Champions for Compromise?
Posted By Phylicia on December 25, 2009
Today is Christmas Day, and for most people it is a day when you rest and enjoy family, something that I have been able to do today to my heart’s content. I spent most of the day reading (and finishing) a book that my parents gave me: The Unlikely Disciple by Kevin Roose. It was a strange book to request for Christmas, really; the book was written by an unbelieving student from the liberal Ivy League college Brown University, recounting a semester he spent on the campus of my college, Liberty University. Roose’s goal in coming to LU wasn’t to be convinced that it is ‘the most exciting university in the world’ (or maybe it’s nation, I am not quite sure…) but to have an inside look at evangelical Christian culture and particularly, the evangelical educational system.
I was fascinated when I heard the book came out, a few months before I arrived on LU’s campus. I spied it in Liberty’s bookstore but was too cheap to buy it then, although I was still undeniably curious about what this non-Christian had to say about the school I was attending. Having finally read it, I am thoroughly impressed with Roose’s writing and even with his fair technique in presenting the university to the public. I am glad that he found Liberty not to be the legalistic, wound-too-tight representation of Christianity that he expected. But oddly enough, I came away from the book less disturbed by a self-confessed liberal’s expose’ than by the actual people he was writing about.
I have been a ’sponge’ this last semester at one of the best Christian universities in the country. I have tried to absorb what people say and do, observe the cultural atmosphere of the campus, and refrain from a complete judgment until my year is complete. In the spectrum of cultural and philosophical background, I come from the polar opposite of Mr. Roose. Yet his observations about evangelical Christian youth — or rather, young adults — ring unnervingly true with my own. Perhaps mine, coming from one immersed in Christian culture from birth, are even more harsh. It’s not Liberty itself that I criticize: it is my generation of professing Christians.
This is a generation, I must say, I was not completely familiar with before I attended school. Certainly, my high school friends are mostly the same age as me, but they were raised with similar ideals… similar standards. Unless my parents subjected me to a lifestyle few outside of Shaker-dom have beheld, it was my impression that what I grew up with was the typical standard of living for a teenager. We had rules about makeup and clothes; we had chores every morning; we had to do our school every day and we were expected to have As. We didn’t have cable television, and we didn’t get cell phones until we were in our late teens. Somehow, I didn’t think I was missing out. Now I am all the more convinced of that fact.
This generation of Christian college students is one of the most narcissistic and self-indulgent that has yet been born. I call them Christian because that is what they profess — via mouth or Facebook profile – but the label they take may be nothing more than the trappings of their childhood environment. Many students who come to schools like Liberty are raised in the church and attended a Christian school. Many more come from public schools. In a general scan of Liberty University Facebook pages, I find little different from my non-believing coworkers at home except for a few Bible verses in the ‘Quotes’ section and the occasional status praising God that exams have reached conclusion.
Granted, an entire campus of 12,000 students can not be summed up by a few hundred Facebook statuses. There is a fair fraction of students that are sincere in their faith, many of whom are my close friends. My initial shock was with the rarity of these sincere students. I had assumed, I suppose, that the Liberty campus would be a veritable smorgasboard of stalwart Christian men and women who I could stop on the street for an analysis of Ephesians at will. Not so. There are some who cannot find Ephesians, much less talk about it. What is this generation of Christians? Are they really Christians, or is this just the label they take per the legacy of their parents?
I suppose to Kevin Roose I would be a ‘likely disciple’ on Liberty’s campus. I would be the typical evangelical on a Christian campus. I am doing a lot of thinking, however. What am I bringing to this generation? What are you bringing? At Liberty, we are supposed to be ‘Champions for Christ’. This generation of Christians could better be christened ‘Champions for Compromise’. I’ve decided to hold to a higher standard. Will you?
Comments
Leave a Reply