Losing their faith in college
I came across an article that discusses how many students, when they go on to college, end up giving up their faith in college. I'm thinking this is sooooo important for anyone who is in our youth group (or any youth group for that matter) to read.
If you have the email of any of the seniors that are going off to college, let them know about this. They need to know this. And I'd like them to know that when they encounter the storm, they can always contact us, any of the people at Cornerstone, and we'll help them! If we can't answer your questions, let me know and I promise I'll do my best to find someone who can! I do have a list of some very smart Christian professors that can help be a refuge for students in a storm. The difficulty is that at some universities, Christian professors are harder to find simply because, truth be told, some university departments are more "hostile" to Christianity than others... and some universities as a whole are less Christian-friendly than others. So at a university it's possible that only 5-10% of the professors to be strong Christians (as opposed to Christian by name only), but at other universities you might find 20% to be strong Christians.
After reading this graph, hopefully you'll see why I'm so passionate about helping others strengthening their minds. If it's hard to read the graph, you can click on the title of this blog entry or click here and it'll take you to the article where I got this graph.
Also do keep in mind that these statistics may not be wholly accurate... there's a lot that goes on behind the scenes when statistics are calculated. There's a popular phrase among staticians: "There are three types of lies: lies, d*** lies, and statistics." (I omitted the d-word. I don't consider it a cuss word, but others might.)
So here's the question: why do you think so many students lose their faith in college?... or even in high school?Labels: General Life Issues
posted by Heather R. at 8/21/2006 11:42:00 AM
5 Comments:
hmm. I think that the main problem is that when your in college, your so busy learnign how to adapt to a new life (a lot of college students now have bills to pay, jobs to work, plus the pressures of college itself) that church becomes a lesser priority. people going to an out of state college might have trouble finding christian groups of churches in tehir area, and may eve get tired fo searching for one after a while.
in reply to what Kyle said....
i think its possible for some people to maintain faith without church, but its a lot harder to do so. People shouldn't go to church only to maintain their faith, but to enhance their faith. thats what christians coming together (aka church) is all about, helping others in their walk and letting other people help you. I agree that some people who are in college make their own decisions in whether or not tehy go to church, and ultimatley choose not to do so, but i also thinks its possible that people think they can go without church and be just fine. the farther you are away from a church... well... a GOOD church... then the harder it gets in your walk with god, and people not going to a christian college are more likely to get surrounded by things that they shouldn't participate in and end up falling in their faith.
8/23/2006 12:00 AM
Kyle, you make a really good point about statistics... there's a lot of background info here that we aren't informed about. Were they "serious" Christians or only BNO-Christians (BNO=By Name Only)? Did they have a church to go to? And this graph makes it seem that Christianity is "losing" the battle... but the graph doesn't say how many people (who were previously non-Christians) seriously commit their lives to Christ while in college. And it's still possible to tweak the numbers a bit, even without really realizing it.
And now to everyone: supposing these statistics are right on target, for me, I can see why a lot of people "lose" their faith in college. I was MAJORLY challenged in college. That was the first place I heard of Wicca, learned what Buddhism was, and really heard a lot of critical stuff about Christianity, and heard the mantra (repeated phrase) "all religions are basically the same". I had a philosophy class basically about religions and how they view God, the Good Life, and, uhm... relationships... and in this class, historical Christianity was portrayed as being a restrictive, prudish, and holier-than-thou style of living. The professor was extremely liberal, but said he was Lutheran (I grew up Lutheran... we weren't like that) but he was probably a BNO-Christian. They didn't discuss or even understand the beauty of the Christian life... only mocked it like a Christian rule book. Anyone who had doubts about Christianity before that class probably were scared away from Christianity altogether after that class.
So on campuses like that, it's good to find Christian groups to help us keep our heads up in the storm. Now I notice that having understanding of our faith, I've noticed that other people are less likely to attack/harass. ... but it does still happen, but then... that gives us the opportunity to share God's love to them.
8/23/2006 5:27 PM
doesn't God say in the bible somewhere that He wants us to surround ourselves with other christians?
I'm not sure....
I don't research a lot of things that I hear, but I remember hearing that God wants us to surround ourselves with other christians as well as teaching non-believers about God.
8/24/2006 7:35 PM
Well, there are a couple of passages that suggest that we should be with other Christians (that is, not isolate ourselves from Christians), but nothing that specifically says "you must go to church or have Christian friends".
For example, when praying, the prayer Jesus gave was for a group to say together "our Father", "give us today our daily bread", "forgive us our sins as we forgive others", etc. Of course, we could pray this individually, but it's interesting that it's in the "we" form. Also, the concept of Christians meeting together is throughout the Bible... "bear one another's burdens" (Galatians 6:2), also Colossians 3:13-18, and being the body (Romans 12).
8/25/2006 4:38 PM
Hey, thanks for the chart. I think the most disturbing part about it is that in 12 years, instead of things getting better, they've gotten worse! And this is even with the planting of more Christian organizations on campus'!
Question, it's now 2009. Do you have any updated statistics?
7/24/2009 9:27 AM
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