Christianity on Campus
written by SAM FLYNN
photographs provided
To better understand my perspective as a writer, I’ll give a brief history of my religious life. I was raised Catholic by a strictly religious mother and a lapsed-Catholic father. Growing up, I did not enjoy going to church. I found it persistently boring and consistently alienating. Nor did I enjoy spending two hours weekly going to post-secondary religious education. These experiences negatively impacted my view on the value and usefulness of religion and, by extension, faith itself.
When I was older, I began to actively question what I was being taught and explored other ideas of perceiving the world, such as the works of the great philosophers John Locke and Thomas Jefferson, and current scientists and thinkers like Richard Dawkins, Daniel Dennett and Christopher Hitchens. To me, they all made much more sense to my empirical views of the world. I could no longer in good conscience call myself Catholic with all these new ideas in my mind that coincided more with my developing worldview than God did. I identified as an atheist as I saw no reason for God to exist in my life or in the world of the past, present or future.
You’d be remiss not to wonder why, after the aforementioned negative experiences with the church and religion in general, I would write about it. It is because there is something inexplicable about religion. It is a certain feeling that is almost impossible to find anywhere else. It’s an intense feeling of connection and belonging—a feeling of thankfulness and service. It is that feeling that is both mystifying and beautiful. There is always that part of me that was raised and knew no other way of thinking or feeling. It is that part and the subsequent questioning that remained, and that part and questioning is why I write this.
There are numerous organizations on campus dedicated to the religious facet of life. It is intriguing at first glance why such a singular ideology seems to function in a microcosmic fishbowl such as Ohio University in so many different forms.
One such organization is the previously-titled Campus Crusade for Christ. But the negative connotations of the word “crusade,” including but not limited to religiously-motivated war and death, led the group to change its name to the more marketable CRU. It is the single largest organization on campus, containing somewhere around 500 members, all brought together by their devotion to Christianity and its many permutations. As an organization, it acts as a way to integrate into OU and the Athens community by providing a place for fellow Christians to congregate for prayer, bible study and events including charitable work and socials. Its network and government are loose-fitting; anyone can join and the officers act as figureheads to ensure that the organization is recognized by the school, the community and the students.
Zac Martin, a senior at OU and president of CRU, is one of those students. Raised Lutheran and a member of his local Lutheran church youth group, Martin became one of the many students who every year is handed a survey by CRU to judge if the group is the right fit for them. From there, he volunteered to take on the duties of president.
On Mondays and Tuesdays CRU hosts bible studies free to all who wish to come. They hold “180,” a weekly worship meeting on Thursdays, which students can hear a praise band and different speakers.
“We are proud to be one of the largest organizations on campus. It’s a really great way for people to engage in their faith and really express their faith. There’s something about kneeling in reverence to God and enjoying the service,” Martin said. “I like to spread that feeling.”
In addition, CRU hosts many public events such as a Halloween outreach, public prayers and community service projects with local churches. CRU provides such events for students and citizens as substitutes for behaviors that they don’t necessarily condone, such as drinking at parties on the weekends.
“Personally, it never interested me, it wasn’t something I wanted to do and when I first discovered CRU, I realized that I didn’t need that,” Martin said. “That was pretty special as a freshman.”
Liting Song, president of the Bible Fellowship and the Chinese Bible Fellowship, is an international student from China who was raised Buddhist. After discovering the Bible four years ago, she converted to Christianity. Both fellowships operate closely with the Athens Bible Church and Pastor William Hixson to conduct intense bible study and discussion.
“I found answers in the Bible,” Song said. “Things made sense when I read it in a way it didn’t under Buddhism. Being a part of the Bible Fellowship in Athens gives me the opportunity to spread the word and prayer of the Gospels.”
Both Bible fellowship groups led by her meet five times a week in addition to traditional masses led by Pastor Hixson on Sundays. The organization involves 30 to 40 people. Typically, these members are more focused on worship and study than events and socials.
“We don’t do much of the event planning that CRU does,” Song said. “We’re far more interested in the Bible and understanding the Bible and reading the Bible. That is where we find our truth.”
For some, religion becomes more than a simple belief and turns into a lifestyle. Some align with church doctrine and some don’t. Some, like Martin and Song, are evangelical, otherwise known as fundamentalists, meaning they believe the Bible to be a factual account of history and actively engage in spreading the word.
“You know, there’s always going to be people who actively try to hurt your beliefs,” Martin said. “But the Bible accounts for many differences in history. It
doesn’t say evolution didn’t happen or that dinosaurs did not walk the Earth. I personally find it hard to believe we simply came from a Big Bang. I mean, what started the Big Bang?”
Both Song and Martin support the recent Obama service initiative called the President’s Interfaith and Community Service Campus Challenge, which brings together college organizations and groups of different religious affiliation to do good deeds and charity work.
“It’s great when people can compromise and work to make the world better,” Martin said. “I love the opportunities to learn about cultures and things I wasn’t exposed to growing up.”
Song agreed. “I think it’s a great way to learn about other religions. It’s important not just as Christians but as people to do that.”
Though both have different ways of expressing their beliefs, they are tied together by one thing that is shared by many students, regardless of race, creed, nationality and gender: the love of OU.
“I love the campus. It’s so culturally diverse, full of international students we can learn from and reach out to,” Martin said. “The campus is beautiful.”
“The landscape is so green,” Song said. “There are just so many animals! That’s just not something that’s usual in China.”
Two people from opposite sides of the world with similar yet different goals on the same subject united in their love of Ohio University.
