Isaac Tolbert
On Sept. 5, the Technician published an article titled “Why I am proud to be called a Christian.” While I am glad the author is proud of his faith, I feel that he has spread some mistruths that, as a Christian, I feel compelled to dispute.
The first claim I take issue with is the assertion that “Declaring this faith [Christianity] in a university setting … has not been and will never be easy.” As a Christian at NC State University, I have never been pressured by others to hide my religion or felt uncomfortable with declaring my faith. At college, I find that I am surrounded by people who follow (more or less) the same religion as I do: Christianity. Those who don’t follow Christianity have been very understanding and accepting of my faith, and statistics suggest that my experience isn’t an anomaly.
A study conducted by the Higher Education Research Institute (HERI) of over 112,000 incoming freshmen at 236 colleges and universities nationwide showed that approximately 70 percent of those freshmen identify as Christian. By contrast, only 17 percent of students said they had no religious preference, and Buddhist, Jewish, Hindu and Muslim students accounted for only 5 percent of respondents.
As Christians at a university, we are surrounded by people of the same faith. With relative ease, we can find fellow Christians to share in our religion. As a member of a religious majority, I’ve always found it easy to follow and discuss Christianity with my fellow students. I dare say that a student who doesn’t have the benefit of belonging to a majority religion would face more pressure regarding their religion than a student of the Christian faith.
Next, the author states that, “An example close to home of Christians being persecuted occurred when we were required a permit to talk about Jesus in Talley Student Union.” This is a claim I’ve heard repeated many times since the legal battle between Grace Christian Life and NC State University began, and it’s simply not true.
To start, Grace Christian Life was not required to obtain a permit to “talk about Jesus.” Grace Christian Life could “talk about Jesus” as much as they desired. They were required to obtain a permit to walk around Talley, hand out fliers and solicit people one-on-one. The university policy applied to all student groups, regardless of religious affiliation or lack thereof. Policies that apply to all religions do not constitute persecution against Christians. One could make the argument that the university’s policy to require permits before solicitation infringed on the free speech of students, but to say that it’s evidence of Christian persecution is just misrepresenting the facts.
The author also says that “we have a long way to go in securing religious freedom on campus.” Anyone who has spent any time at NC State knows that this is not true. According to getinvolved.ncsu.edu, there are 716 registered student organizations on campus. Of those, 66 are listed in the “Religious/Spiritual” category, meaning that almost 10 percent of student clubs have some religious or spiritual focus. Of those 66 clubs, there are 51 Christian-affiliated student groups. It seems rather ludicrous, then, to claim that Christians have not secured religious freedom on campus and that we are being persecuted when 77 percent of religious clubs are Christian.
When Christians make claims like these, they are not only spreading misinformation, they are hurting the image of Christianity as a whole. In American universities, Christians are given incredible liberty to practice, preach and spread our faith. When we try to cultivate an image of ourselves as an embattled religion, fighting back against great oppression by both society and college administrations, we only make ourselves look foolish. Christianity isn’t a minority group fighting for inclusion at college, and the insistence on portraying ourselves as one is little more than Christians playing victim to fit our self-imposed narrative of persecution.
As Christians, we have a duty to be better than that. Instead of wringing our hands over how “persecuted” we are, we should be aware of the vast liberties available to us and not insist on special accommodations just because we are Christian. Instead of patting ourselves on the back for “standing up for what [we] believe in” and “not conforming to the masses,” we should strive for greater understanding of our faith, as simply not following the masses is, by itself, not enough to make one righteous. We should remind ourselves that we are not superior or more virtuous, in any way, to those who live the “traditional college lifestyle,” no matter how many frat parties they attend and late Saturday nights they have.
In his article, the author makes a point to distance himself from the Westboro Baptist Church and the Brickyard preachers, as these groups can “give other Christians a bad name.” While this is certainly true, Christian-sourced misinformation and the misplaced victim complex that many Christians possess does far more damage to Christianity’s image than any hate group. It is good to be proud of one’s religion, but Christians should also heed the words of James 4:6: “God opposes the proud, but gives grace to the humble.”