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Christianity as Life: Proclaiming the Message to College Students By Gary Cattell [Spring-Summer, 2001]
In speaking to college students over the past 19 years I have seen spiritual life slowly drained out of them as America turns decidedly Deist. I do not know if students can be considered representative of America's spiritual condition, but if so America's light is all but extinguished. I minister at the Pennsylvania State University four to five hours a day five days a week and what most students seem to believe is that God exists but He cannot be known. As a result of this way of thinking one cannot really know what the right religion is and by extension the correct morals. So they are free to believe and do what they want, and God understands because their ignorance is of no fault of their own. This is modern day Deism and it is fast becoming our national religion. I personally believe this state we find ourselves in is the direct result of Protestant relativism. Once the doctrine of sola scriptura took hold it was not long before anyone with a Bible was deciding for himself the doctrines of Christianity. This gave a relativistic nature to Protestantism so that within certain boundaries one could decide for oneself what to believe. Once free to personally decide what the scriptures meant it was not much of a leap to deciding which parts of the scriptures were really true, and of course from there it was a small step to questioning the truth of Christianity itself. Once this was accomplished and other religious traditions began to be better known in the West the corresponding confusion lead to a collective shrugging of the shoulders and an attitude of "we don't know what is true so believe what you wish." This is very alluring to college students as it is a heady experience to choose your own God and morals. It is at the same time lifeless, in that somewhere in the mind and conscience of the students is the understanding that it is not real. There is no life or intensity in their beliefs because to one degree or another they have made them up. The other thing that drains the life out of college students is the idea that organized religion is corrupt. If I had a nickel for every time I heard someone say, "I believe in God, but I don't like organized religion. It's the woods that are my church." I'd be a wealthy man. Evangelical and Pentecostal Protestants have played on this idea and assured people that Christianity is a relationship not a religion. In giving the students' rock and roll worship, few doctrines, and little in the way of demands, they have filled their fellowships with enthusiastic but ultimately shallow converts. Christianity in these churches has become a party and true religion is sacrificed for an emotional experience and a good time. In fact, what is considered "the moving of the Spirit" in these churches and fellowships is usually nothing more than the exciting of emotions through pop music. This relating of the "Spirit" to a state of excitement not only hurts the Christian involved, but also hurts our ability to bring an Evangelical Protestant into Orthodoxy so he can experience the true life of the Spirit which has been in the Church for 2,000 years. It is difficult to bring evangelicals into the Church when they believe the very feelings, of which the church is distrustful, is a sign of the Holy Spirit's presence. What the Evangelical/Pentecostal Christian does not understand is that the reason he needs to have an emotional experience is because in rejecting communion as the body and blood of Christ he has no concrete way of taking in and experiencing Christ in his worship. Most of these churches at least in practice have separated the spiritual from the material and don't really believe that God works through matter anymore. They would say that maybe God worked through material objects in the Old Testament, but such thinking today smacks of idolatry or superstition. Any experience of God they have now must be solely ethereal which over the years has become associated with how they feel. This is why things like "holy laughter" and other experiences that are foreign to the Orthodox are big in the Pentecostal movement. It is only through phenomenon such as these that they can believe they are experiencing God. This of course makes our job as Orthodox that much more difficult. We must not only combat the false history and doctrine that is rampant in Protestantism but also false worship. Our worship culminating in the taking in of Christ at communion is the true life, but before an evangelical will accept this they must see that they have confused the Holy Spirit with emotion. I bring this up from time to time as I minister on campus and recently I had a young college student who took exception and adamantly declared that he was not confusing the two. So I asked him how he knew when the "Spirit" was moving, and he declared in no uncertain terms that he felt it. As soon as he said it he paused for a moment and said, "Oh, I see what you mean." At our church we recently had a student cease from being a catechumen because she felt the worship wasn't spiritual. It turned out what was spiritual for her was the good feelings she associated with pop music. One positive way of looking at people who have had spiritual life drained out of them is that they now must be filled. Let us fill them with the true life. It has been said that Orthodoxy {and this is to our shame} is the best kept secret in America. So for the good of the nation let us do what our Orthodox forefathers did so well, and go out and fill the lives of those around us with right worship and authentic Christianity. We as Orthodox are truly privileged. We have a way of worship that traces its roots back, not to Elvis as with the Pentecostals, but to Christ and the Apostles. We have the great honor at the height of our worship to take into our body and soul the living Christ. We truly have been given much, and as such, have the great privilege of having much to give. Let us not hide or be embarrassed about what we have. Yes, it is very different from the world and Protestant Christianity, but that is because it is from God and it is life. When I look into the eyes of college students who have made up their God and morals I see no life. When I look into the eyes of committed Protestant Christians I see light, but it could be so much brighter. Let us take the life that we have and begin to light the candles of those around us. We have life freely given to us so let us freely give. Let us plumb the depths of what we have been given and become as Christlike as possible so we can give Christ to others. Let us be truly Orthodox because in that we can give light and life to the world. + [For 19 years Gary Cattell has engaged students on the campus of Pennsylvania State University (Penn State) in moral and spiritual conversations. He is a member of Holy Trinity Church, State College, PA.]
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