College Conservatism

[Candide]

Now, this is not a thread to discus the various merits/shortfalls of liberal or conservative Christianity.

I have just recently noticed that there seems to be a large amount of college students drawn to really conservative translations of Christianity, and I'm wondering what's not. As I said, this is neither bad nor good, I just find it odd. So called "liberal" Christians like myself seem to be the minority in college aged circles, and that strikes me as odd since the college age population is generally liberal as a whole. One of the most popular college groups in town (3 services of 200 or so) is extremely conservative, to the point where they won't allow women to be on the pastoral team...and that brand of Christianity seems to be really prevalent in most of the college groups here.

Has anybody else noticed this?

Why are college kids attracted to conservative Christianity, more so than liberal Christianity?

 

[Epiphoskei]

Define "liberal christianity." Is it just christianity which has a liberal political agenda, or the "Jesus was just a good teacher/bible isn't inspired/non-christians go to heaven too" brand?

 

[Candide]

Yes, I suppose those do need some defining. Not either of what you said, though.

One example is interpreting the bible completely literally (six day creation, no woman pastors), or allowing historical context to affect your interpretation (woman pastors are okay, etc.).

Does that help?

 

[Sketcher]

Good. Conservative Christianity is the correct Christianity, generally speaking. While numbers alone are not a reliable indicator, I would hope this is why such groups are popular.

 

[alfrodull]

I think it's because conservatives tend to be louder in general. It's not that there aren't liberal Christians at my college. It's just that we aren't out embarrassing the faith with free Bible verse lemonade.

 

[bliz]

I think Christian young adults are more conservative these days. Back in my day... well, it was a different world.

I also think many young adults have only grown so far in their faith. If you check back in with these folks in 20 years, you may find the a lot more "liberal".

The CHristian right wing gets so much attention... Have you spent much time reading up on the CHristian left? www.sojo.org is great place to start.

 

[Epiphoskei]

Given modern trends, you may also find them no longer Christian. People don't seem to grow in their faith these days.

 

[ImperialPhantom]

It's a backlash to the liberal attitude of college campuses in general, as well as a response to the types of Christian fads that are popular nowadays (Josh Harris and all that).

 

[ImperialPhantom]

Good. Conservative Christianity is the correct Christianity, generally speaking. While numbers alone are not a reliable indicator, I would hope this is why such groups are popular.

You're just asking to start an argument with that kind of response. Conservative Christianity is not the "correct" form - it's just that you conservatives tend to make blanket stereotypes of liberal Christianity as extremists.

 

[Sketcher]

You're just asking to start an argument with that kind of response. Conservative Christianity is not the "correct" form - it's just that you conservatives tend to make blanket stereotypes of liberal Christianity as extremists.

Taking the Bible literally and following it isn't such a bad thing. Calm yourself.

 

[Apollo Celestio]

Don't know, I don't socialize at school. The only clue I can see if someone is Christian is if they wear a cross or something. I guess I'd have to examine it for myself, but I really suck at talking to people. I'm not interested in political agendas(I'm independent.) But on theology, conservative Christianity sounds like a good thing..

 

[ImperialPhantom]

Taking the Bible literally and following it isn't such a bad thing. Calm yourself.

You calm yourself. Conservative Christians have a bad habit of adding to the Bible, trying to make rules that aren't there, trying to control people with their beliefs, and slandering/libeling liberal and moderate Christians, as well as being closed-minded to anything that doesn't agree with their own beliefs. Not all of course, but MANY, especially the most vocal ones, do.

 

[Candide]

I think Christian young adults are more conservative these days. Back in my day... well, it was a different world.

I also think many young adults have only grown so far in their faith. If you check back in with these folks in 20 years, you may find the a lot more "liberal".

The CHristian right wing gets so much attention... Have you spent much time reading up on the CHristian left? www.sojo.org is great place to start.

Sojo is one of my favorite groups.

I'm fairly familiar with both liberal and conservative, and well versed in most of the rhetoric and such.

I've just noticed a trend of a super conservative/fundamentalist movement of college aged kids, and I find it somewhat odd (though not good or bad!).

 

[Epiphoskei]

You calm yourself. Conservative Christians have a bad habit of adding to the Bible, trying to make rules that aren't there, trying to control people with their beliefs, and slandering/libeling liberal and moderate Christians, as well as being closed-minded to anything that doesn't agree with their own beliefs. Not all of course, but MANY, especially the most vocal ones, do.

It's all there. Only a terribly small minority actually tries to read things that aren't in the book into the book itself.

 

[ImperialPhantom]

Okay, so tell me how many conservative Christian kids, who read Josh Harris books, take them almost as if they were gospel?

 

[apumic]

I would have to agree that much of the appearance of this is probably due to conservative Christians being more obvious in terms of being a more counter-cultural movement.
Still... I think that the (Christian) university I am at has, in some ways, made me much more liberal in my Christianity. While I still hold to a literal interpretation of Scripture, see Scripture as God-inspired (but written by human hands), and believe in a literal heaven and hell, I am not much more willing to take into account the context in which each text was written and how that impacts our exegesis and interpretation of the text. In this sense, I would actually expect far more Christian college students to be more liberally minded in their take on Scripture -- especially if they are studying religion, theology, biblical studies or christian ministries.

 

[alfrodull]

Okay, so tell me how many conservative Christian kids, who read Josh Harris books, take them almost as if they were gospel?

Enough that a girl can't get a date. And that's more than enough for my liking.

 

[BoxBunny]

I think it may also depend on the college. For undergrad I attended a liberal arts school, and though I am not christian myself I met many liberal minded christians and people of other faiths and we all got along great. The curriculum there was based on this notion of expanding or knowledge and understanding of our changing culture and sense of self.

For grad school however, I am attending a college that has a much stronger business and science program. So far I've been running into conservative minded Christians or Jews and there have been problems. I really don't like being looked down own for my faith.

 

[BranwenUerchLlyr]

I'd have to agree with Imperial, the sense that college campuses in general are "liberal" (college kids, drinking!? Oh The Horror!!), and that Christians are to "swim against the stream" of the world.

I enjoy the hanging out at the BSU at my school. They seem surprised to talk to someone who isn't a Christian, who does drink, does go to clubs, but who also gets straight As and doesn't run around campus nekkid in 20 degree weather. There just seems to be quite the us (good Christians, As, no drinking, no sex) vs. them ("worldly," alcoholics, sex fiends, failing grades) mentality, and to them I seem to throw a bit of cognitive dissonance into the mix. She drinks, but doesn’t “hook up” in bars? She’s not a Christian, but doesn’t dress obscenely? She dates, but avoids the “frat boys”? What species is this?

Most Christians are very much like this, though, with a wide variety of interests and activities. I don’t know why this seems so surprising to the “conservative” sects.

 

[Sketcher]

You calm yourself. Conservative Christians have a bad habit of adding to the Bible, trying to make rules that aren't there, trying to control people with their beliefs, and slandering/libeling liberal and moderate Christians, as well as being closed-minded to anything that doesn't agree with their own beliefs. Not all of course, but MANY, especially the most vocal ones, do.

Dude, whatever. You're the one blowing a gasket here.

The fact that conservative Christians get together and dominate the scene is not a problem. Calling sin what the Bible calls sin is not a problem. Spreading the Gospel is not a problem. Believing what it says about Jesus being the only way to Heaven is not a problem. Keeping their noses clean is not a problem.

There is a tendency to put unwritten rules out there, but it's not as severe as a lot of people make out. The THOU SHALT NOT DANCE people are not what I call conservative, but ultra-traditional. Why? Because Scripture doesn't condemn dancing. Someone just went liberal in the non-permissive direction and thus a tradition was born. The Christians I were around in college weren't the ultra-traditional cane-shakers that you're thinking of. In fact, people like that didn't tend to stay in the Christian group I was a part of, which most people would rightly call conservative. I'd say in terms of being conservative vs. ultra-traditional, they were mostly conservative. A few things that weren't spelled out in Scripture were emphasized, but it's not as if people who didn't follow that were considered eeevil people. We were built on being honest with, respectful of, and loving one another.

I enjoy the hanging out at the BSU at my school. They seem surprised to talk to someone who isn't a Christian, who does drink, does go to clubs, but who also gets straight As and doesn't run around campus nekkid in 20 degree weather. There just seems to be quite the us (good Christians, As, no drinking, no sex) vs. them ("worldly," alcoholics, sex fiends, failing grades) mentality, and to them I seem to throw a bit of cognitive dissonance into the mix.

A good organization, first of all. But yes, there is that attitude because that's what we see. People chatting on their cell phones about getting smashed, the lines at bars when we're going out at night, etc. I personally would not want to hang out with Christians who just "went drinking" because when that happens people get drunk. We're not about getting drunk. You don't have to be a teetotaler in order to be this way. I for example, had a beer on trip I was on with some other guys from the group and there was no problem at all. By contrast, a roommate of mine told me about the Christian group he was in when he started school. During a spontaneous fun activity, alcohol was involved and he as a freshman got drunk - when it was all Christians there! Now, the outcome was obviously much better than it would be at a secular party, since he was taken care of in short order but you've got to be careful with stuff like that. If you've got freshmen getting drunk when Christians get together to have fun, what message does that send. Not a message I want to be sending.