Alison Thomas's Speech at the 2008 Banquet
Thank you so much for having me—I am so glad to be here and to be able to see what God is doing through Caritas Academy. As a member of the itinerant team of Ravi Zacharias Ministries, I travel around the world to teach apologetics to teenagers. The reason why I do this is because of my own struggle with faith when I was a teenager. Like the students here tonight, I was raised in a loving, Christian home. I went to a Christian school from preschool to eighth grade, but I did not go to a Christian high school, which was a big mistake. Because when I got to college, I was not prepared for the attack that was launched against my faith.
Nancy Pearcy writes, “It’s a familiar but tragic story that devout young people, raised in Christian homes, head off to college and abandon their faith. Why is this pattern so common? Largely because young believers have not been taught how to develop a Biblical worldview. Instead, Christianity has been restricted to a specialized area of religious belief and personal devotion.”
George Barna reports that only 4% of born-again teenagers believe in “the accuracy of the Bible, personal responsibility to evangelize, believe in salvation by grace alone, and possess orthodox biblical views on God, Jesus, and Satan.” This is one of the reasons why about 50% of Christian college freshman will forsake their Christianity before their senior year.
Philosophy professor J. Budziszewski gives us another reason why this is happening in his book How to Stay Christian in College. He writes, “Modern institutions of higher learning have changed dramatically in the last half-century, and from the moment students set foot on the contemporary campus, their Christian convictions and discipline are assaulted.” As a fairly recent college graduate, I would affirm that this was exactly my experience. I want to tell you about some of those experiences so that you can see why it is so crucial for today’s Christian youth to receive education from a Christ-centered worldview early on and through high school, and from a classical perspective that emphasizes logic, because they will need it.
From the moment I entered my university campus, my faith was attacked all at once from every direction. My professors scoffed at the idea that some considered the Bible to be trustworthy historically. My classmates declared Christianity to be the cause of all the problems in the world, including violence, racism, and sexism. Members of my community reveled in the public disgrace of prominent evangelicals who fell from grace. There were also lifestyle challenges that presented themselves to me daily: parties, sex, alcohol, drugs. Combine this with sleep deprivation, poor nutrition, lack of exercise, fickle relationships, and the absence of mentors and accountability partners, and we have the perfect recipe for disaster. It is the combination of all of these factors makes staying Christian in college and beyond such a unique challenge. It was the awkward conversations about faith in college that I remember most clearly.
One such conversation took place on my very first day of college. It was a conversation with another student that left me quite jolted. Sitting next to me in class was a handsome young Indian gentleman. He introduced himself and after talking for a little while, he invited me to go to a Hindu festival of sorts with him, since I was also of Indian descent. When I sheepishly declined, he immediately asked if I was a Christian. He was convinced that Christianity was the perfect explanation for my being so closed-minded to ethnic festivities and celebrations of harmonious religious inclusion. To make matters worse, he was appalled that I would deny my own heritage and Indian roots. It seemed that being Indian and Christian were mutually exclusive. He proceeded to tell me a story that shook the foundations of my belief. He told me that the only reason I follow the Christian faith is because years ago missionaries went to India and brainwashed my ancestors. Behind the simple question “Are you a Christian?” were layers of other questions: “Do you accept me even though I am different from you?” “Do you think your way is the only way?” “Are you going to try to convert me to your view?” He challenged me to give him one good reason for being a Christian besides the fact that my parents, grandparents, great-grandparents and so forth were. I didn’t have any good reasons. In fact, I didn’t have any reasons period! I was speechless. It was at that moment that I realized that I was really just clinging to the coattails of my parents beliefs; my faith had never truly become my own. I was not prepared to give him an answer.
Another difficult classroom discussion concerned an odd homework assignment I was given early one semester. My class was instructed to walk to the main library at the heart of the campus. Once we were there, we were to carefully observe all of the walkways that lead to the main entrance of the library and draw a detailed picture of them. We were all quite confused as to why our first assignment in a class that was supposed to be focused on reading and writing was to draw a picture—and a picture of the ground at that! We drew our pictures and brought them to class. The professor told us that if we were observant, we would have drawn not just the main pavements made of concrete, but also the other walkways made of brick and stone. And if we were extremely observant, we would have included the most interesting type of walkway, the unique paths that people have created for themselves by wearing out the grass with their own footsteps. The purpose of this assignment, he said, was to show that even though there were a variety of different paths, they all lead to the same place—the main entrance—just like in the world’s religions lead to God. This pluralism was to be our framework for the rest of the semester as we read the sacred texts of the world: all religions lead to God because they were essentially all the same. I wish I knew at the time that to accept pluralism is really not to embrace openness but to reject one’s own tradition for another, the pluralist’s. Pluralism renders virtually vacuous the notion of even being “in a given religious tradition.” How is this preserving the uniqueness of individual religions? Alister McGrath ironically notes that this crude homogenizing of world religions implies that only the Western liberal academic can truly understand the world’s religions. Pluralists distort the claims of world religions by imposing their views upon them. If I was aware of this counterperspective, I would have had an answer ready. But instead, I sat in class silenced.
When professors do not prohibit or openly insult Christian expression, they often use the more subtle approach of patronizing it. For example, in a sociology class the professor described Jesus as “a really nice guy” who “was just all about love and peace.” She would never use such sweeping generalizations to describe a leader of another religion. But to her, it was perfectly acceptable to describe Christ in that manner. Basic conversation etiquette in the classroom did not apply when discussing Christ. In an advertising class, I had a professor who summarized Jesus ultimately as a brilliant advertising executive who was “going about his father’s business” selling redemption. He is no lamb of God but a full fledged salesman out on the hustings with his little band of “entrepreneurs.” Although they tout tolerance as the greatest virtue, university professors show little of it towards Christianity.
My view of many of today’s college professors has been summarized well by one of the most influential leaders of today’s New Atheism movement, Daniel Dennett. In his book Breaking the Spell: religion as a natural phenomenon, he writes: “They will see me as just another liberal professor trying to cajole them out of some of their convictions, and they are dead right about that—that’s what I am, and that’s exactly what I am trying to do." You will not believe some of the things that today’s anti-Christian professors and classmates will say to your students.
Christian apologist Dr. Richard Howe says, “Parents should try to make sure that their children are grounded in apologetics before sending them off. This does not mean that the students would have to have all the answers before they go, But it does mean that, if the need arises for an answer, they will know where to go and with whom to consult when the intellectual battle starts to rage. And it most certainly will rage. Students may not sign up for it as a class, but Leftist Indoctrination 101 is now part of the core curriculum being taught on college and university campuses nationwide.”
Christian author and speaker Nancy Pearcey writes, “As Christian parents, pastors, teachers, and youth group leaders, we constantly see young people pulled down by the undertow of powerful cultural trends. If all we give them is a ‘heart’ religion, it will not be strong enough to counter the lure of attractive but dangerous ideas. Young believers also need a “brain” religion – training in worldview and apologetics – to equip them to analyze and critique the competing worldviews they will encounter when they will leave home. If forewarned and forearmed, young people at least have a fighting chance when they find themselves a minority of one among their classmates or work colleagues. Training young people to develop a Christian mind is no longer an option; it is part of their necessary survival equipment.”
With proper training, Christian students can find their college years to be a time of God’s blessing instead of a time of spiritual bankruptcy. It is in school that many students will rededicate their lives to Christ or genuinely encounter him for the first time. In my collegiate years, I was tempted to ignore the difficult questions that plagued my mind and heart, but it was by facing them head on and wrestling with them one by one that my faith was strengthened and life transformed.
Charles F. Potter, author of Humanism: A New Religion, writes, “Education is thus a most powerful ally of Humanism, and every American public school is a school of Humanism. What can the theistic Sunday-schools, meeting for an hour once a week, and teaching only a fraction of the children, do to stem the tide of a five-day program of humanistic teaching?” Students need a Christian worldview taught every day, in every subject. I am so thankful for schools like Caritas Academy that equip students to understand and defend a Christ-centered worldview. My prayer is that we would all do our part to support Caritas in any way we can to keep this vision alive and help raise up a generation who can accomplish what we are asked to do in 1 Peter 3:15, which says, “But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect . . . .”
Thank you, and God bless.