I realize I’m a bit late in commenting about this story, but I wanted to write a quick blog post about it.
As you may or may not have heard, Liberty University, a private, conservative, Christian college in Virgina founded by the late Jerry Falwell, has revoked their official recognition of its on-campus Young Democrats club, claiming that the club’s “parent organization stands against the conservative Christian school’s moral principles” . Liberty specifically cited the Democratic Party’s support of abortion rights and gay-marriage as examples. The club can now no longer meet on campus and is no longer eligible for any sort of school funding.
I am not very personally familiar with Liberty University, but I have obviously heard of Jerry Falwell, and I have a basic understanding of what the university stands for. I have not personally met anyone on staff or faculty at Liberty, and thus in the interest of trying to be fair-minded, I will give those behind this decision the benefit of the doubt, and presume that they are honest people handling this situation according to their conscience.
That being said, I am concerned about this decision for a number of reasons, and I I believe it raises some important questions. I should preface this by saying that while I am moderately interested in political issues, I have never at any time in my adult life identified myself with a political party. Now, my concerns:
1) This reinforces the stereotype that Christians hold a blind allegiance to the Republican Party. In disallowing campus Democrats but allowing campus Republicans, Liberty is furthering its historic endorsement of conservative politics, and furthering the stereotype that all Christians are Republicans. Indeed, many Christians are Republicans, but thankfully many Bible-believing Christians are beginning to see what has been plainly true for decades: the party platforms of both major political parties, while having some value, each contain positions that are biblically indefensible. More on this later. Perhaps a more biblically faithful way of promoting secular politics on campus would be to create clubs or societies that can sponsor discussions and debates about particular issues. In that sort of setting people could be educated about issues without one political party being officially endorsed. This sort of decision also carries with it the appearance of a judgmental spirit. Whether or not such a spirit actually exists is irrelevant…the appearance is enough.
2) It stifles free speech. Liberty is already widely known for its prevention of free speech on its campus. Kevin Roose, a Brown student who spent some time as a student at Liberty, said, “Liberty stifles free speech by censoring its student newspaper, refusing to give tenure to its faculty, and suppressing students who wish to speak out.” The fact is, the Christian faith must be able to win when presented alongside competing ideologies within the marketplace of ideas. It cannot be made most prominent in society by silencing dissent. Actions like this, in my view, indicate fear from those in power, rather than confidence in convictions by those in power. It reeks of Constantinianism, and the church is still feeling the negative effects of that era. The church functions best when it is on the margins, anyways.
3) It alienates those who hold differing views. I have used this logic before when talking with peers about issues like evolution. The continuous crusade that many Christians are on to fight evolutionary theory (and the downright silly propaganda that accompanies it…thank you, Ben Stein), I am convinced, does more harm than good. It broadcasts to the unbelieving world that they cannot believe in evolution and still be a Christian, to which, I have to imagine, those with a working knowledge of evolution respond by keeping their distance from all things Christian. The fact is, people need Jesus, not a particular theory about how the world came to be. For that reason (and because I myself am sympathetic to theistic evolution), I don’t waste my time trying to disprove evolution. I’m willing to surrender it in a discussion about God and faith. I just don’t believe that when I get to heaven God is going to ask me how old I think the earth is.
In this instance, the message being sent is that to be a Christian is to be a Republican. Most intelligent people know that this isn’t true, but I think it would be fair to say that many intelligent people outside of the faith have what little interest they may have in learning more about it stifled by stories like this, which seem to broadcast intolerance. This sort of intolerance hinders the gospel. If for no other reason than that, these sorts of decisions should be avoided.
4) It over-simplifies two complex issues. Those complex issues are, of course, abortion and gay marriage. I should say here that I consider myself holistically pro-life, which means I am opposed to abortion, the death penalty, war, and virtually any other voluntary taking of human life. I believe the New Testament supports this position. Furthermore, I recognize and wholeheartedly affirm what the Bible says about human sexuality, specifically that God’s intention for marriage is one man and one woman. That being said, these issues have more nuance than we are willing to admit. The fact is, abortion is an economic issue, and in order to reduce abortions we, as a society, have to be willing to addresss the economic factors that often lead women to make these tragic choices. In other words, abortion is a social evil that will not be legislated away. I say all of this because it seems as a society we are divided in that some oppose abortion legislatively yet do little to prevent it (other than picketing) while others support this atrocious practice while also supporting economic policies that do a better job of caring for the poor. There needs to be a marriage of these two points of view. As far as gay marriage goes, I will simply say this: gay people do not need to be told they cannot get married. They need to be told about Jesus. Our job is to herald the good news that salvation is available through Jesus Christ. The Holy Spirit convicts of all sorts of different sins.
And now, a few questions:
1) Is there a “Christian” political party? My answer to this would be a resounding, “no”. I am continuously baffled by the number of smart Christians I meet who swear a deep allegiance to either political party. It just doesn’t make sense biblically. As Christians we should be able to speak prophetically to both parties.
2) When will evangelical Christians start scrutinizing the Republican Party like we do the Democrat Party? I am thankful for voices like Jim Wallis, Tony Campolo, Greg Boyd, and Shane Claiborne (among others) that are already doing this.
3) What is the proper Christian response to institutions like Liberty that claim the name of Christ and yet so firmly align themselves with a partisan political ideology? I don’t know. Some combination of rebuke and grace seems appropriate.
Your thoughts?
3 Comments
June 5, 2009 at 3:13 pm
Abortion is no more complex than any other manner of killing. The fact that we as a society have decided that “traditional” murder and is worthy of punishment has not eliminated it from society any more than it would with abortion. Making murder a crime does not address any of the social and/or economic issues that induce people to perpetrate it, but we outlaw murder because it is morally wrong and harmful to society. Abortion is murder, plain and simple.
With that said, I agree with the overall gist of the post and its point is well taken despite some differences over specific points.
June 5, 2009 at 4:17 pm
Shinton,
The points you raise are good. Abortion is murder, and ideally it should be dealt with societally in much the same way that murder is. I think the operative word in that sentence is “ideally”. The fact is, much of our society has rationalized abortion to the point where the “abortion is muder, plain and simple” argument, while empirically true, is not productive in terms of forming policy. I guess my point is that we are working within a society that a) likely will never make abortion illegal, and b) even if it does, it will never impose penalties for abortion that are on par with murder. Thus, eliminating abortion, sadly, requires a more creative solution. I say all of this not to push back against your comment–to the contrary, I agree with it– but instead only to clarify my position, which was perhaps a bit unclear in my post. Thanks for commenting.
June 7, 2009 at 4:57 pm
Brian, I appreciate your recognition that abortion is a complex issue. It’s so offensive and off-putting to hear white, affluent, male Christians (who are often pro-death penalty and pro-war)call it “murder,” and brush it off as if it is a black and white issue – especially in the case of rape, incest, sickness, etc. Simply legislating abortion away shouldn’t be the approach Christians take – rather, they should be focused on providing more comprehensive sexual education, reducing violence against women, and solving some of the economic issues that lead women to abortion.