campus ministry

[summej2]

Current students and former students: what is (was) your impression of campus ministry organizations (InterVarsity, Campus Crusade and the like)?

 

[kakemono]

Their lone purpose is numbers, numbers, numbers.

I have seen the degredation (is that a word) of following the Bible in order to attract more poeple at the one at my university.

I quit going about 3 years ago because of it.

 

[dah328]

It varies widely from campus to campus based on the staff at any particular school. You can't make any useful broad generalizations because of that.

 

[rach2jlc]

^Agreed.

My school was very liberal and overall I have no recollection of any campus ministries beyond an occasional "prayer table" set up on the quads.

In general, though, unless one attends a religious institution, my view is that college is generally the time when people "stray." Not just through debauchery, but also because of having one's pre-conceived notions and beliefs challenged. In this way, most everybody goes through some kind of crisis of conscience, because in many cases what you learn in the classroom is not what they taught you in Sunday School. I mean, growing up, my Sunday School teacher passed us out a pamphlet called "Beliefs and People to Beware of!" with pictures of these really evil looking Hindus and Muslims. Then, attending university, meeting some wonderful Saudi Arabians who became my good friends, suddenly things weren't so "clear cut" as they had been.

Anyway, some stick to their beliefs or come back into the fold following college, but overall I think that campus ministries in the mainstream universities where I've worked/attended don't have much to do with the overall life on campus and do little more than provide an extended social network for their constituents. Many of my students who are wearing Campus Ministry T-shirts to class are also the ones who talk about not wanting to be in class that day because they got "so wasted" the night before.

 

[dusty]

CCC seemed ok, Chi Alpha got really cultish.

 

[tiecollector]

So long as there are footbaths in every bathroom of every campus, what more do we have to worry about?

 

[Connemara]

I know some bizarre students that are members of my campus's ministry...the type that walk around all day with what looks like a medical-induced stupid grin and feels the need to hug everyone. Very odd.

 

[LabelKing]

Apparently UC Irvine has an extraordinary number of these Christian associations.

Part of it thinks that's why so many suburban Asians flock to that school.

 

[tiecollector]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

Apparently UC Irvine has an extraordinary number of these Christian associations.

Part of it thinks that's why so many suburban Asians flock to that school.

Well it is nicknamed the University of Chinese Immigrants.

There are quite a few of these organizations at UC Davis too, and I knew many people in these orgs, but I never really noticed them around too much while walking around. The Muslims though were always holding protests and making noise, ugh.

 

[LabelKing]

Originally Posted by tiecollector

Well it is nicknamed the University of Chinese Immigrants.

There are quite a few of these organizations at UC Davis too, and I knew many people in these orgs, but I never really noticed them around too much while walking around. The Muslims though were always holding protests and making noise, ugh.

And also because the O.C. area is unusually conservative for California.

 

[tiecollector]

Originally Posted by LabelKing

And also because the O.C. area is unusually conservative for California.

You wouldn't think it with all the TV shows dealing with Newport Beach.

 

[Augusto86]

Intolerable.

 

[MetroStyles]

Oh those crazy religious zealots! What will they think of next?

 

[SoCal2NYC]

You'd think that during college these people would grow up and realize that religon is a big hoax.

 

[Neo1824]

I strongly dislike them.

The closest I came to hitting a stranger was when one of these overzealous nutjobs sat down next to me on the campus mall, asked if I attended any of the campus churches and when I said no, told me 'well, you know you are going to hell, right?' I of course told him where he could go and he scampered off.

And why is it that their standard recruiting tool/trick is 'hey, do you play volleyball?'. I saw that all the time at UofAz.