We can all take a lesson from this
Business Leaders in Christ might not sound like a student organization prone to institutional defiance. But the leaders of that group at the University of Iowa are doing just that, refusing to be bullied by its university into adopting practices antithetical to its mission.
The university wants the group to grant leadership positions to individuals whose sexual practices run counter to orthodox Christian teaching. The group has declined. And so the student club may be stripped of official campus status, and is taking the school to court to defend its freedom of association.
In a very real sense this is part of the great Christian tradition: Christianity has always been a shockingly defiant and subversive thing, a fact which is true now more than ever on college campuses. And yet it is nevertheless the case that these Christian students are doing something genuinely bold in taking a stand for their faith. It cannot be easy to do so at a modern public university, particularly when you’ve been publicly accused of bigotry by the university itself. The pressure to conform is sure to be enormous. As Blaise Pascal once wrote: “The human heart is singularly susceptible to fickleness, to change, to promises, to bribery.” Surely plenty of other Christians, many of them older and more seasoned than a few dozen college students, have folded in the face of such challenges.
That the students of a small Christian club at a public university in the Midwest have stayed true to their beliefs is deeply encouraging. We can all draw some strength from this. It is no small feat to stand up for your beliefs; millions of people refuse to do it every hour of every day. But Christians are obliged to witness their faith; we do not have the option of ceding something so crucial to the petty nagging whims of college busybodies. Here’s hoping that these young Christians might serve as an example to us all, and that they hold fast to their faith, come what may.
MORE: Iowa Christian club refuses to back down: ‘We have not caved’
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