Campus Christian groups. Any experience with these?

[Hardrada]

Are they another way to make college students into Xian rightwingers? In addition to the conservative majors students must have in order to fit into some corporate hierarchy?

[TallahasseeGrannie]

1. Many campus Christian groups

are peace activists. Remember, don't equate RW with Christian. They are two intersecting sets, but not one and the same.

[Hardrada]

11. I know there are some progressive groups out there

with Xians and others. We had no such thing at my school since I went to a Lutheran college and did not have enough of other denominations to form their own groups.

[stepnw1f]

2. Cultist Morons

My god is better than their god. I have a god because I'm special and your an atheist, so, so you are bad. Yeah.....

BM ...BAM...BAM!

[mcctatas]

3. Campus Crusade for Christ.....

:puke: They set up shop in the student union once a month, and harass all of us hungover promiscuous heathens on the way to class.

[MountainLaurel]

5. Familiar with them as well

Ironically, attending their Friday night group is one of the central reasons I'm no longer a Christian. I had never before been around such hate-filled people in my life. Every other phrase was evil gays this and women should know their place that. In my junior year, my best friend told me she was bisexual, and I knew that I could not tolerate their hatred any more.

[Hardrada]

12. I attended a MSC (Mainstream Christian College)

and so did not have contact with such types of Xians but perhaps they are more prevalent in recent years. Were you at school in the Midwest?

[MountainLaurel]

15. No, in the Mid-Atlantic

At a state university. In a state with many fundamentalist denominations that consider college students a great target for proselytizing.

[bluestateguy]

4. I have confronted the abstinence only crowd before

Don't get me wrong, it's one thing to talk about abstinence in front of high school kids--as long as it's not to the exclusion of discussion about contraception--but in front of adults?

I asked one of these youth preachers one time what you would say to somebody who is not lucky enough to find a spouse until they are 30 or 40 years old. Is that really realistic, expecting someone to be celibate for that long?

I got some gibberish answer that I don't even remember right now.

[tjdee]

6. That is virtually impossible to determine unless you go to a meeting/hear

what they have to say.

A lot of them are probably conservative rightwingers, but there are also a number of liberal Christians at colleges. Granted, they usually don't join the right wing groups...

[Hardrada]

13. Perhaps one can tell from their literature

although my experience with people handing out religious tracts has not been all that jolly.

[longship]

7. Campus Crusade for Christ

should retitle themselves Campus Crusade for Right Wing Lunacy and Rapture Watch Incorporated.

[Hardrada]

14. I've heard of them before.

I wonder who they're hooked up with? Billy Graham maybe?

[Lydia Leftcoast]

8. Yes, Campus Crusade and Intervarsity Christian Fellowship are

fundies. As a member of the Episcopal chaplaincy in graduate school, I was on a committee of different campus religious groups organizing an Oxfam fast, in which students would skip their meals and ask that the prorated costs of those meals be donated to Oxfam. The Episcopalians, Catholics, Lutherans, UCCs, and Jews all signed on and agreed to promote the event among their members.

But Intervarsity would not join the effort, because they did not want their money going to any organization that helped the world's poor people without evangelizing them.

One of the members of the Episcopal chaplaincy had a roommate in Intervarsity, and through that connection, I got invited to one of their parties. They ostentatiously pointed out that they didn't serve booze or dance. And I thought, "So what's the point of having a party?"

But the mainstream religious groups can have quite interesting chaplaincies, with liturgical experimentation, book discussions, communal living, and social action and advocacy work.

[Hardrada]

10. I appreciate your input. I was asking

because there are various groups out there and I am sure some are progressive but NOT the ones the children of my friends seem to have wandered into.

[More Than A Feeling]

9. I'm a college student in a campus Christian group.

It was student created and run, although its now affiliated with Intervarsity. My guess is that those of us who are Xian rightwingers already were, and those of us who are liberals (there is at least one Green Party member there, and one moderate who is very concerned about poverty. My guess is that she doesn't know about Intervarsity not joining in, as posted above) already were.

[shenmue]

16. Yes

There are different groups. Saw a lot of them in graduate school at UF. Some used to hand out miniature bibles, others were street preachers and yelled through bullhorns in the square in front of the Humanities building. Once a group of women dressed up as the Spice Girls ran up behind the preacher and started handing out bar ads. Another time, a guy in a gorilla suit silently handed out pieces of fruit candy to the crowd. All the while the preacher didn't stop. I don't know if he even realized the gorilla guy was there.

Wish I still had the photo of that...