Student Evangelism: yea or nay?

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

A short while ago I started a thread on here called Crushed by Born Again Christianity about my ex-boyfriend's conversion to born again Christianity at university and how it had left me with an aversion to religion and an inability to feel comfortable exploring spiritual matters.

Following on from that thread, I wanted to look at the whole issue of freedom of religious expression and whether there is a case to be made for curtailing it in certain instances.

To help you understand why I feel it necessary to even suggest this possibility, I need to explain a little more about my ex's conversion. Writing it down might help me get it out my system too!

The process of conversion took place in a university hall of residence and began with a knock on his door within the first few weeks of him starting his course - a vulnerable time for many new students. The evangelisers were students themselves, also living in the hall, students who were too inexperienced to realise that their zealous talk of sinners, death, hell and salvation, might do more harm than good.

Of course, the student evangelisers were not acting completely alone. They were the frontline soldiers. In the background, overseeing and encouraging operations, were an organisation called the Navigators - an American group whose raison d'etre is conversion - and a local conservative, evangelical church that would later become known in the media for its staunch anti-homosexual stance.

I went to live in the same hall of residence in the middle of the academic year, having not been offered a place at the start. (I had therefore missed out on the early recruitment drive and knew nothing about it.)

After my arrival there, my ex would come to my room in the evening, looking and sounding absolutely petrified. He would tell me over and over that he was scared of dying, scared of falling asleep at night and never waking up. He would sob and sob, and I would hold him in my arms and try to comfort and reassure him. At the time I didn't know anything about the born again Christians and he didn't mention them. His fears seemed to have appeared out of nowhere. I felt so sorry for him. Though I tried not to show it, I felt a bit panicky too because I didn't know how to fix things for him. We were both only just turned seventeen.

As the year progressed, his attitude towards me changed. He started to mention the born again Christians and identify with their beliefs. They offered a solution to his fears and were loving and friendly towards him. In his mind I was now some heaving-bosomed harlot who would lead him astray - it was what he was being told. There was pressure on him to drop me and after several difficult months, he did.

It was only recently through reading my ex's online writings about his conversion that I realised the initial 'door-knocking' had taken place in the first few weeks of the academic year, so before the onset of his emotional crisis. (In his account there is no mention of being scared witless - the conversion period is painted as a glorious time, which it certainly wasn't.)

With all this in mind, I would contend that giving the task of converting students to other students is irresponsible. Suffused by youthful religious fervour and subject to an overly simplistic idealism, student evangelisers can all too easily be like 'bulls in a china shop' and do a lot of damage to the psyches of those they seek to convert. And apart from the effect on the individual, the impact on family and friends needs to be considered too (but rarely is).

Think, for example, of the Muslim student at risk of adopting a belief system that would leave him an outcast in his community, or the gay or lesbian student who is offered friendship, salvation and a heavy dose of guilt about their very identity.

If you belong to a faith that believes in converting others, please reconsider your views on outreach groups in schools and universities and reconsider your views on the use of youngsters in conversion work. If it is to happen at all, churches or other places of worship would be better environments for such practices, somewhere that young people can make a conscious decision to visit should they choose to find out more about a religion, somewhere they can talk to a responsible adult with some training in - or at least some knowledge of - psychology as well as religious doctrine.

As an aside, I would also be against students in atheist groups doing their own form of 'evangelising' door-to-door.

Converting someone is a delicate matter. If it is to be attempted - and I remain unconvinced that it is ever justifiable - then it should be undertaken with wisdom, compassion, restraint and an understanding of and sensitivity to context - the cultural and religious background of the person you wish to convert and their life circumstances at the time.


Thank you for reading - even if you've concluded I'm a bit mad and obsessed with the past - a viewpoint with which I can only concur!


But just a few questions as a postscript:

Have you been involved in evangelism as a student? If so, has your attitude to your involvement changed now that you are older?

What do you think about students converting other students? What are your views on an organisation like the Navigators - or indeed equivalent conversion groups affiliated with other religions - having a presence on campuses?

Would you prefer an outright ban on door-to-door evangelising in student residences by any religious - or even atheist - groups to protect your children?

[Lookingforfocus]

Well the first thing that comes to mind is in most countries students at University will be over 18 and legal adults. So these decisions should be made by the students or student body not the parents.

[PourquoiTuGachesTaVie]

Yy to what pp said about them being over 18. Not much you can do once they're adults.

Isn't uni where students are exposed to all sorts of new ideas and philosophies? Religion, politics... It's all part of the experience isn't it?

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Just to add - we were in Scotland where you could go off to uni younger (at 17). But even at 18+, you would surely need legal guidance in matters of law and policies within an institute of learning - and what might be possible? Any adult would. And as a parent, you can still haves wishes as to how a university might be run. Your concern for your children does not stop when they are fully grown.

[vdbfamily]

My recollection of Uni is that it is a time when you challenge all the views you grew up with and start experimenting in all sorts of ways.You might drink more,have casual relationships,try drugs, get into politics,join some clubs, take up new hobbies and start to question what you believe. For young adults who grow up in Christian homes, it is often 'make or break' time as they are surrounded by so many other ideals and behaviours. For those from an athiest/agnostic home it is often, I agree, the first time they will encounter evangelical Christians trying to convince them that Christianity is true. My husband was in this situation having grown up in an athiest home. He was invited to Bible studies, became convinced it was true, was baptised in the North Sea and has not looked back since.He did nearly lose his family over it as they felt,possibly like you, that he had been brainwashed by some loony group. Unfortunately their narrow minded response to that was to threaten to excommunicate him unless he changed his mind. He had just regained a bit of trust when he met and married me and because that raised the whole Christian thing again, they refused to attend our wedding and refused to have anything to do with him. That was 12 years ago but this year things started to change and yesterday we spent a lovely day with them.
I guess to answer this question you would need to speak to people who were actively evangelised at Uni and ask them if they felt it was a bad thing. For those who became Christians and still are , I guess they would totally disagree with you. For those who investigated and decided it was not for them, I guess they would say it was all part of learning. I guess they might be a few who feel messed up by it but I have never met one yet. If you banned it you would also have to ban all political groups and idealogies as they are all challenging what young adults think and could potentially change their lives forever, as could alcohol/drugs/promiscious sex. That's Uni for you and that's one reason why people go!!

[DontstepontheMomeRaths]

The navigators sound quite cultish and worrying. And I say that as someone who's gone to church her whole life.

I find anyone who knocks on my door to convert me, deeply intrusive. JWs really get my goat.

[BackOnlyBriefly]

It is true that 18 year olds are adults so a simple ban on anyone speaking to them on any subject would be wrong. There are ways to tackle this though.

Firstly an 18yo needn't be that vulnerable. There is a perfectly understandable urge for parents to shield their children from the real world. So much so that when they do go out there they are overwhelmed - it's not doing them any favours. Even though I'm an atheist I've never been against religious education. In the true sense that is. Not as a euphemism for making other people's kids bow down to your personal god. Religion is real even if god isn't, so kids need to know what it's about.

As parents we employ schools/staff to teach our children what they need to know. We have them taught that while a loving partnership and sexual relationship can be lovely they should wait for emotional maturity before leaping in. They should be taught the same thing about religions. They should learn about them all and understand them before doing anything that can't be easily undone.

I said we can't ban students from talking about certain things, but we could do something about organisations who deliberately target halls of residence. Consider that in schools we don't approve of a 30 year old teacher having a pupil as as a boy/girlfriend even if the pupil is over the age of consent. Even though that is technically legal we see it as taking advantage of someone vulnerable who can't even leave to escape the pressure.

Evangelising halls of residence is similar. Someone has said "Let's go round to the halls of residence and try it on them as they will be lonely and easy marks. We'll have to send some young people to do it because it will look dodgy if we're seen hanging around".

It's a repulsive policy that should be rejected by atheist and religious alike. We don't need to ban them. It would be perfectly ok to name and shame them.

[LarrytheCucumber]

Young Christians do evangelise at Universities, but there isn't always an organisation in the background. The CU is usually full of enthusiastic young people who feel they have found the answers and want to share it with others. It isn't a question of 'getting scalps' but of believing so much in what you have found that you want others to believe too.

[SBGA]

What if the evangelists are right though?

You'd be thankful that you had a fair chance to choose for yourself, at the very least.

Your ex says he wasn't harmed by it, quite the reverse. He's thankful someone told him and sees himself as now saved from harm.

What is he worst that can happen - people lead a life of seeking to replicate their behaviour on God's, to please Him? Well trying to achieve that that would make them live a life of higher morals not lower ones, so society wins again.

[DioneTheDiabolist]

How long ago did this happen OP?

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

DioneTheDiabolist - around 30 years ago! Yes, I know. I process things v-e-r-y s-l-o-w-l-y. However, subsequent breakups did not linger in the same way because they were 'normal' breakups - another woman in one case, other case he just got bored of me! But anyway, less traumatic. And now there is DP - he's probably equally bored but at least he's got interesting hobbies to keep him going!

[papercliplover]

You can't stop it. Any more than you can stop any of the other very zealous groups that abound at university.

Are you going to apply the same logic to the political organisations? The environmental ones? Any of the myriad of enthusiasms that young adults at uni take up?

[DioneTheDiabolist]

Has something happened that is now causing this to loom large in your mind? How old is your DS?

[OutwiththeOutCrowd]

Dione DS is just 12, so not off to uni - if he goes - for a while!

Of course, I do feel protective of him and I wouldn't like to think of him getting caught up in a cultlike group like my ex.

I'm not against people 'finding religion', if they are answering a call from within themselves to go and look for spiritual answers. It's the aggressive marketing and fear and guilt tactics used by some religious groups to push ideas onto others I don't like, especially when the 'victims' are young, lonely and vulnerable.

[papercliplover]

Outwiththecrowd - what you just said could equally apply to many of the organisations that exist in a university.

[papercliplover]

Namechanger - I disagree.

[NotDavidTennant]

Hear, hear.

I can remember when I was a student we were warned that there were cults that deliberately targeted impressionable young students who were away from home for the first time, and that we should be wary of people who seemed to be offering you friendship with the ulterior motive of getting you to join their group. And yet religious organisations like the Christian Union seemed to operate in exactly the same way, but because these groups weren't 'cults' (and I'm sure would have kicked up one hell of a fuss if anyone described them such) we weren't warned about them.

I personally struggle to see the difference between some aggressively evangelical Christian movements and cults. Both should be kept away from young people going through a difficult and confusing time in their life.

[Katisha]

I was involved with the Navigators a very long time ago. Probably similar sort of time that you are talking about OP. I did have a conversion experience and as my friends at university were involved in that group that's what I joined.

They are not a cult but I can see why people can think of them that way. With the disclaimer that I dont know what they are like now, I would say at that time they were very well meaning but clumsy in their way of going about things. A lot of universities had a married couple (usually) leading the "Ministry" in that area, and the idea was that they "trained disciples", ie taught students how to reach out to other students. There was a lot of emphasis on Bible study and memorisation of the key bits of the Bible, quite a lot of meetings to attend, but also very much a feeling of community and general welcome and a feeling of belonging.

However even at the time, I felt they were very black and white in what they taught and how they behaved, very American in their prevaililng culture, and it doesn't surprise me at all to hear the your boyfriend was encouraged to drop you. That would have been seen as definitely a bad thing if you were not a christian, and even not of the evangelical persuasion.

It took me a long long time to process it all as well. I am still Christian, but having gone on to yet more evangelical churches over the years, I too now have something of a horror of it all, the language, the music, the black and whiteness of who is behaving in a way the culture demands and who isn't. I am now an Anglican which is very peaceful and non-controlling, and while my earlier self would have seen this is "backsliding" and not trying hard enough, I no longer care what that culture thinks.

If when my DC go to university I will hope to talk to them about knowing what they are getting into. Many groups are full of fire and zeal when you are that age and that is attractive. But I hope they will have the tools to assess what is going on and to be able to tell what is worth keeping and what isnt.

I hope this doesnt prevent you from thinking further about spiritual and philosphical things - i hope you can find a way of doing that - its not all black and white as the evangelicals would have us believe. You need to be able to tell the message from the medium really, hard as that is. Many churches are ultimately interested (however subconsciously) in controlling the membership so that everyone talks and even looks the same. They are deeply suspicious of someone who thinks outside their boxes and don't know what to do with them, other than label them as oddballs or rebels (as I was...) Look elsewhere. Personally I like somewhere with architecture, choral music and liturgy, which gives me the space I need after all that early hurly-burly and busyness!

[Pandabee11]

It not just in universities either. I just found out today that evangelical 'youth for Christ' has a foot hold at my daughters high school. I wasn't informed they were there. They have been teaching RE classes, having special assemblies and after school clubs. I only found out because they wanted my daughter to go on a day trip with them over half term.

I suppose their thinking is 'get them while their young'.

[LarrytheCucumber]

Pandabee yes, and a lot of schools are only too happy to get another box ticked - links with the local community, Christian input etc.
Being from an evangelical background it is really interesting hearing other people's reactions to what we see as perfectly normal.

[jasper]

Katisha my experience was very similar to yours .
I held resentment to the Navs for a long time ( I had an early unsuitable marriage connected with Nav involvement - see born again thread ) but I have let it go.

as you said they were a lovely well meaning bunch, if a bit bonkers.

[ErrolTheDragon]

Ah, this takes me back to my mis-spent youth. Uni CU was probably very good for me, as it turned out - I eagerly joined it (having been brought up as a christian, my main social life was the church Youth Fellowship). I remember at a meeting in the first term, there was a talk by some sort of coordinators, who warned us that about 70% of members eventually lost their faith - I couldn't believe that, I knew I wouldn't!

Guess what, within a couple of years I was an atheist.

No, I wouldn't ban them. They're mostly harmless and put more people off religion than they lure in, including those like me who might possibly have remained some sort of liberal christian. Exposure to fundamentalists was part of a useful learning process.