. For every Jesus fish you see on a car bumper in Portland, you’re likely to spot several that read “Born Again Pagan,” “Dirt Worshiper” or “Blessed Be,” the standard Wiccan blessing.
The seething cauldron of left-wing politics and alternative spirituality seemed to bring out the worst from the Christian hard right.
The most cringe-inducing example was a young man named Daniel, a self-appointed preacher who saw our campus as his parish. Almost every day Daniel would stand in the middle of the courtyard and preach at the passing students. He had the sensitivity of a wrecking ball.
“God hates you!” he would cry out so loudly that his voice broke. “All you little devils are going to fry. God is going to skip you like stones into the lake of fire. He’s going to laugh when he does it and I’m going to laugh too!”
On one occasion a student approached him timidly.
“Daniel, this is hate-free campus. I don’t think you should be saying these things.”
This only filled Daniel with fresh fury.
“Oh it is, is it? Well, then let me tell you, I’m here to bring back the hate!”
I challenged Daniel many times. Invariably I too was assigned a place in the lake of fire.
Given Portland’s culture—and the fact that guys like Daniel terrorized the campus square—it probably isn’t surprising that most students had a dim view of Christian faith. But I was surprised to hear the animosity even from faculty. One day while sitting at a campus café, I overheard a lively conversation at the table next to me. Two professors were discussing a variety of topics, when one statement caught my attention. “I hate Christianity,” one of them said, turning suddenly pensive and looking out the window. “I really hate it.”
I stared into my coffee cup, awaiting his reasoning, but none was given. The other professor simply nodded his agreement and the conversation moved on.
I was stunned by this hostility, and at times, immobilized. When Christianity came under fire in my classes I tried to speak up, but too often I was silent. The arguments being leveled against the faith weren’t difficult to counter. Typically they were laughable, making me wonder whether the detractors had even read the Bible or any church history. I almost felt sorry for the sophomore girl I interrupted to inform that the earliest Christians did not—as she so ardently claimed—participate in the Crusades. It was not the arguments I heard that stalled me. Rather, what gave me pause was the white-hot anger that smoldered just behind their words. It wasn’t the substance of their arguments; it was their temperature.
I realize that not all colleges are as unfriendly to Christian faith as mine was. But from what I’ve seen, it’s not easy being a Christian (especially an outspoken one) at most colleges. This brings me to a question: how can we train Christian students to function faithfully and effectively in these environments?
There are a lot of books that prepare young Christians to defend their faith when they go off to college. These books are important. Young people need to understand why they believe what they believe and how to defend their faith. However, such books rarely address something just as important—how to deal with the anti-Christian vitriol they’re sure to encounter. Studying apologetics may enable a student to field thorny theological questions. But what that student is more likely to encounter is far less tangible: a general atmosphere of hostility to Christian faith.
So what can we equip students to handle the barrage of slights, belittlements, and outright mockery their faith will likely endure? How can we teach them to avoid freezing in fear, or lashing out in frustration? Do we need to provide psychological or social or diplomatic training—along with apologetics?
I certainly don’t have all the answers, but I wanted to raise the question. I think it’s an important one.
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DREW DYCK is the editorial manager of the leader training team at Christianity Today International. His responsibilities include editing four online publications, including BuildingChurchLeaders.com. Drew holds an M.A. in Theology from Fuller Theological Seminary. Before coming to Christianity Today he was the editor of New Man magazine. He and his wife, Grace, live in Carol Stream, Illinois and attend Jericho Road Church. You can email Drew at ddyck@christianitytoday.com.
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8 thoughts on “Preparing Students for Anti-Christian Hostility”
Great thoughts, Drew, and I agree this is an incredibly important question. Two somewhat unrelated thoughts come to mind. First, I think it is important to teach students to be firm in their faith and their convictions without teaching them to “fight back”. Too often pre-college apologetics training can turn graduating seniors into argumentative jerks for Jesus, and I’m just not sure how helpful that is. I believe that along with apologetics training, we need to teach students to be calm and respectful in their dealings with non-Christians, even when facing vitriolic attacks. Second, I think we need to guard against both overstating and understating the hostility to Christianity that students can expect to encounter on their campuses. Students need to know that they will not be in the majority, but they also need to know that they are not an isolated, persecuted minority in most cases, either. If students are given too dark of a picture of what their campus will be like, it could make them more likely to a) drop their faith, or b) become overly defensive and angry/unloving. I’m sure much more could be said on this topic, and I look forward to reading the comments of others. Thanks again for raising this important question!
Good thoughts, Brian. Yes, I fear that often, in our zeal to equip students with the tools to defend their faith, we only end up creating “jerks for Jesus.” Excellent point too about not overstating or understating the kind of hostility they’re likely to encounter. If we make them paranoid they’re apt to perceive every kind of hardship as “persecution.” We definitely need to teach them how to defend their faith, but in an adversarial way. Perhaps MLK is a good model here, who taught his followers to aim for the “double victory” seeking to win, not only the conflict, but also the heart of the oppressor. Ultimately winning arguments is futile if it comes at the expense of losing hearts.
Something I’d add to Brian’s great two thoughts is helping Christian high school grads know that there are solid answers to the arguments they’ll face – enough to match the caliber of argument they’ll hear in college – but they probably haven’t heard them in high school. Lots of Christian high school grads are actually set up to falter or struggle in their faith, because they THINK they’ve gotten top-notch apologetics from their youth pastor, Christian teachers, parents, or others. So when they hear much better arguments for the other side, they assume they’ve heard both camp’s best arguments; weighing both, they understandably choose the anti-Christian side. Of course, we probably need to be presenting far better apologetics before college than we are – and with accuracy AND humility. But many students won’t need it ’til they need it: And they need to be prepared to seek it out.
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