Check out this review of the movie "God's Not Dead": http://www.patheos.com/blogs/filmchat/2014/04/review-gods-not-dead-dir-harold-cronk-2014.html
I just read the above article. I haven't seen the movie yet, though I am
sure I will at some point - I am glad to have read at least one critical review
before seeing it. While to me this review seems like it might be overly
harsh, it does bring up some things that I am sure will bother me – one thing
in particular that I am writing this to address is that the main character Josh
is not shown getting involved with any sort of Christian community.
Working with InterVarsity on a college campus I know that one of the
biggest "faith killers" for freshmen in college is not getting plugged
into a good community (doesn't have to be IV).
Those who try to “go it alone” tend to not fare well – community is so
essential to the life of a Christian at any stage, but perhaps even more so in
their years in college. But I digress.
The reason I am writing this out is
because I had a seemingly very relatable experience to Josh while I was in
college in a philosophy class on world religions. There were some important and distinct
differences, but the meta-theme of a direct challenge to philosophically defend
my beliefs in a collegiate philosophy class is the same.
It is important for me to note here
that unlike the movie my professor (who was himself an atheist) helped me and
encouraged me to share about my faith in the class. As a good philosopher and an older man (77 at
the time) he made it very clear that he had little time for “bulls**t arguments,”
as he said, but would respect any belief presented as long as we remained
logically consistent and defensible – basically he encouraged us to not to
participate for participation sake, but to engage in deep and thoughtful discussions
about our varying beliefs and the ideas and beliefs we would discuss in the class. Looking back, I can honestly say that he was
one of my favorite teachers I have ever had, in his personality and teaching
methods. I can also say that his class
was one of the highlights of my college experience. He was a hard teacher, not afraid to
challenge anyone, but he was fair and challenged us all equally.
Side note: interestingly enough, (in
another connection to the movie) one of our books in the spectrum of our course
reading was Dawkin's "The God Delusion" – but unlike the movie it was
introduced to help us learn to identify philosophical flaws. My professor pointed out to us that Dawkin’s
was not a philosopher, and I have vivid memories of my atheist professor tearing
apart pieces of the book for its philosophical weaknesses.
And now for the story...
Within the first few classes it
became clear to me and to my classmates that I was the only Christian in the
class (or at least the only one willing to admit it). This meant for the rest of the semester I had
to defend my faith philosophically every class.
This happened to the extent that I would literally get called out by
name at least once every class by a student or the professor to defend my
beliefs – something akin to the professor saying, "VanEtten - what do you
have to say about that," or a classmate pondering, "Kyle how can
Christians believe x..." For obvious reasons this was intimidating at
times, especially when we covered the big questions like, God and
Evil/suffering, Hell, Abortion and other political issues etc… but it also
presented me with a unique challenge to make a case for my faith in a room full
of skeptics. Having to defend my faith
that semester was very hard. At times
classmates nearly cursed me out for defending beliefs that I held, and I distinctly
remember feeling the glares from around the room. But my experience wasn’t without highlights –
I also have great memories of classmates who were initially skeptical changing
their posture and responding to me with curiosity and openness. Not to mention personally the class helped me
to grow tremendously and to think deeply about many hard topics in the
Christian faith I had often skirted around. For that I am incredibly thankful.
However, this brings me to the
primary dissimilarity in my experience that I believe made all the
difference. Outside of my schoolwork I
was very involved with InterVarsity Christian Fellowship while I was in college. Having that community of support and
challenge was the reason I spoke up about my faith at all in those first few
classes. And, it was that community that
gave me the encouragement and resources I needed to feel prepared for the
class, and to persevere in the harder times. After most classes I would meet
with my InterVarsity staffworker to talk about the in class discussion, to pray
for my professor and classmates, and prepare to share in the next class. For
me, I believe it was primarily my involvement in Christian community that gave
me integrity in my sharing and allowed me to have a positive witness over the
course of the semester. I could not have
done it without that community.
To end the story, thankfully my
professor did not die (although I did attend a concert around that time), but something
remarkable did happen. Our final segment
of the class was on religious experience. After one particular class I
mentioned to my professor that I had a friend who had just become a Christian
through a religious experience who I thought would gladly share in the class
and take questions and that my staffworker (who is a campus minister of sorts)
would be willing to do the same. To my
surprise, my professor thought it was a great idea and scheduled to have them
come in for the final 2 classes of the semester. And so they did. My philosophy class on religion ended with
two testimonies of Jesus’ redemptive work - my friend came in the penultimate
class and shared his testimony and took questions, and my staffworker came for
the final class of the semester and shared his testimony and fielded questions
from my classmates. It was really remarkable!
After the class had finished I even
got some very encouraging feedback and messages from my professor and my fellow
classmates – I share one of those messages here, not to boost my own ego (I was
very humbled and challenged to receive this praise and believe still that this
classmate was seeing Jesus in us though he did not recognize it) but because I
think it puts the significance of the experience that I had in perspective:
I just wanted to let
you know that you have had a large effect on my life, whether you know it or
not. I have always been a cynical and
cold person. It has long been my philosophy that people can’t be trusted, and
always have their own agenda. This has
changed for me this semester, and I’ve become a far more compassionate person. Both from my own experiences and from seeing people
like you and Ben. It initially confounded me that anyone could love everyone
unconditionally and truly, as you and those who follow your faith do, just for
being fellow man; a fellow human being. It struck me profoundly. I used to
despise Christians and Catholics, as I’m sure you noticed throughout the class.
I’m sure you caught one of my glares. My apologies, but it was because all I have
been exposed to is the hypocrites of faith who suffuse most of the world, as
opposed to what I now call true Christians, such as you two, for example.
You have a very hefty portion of my respect… for being able to love others as
you do. I’m very jealous of it. Thank you
I had not noticed this particular classmate’s
stares, and I had very little obvious outward indications that I was impacting
anyone, but notes like this one were a reminder that God surely is not dead. He was even working in my class. College philosophy classes can be a place of
trial, but are also a place of opportunity for personal growth and public
witness.
Anyway,
while I haven’t yet seen the movie, I offer my criticism here if the above
article’s comments are true, don’t go it alone – get plugged in to a Christian
community on campus and do it right away – for me that is what made all the
difference!
No comments:
Post a Comment