CU's in the news....
Hold the frontpage! CU's throughout the country are getting a hard time from Student Unions, according to today's Times. This time they're not taking it on their knees, they're taking legal advice. Apparently, in our tolerant and pluralist society, we are to tolerate everything and anything except what for two thousand years would have been considered fairly orthodox Christianity. The main pressure points seem to be over CU's views on homosexuality and having non-believers speak at their meetings.
But before we detect a rise in secularist intolerance, this is ringing bells. For as long as I can remember CU's were getting on the wrong side of Guilds and occasionally University authorities. What might be getting the goat of their opponents at the moment is more interesting. When I was an undergraduate, our activities as Christian students (including our attempts to reach out to, and persuade others of the truth of the Gospel) were by and large perceived as fair enough; no different from what other student societies claimed they were in the business of doing. Alternatively it was viewed patronisingly as a phase we were going through and would grow out of. Christian belief, and religious belief in general, were thought to be quietly expiring. Our efforts were the last faint twitches of the soon-to-be corpse. What's got the secularists rattled (as the Times leader fairly points out) is that far from disappearing, religion, even the evangelical form of the Christian religion, has not expired. Indeed it seems to be thriving. Hence this is perhaps an attempt to put it on the back foot. Hence also the increasingly desperate attempts (largely aided and abetted by a fawning media) of the likes of Richard Dawkins to persuade the many that religion is after all about myths, legends, irrelevances and obscurantism. But relatively few appear to be persuaded. The young in particular are increasingly turning to religion in its various forms, or at least spirituality in the broad sense.
The challenge to those of us who believe in the unique truth of the Christian Gospel, is to communicate it more effectively against a background of increased interest in spirituality. The challenge is also to communicate with those who believe in the unique truth of their creed. The key here is proper respect and real tolerance. Not though the kind of tolerance that says that we'll tolerate you if you keep silent or sign up to our secularist vision. But the tolerance that accepts that if I don't persuade you, I'm not then going to beat you or kill you, or ostracise you. But recognise your God-given autonomy and freedom not to believe, and your right to still to live alongside me. That's actually how most communities operate most of the time. With substantial amounts of agreeing to disagree without be disagreeable. It would be good if we lived in such a community.
Hold the frontpage! CU's throughout the country are getting a hard time from Student Unions, according to today's Times. This time they're not taking it on their knees, they're taking legal advice. Apparently, in our tolerant and pluralist society, we are to tolerate everything and anything except what for two thousand years would have been considered fairly orthodox Christianity. The main pressure points seem to be over CU's views on homosexuality and having non-believers speak at their meetings.
But before we detect a rise in secularist intolerance, this is ringing bells. For as long as I can remember CU's were getting on the wrong side of Guilds and occasionally University authorities. What might be getting the goat of their opponents at the moment is more interesting. When I was an undergraduate, our activities as Christian students (including our attempts to reach out to, and persuade others of the truth of the Gospel) were by and large perceived as fair enough; no different from what other student societies claimed they were in the business of doing. Alternatively it was viewed patronisingly as a phase we were going through and would grow out of. Christian belief, and religious belief in general, were thought to be quietly expiring. Our efforts were the last faint twitches of the soon-to-be corpse. What's got the secularists rattled (as the Times leader fairly points out) is that far from disappearing, religion, even the evangelical form of the Christian religion, has not expired. Indeed it seems to be thriving. Hence this is perhaps an attempt to put it on the back foot. Hence also the increasingly desperate attempts (largely aided and abetted by a fawning media) of the likes of Richard Dawkins to persuade the many that religion is after all about myths, legends, irrelevances and obscurantism. But relatively few appear to be persuaded. The young in particular are increasingly turning to religion in its various forms, or at least spirituality in the broad sense.
The challenge to those of us who believe in the unique truth of the Christian Gospel, is to communicate it more effectively against a background of increased interest in spirituality. The challenge is also to communicate with those who believe in the unique truth of their creed. The key here is proper respect and real tolerance. Not though the kind of tolerance that says that we'll tolerate you if you keep silent or sign up to our secularist vision. But the tolerance that accepts that if I don't persuade you, I'm not then going to beat you or kill you, or ostracise you. But recognise your God-given autonomy and freedom not to believe, and your right to still to live alongside me. That's actually how most communities operate most of the time. With substantial amounts of agreeing to disagree without be disagreeable. It would be good if we lived in such a community.
posted by Paul at 9:48 AM
1 Comments:
Firstly, it's good to see you back.
Secondly, a quote from the Times:
'Much of the opposition to the Christian unions stems from their ten-point statement of beliefs or “doctrinal basis”, which states that “the whole of humankind is sinful and guilty” and has to be affirmed by all committee members and speakers.
At Heriot-Watt University, the CU is seeking legal advice after being refused affiliation to the students’ union because its statement of beliefs were deemed too exclusive. '
I was amused by the all have sinned part being followed by the complaint that CUs are too exclusive. :-)
Thirdly, perhaps we sometimes shoot ourselves in the foot. We should be careful about the language we use so that we don't come across as "disagreeable".
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