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Stakes high on campusThe national press has never paid much attention to Christian Unions, but things are changing. The Times gave a front page in November to four well-regarded universities where Christian Unions face discrimination. Rightly so, for religious issues on campus are not local difficulties (November 18 and letters following). Freedom for the gospel has been at stake, and we are naive if we do not see longer-term implications for the nation. This battle is critical, and Christian students are the church’s frontline troops. Value of student leadersThe value of ‘student leadership’ is entrenched in the heart of UCCF. It is no mere slogan. Many Christians in public life and in pastoral ministry here and overseas look back to CU days as the time they first learned to lead. But here we see a further, and vital reason for it. Christian students are members of their universities, with due rights and privileges accorded to them. They are members of their Students’ Union, and their fees include a subscription to that body. Church staff can talk with students around the university, but it is only the students themselves who can shine the light of the gospel into the heart of undergraduate life. And when they do, their status as members of the university means they cannot be ignored. Recent tensions between the CUs and Student Associations in Exeter, Birmingham, Edinburgh and Heriot-Watt universities have been no fun. The Christians are showing great courage in the fray; they ‘shine like stars’ (Philippians 2.15). What’s it all about?CUs require all office bearers to be in full agreement with the UCCF doctrinal basis, a summary of mainstream orthodox faith. This has always been so, and never hidden from the Student Unions to which they affiliate on campus. In Birmingham University, as the CU began booking more rooms for Truth, its mission week with Vaughan Roberts, the politically correct Union reacted. They scrutinised the CU constitution, and noted this confessional requirement of office-bearers. Either the CU open its leadership to anyone of any faith, or not use university rooms. But the gospel is not chained — the CU hired a marquee for its mission instead, which drew much more attention! ExeterExeter saw the next major clash. One student raised a question last summer about the name ‘Christian Union’, as the CU did not unite all Christians including Greek Orthodox, Jehovah’s Witnesses, etc.; in response the Guild added ‘Evangelical’ to its name. While not ashamed to be known as evangelical, the CU appealed, feeling the name could be misconstrued by unbelievers. In October the Guild held a referendum: ‘Shall the name of the Evangelical Christian Union be changed [back] to Christian Union?’ Only 5% voted, so it was evidently not a hot issue, but the Guild voted to change the name back. Now the centre of Guild attention, the CU came to fall foul of its equal opportunities rules. Not only was there a problem about the confessional statement for leaders, but there was a further problem in the fact that formal membership was limited to those who professed faith in Christ. The CU would in future have to pay for rooms, and could not advertise its November mission on campus. On November 13, Christian students served the Guild with a 14-day notice of legal proceedings if it did not allow them use of facilities. The university administration saw the serious implications of the Guild’s stance and, on November 20, senior members of the university met with the Guild executive to seek a conciliatory way forward. On November 24, Gemma Tumelty (NUS President) and Richard Cunningham (UCCF) were interviewed on Radio 4’s The World Tonight. But the Guild did not back down. Ben Martin (third year sports scientist and CU small groups co-ordinator) and Emma Brewster (UCCF) appeared on the BBC 1 Politics Show on November 26. The programme included a staged CU Bible Study. Seizing the opportunity, the students chose to look at John 14.6. ‘It's been a tough year’, said Ben, ‘but we are clear about our responsibility to defend the historic teaching of the Christian faith.’ The CU hosts a carol service each year for the town at the football stadium. Looking ahead to this Ben added, ‘On Monday night we will sing those truths out as loudly as we can.’ EdinburghIn Edinburgh University the story was different. Laura Stirrat, CU Vice-President and a third year medic, brings us up to date. The Students’ Association refused the CU permission last term to book a room to run the UCCF PURE course, claiming it was ‘homophobic’ (see Third Degree, p.22). So the CU approached the university administration for use of a teaching room; and they were turned down. In short, the Edinburgh students were barred from teaching traditional sexual morality anywhere on university premises. Was this out of fear of the ‘BLOGS’ (bi-sexual, lesbian or gay students, as they are now called on many campuses)? As our nation and our culture become more and more strangled by the cost of teenage pregnancy, poor parenting and sexual deviance, who will have the courage to call time on the years of folly of our PC-gone-mad-authorities, now surely standing like the emperor wearing no clothes? So what did the CU do about PURE? They put on the course in Laura’s student flat in Tollcross. ‘It’s a brilliant course’, she said, ‘Everyone’s really enjoying it.’ Let’s thank God for PURE, written by Linda Marshall (UCCF), and now being offered by many CUs around the country. Freedom of speechWe never thought we would find ourselves here. We have prized freedom of speech in our nation and assumed it as a birthright. We take for granted that UK universities follow in the honourable tradition of unity in diversity, and provide a forum for ideas. How could there be no freedom of speech on a British university campus, of all places? Let the 2006 events in Edinburgh, Birmingham and Exeter be a warning. It is not fanciful to think that, if Labour’s proposed sexual orientation regulations are pushed through, Christian Unions nationwide could find themselves banned from reading Romans 1 in campus meetings, and it could even become illegal to read it aloud in our churches. The stakes are high. Are we serious?The Islamic world treats evangelism as an aspect of its foreign policy, and over the last 25 years we have seen deliberate and strategic moves in its investment in Western universities for the sake of investing in whole cultures. It seems to take the student world more seriously than the Church does. Charles Habib Malik, a highly-regarded Lebanese academic and former President of the UN General Assembly, said in his Pascal lectures (1981): ‘The university is a clear-cut fulcrum with which to move the world. The Church can render no greater service, both to itself and to the cause of the gospel, than to try to recapture the universities for Christ. More potently than by any other means, change the university and you change the world.’ Christians in the universities, both students and staff, need our prayers. UCCF staff need our prayers too, as they work to build the students up as Christ’s witnesses, so the CUs can be strong and unafraid (Philippians 1.27ff) in their defence and proclamation of the gospel. CUs need leaders with a clear grasp of Christian truth and a strong desire to engage with the mores and ideologies they encounter. Their freedom to proclaim Christ on campus is critical for the sake of our nation, and of the world. Let’s be thankful for the fine student leaders God is giving us. In short, the CUs are a beacon for Christ at the toughest frontier of anti-Christian ideologies. Christian students are Christ’s ambassadors on campus in a way no one else can be. Julia Cameron,
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