The elusive search for Truth

Tenell Felder's Jan 22 column "Hated for Christ" raised several interesting questions about Christianity's place in the student life and classroom at Furman. As a religion major and a Christian, I found her column particularly thought provoking. Ms. Felder argues that the current campus environment is threatening to students who hold Christian beliefs. Here, I must disagree with her. A clear majority of Furman students self-identify as Christians of some stripe, making Christianity the normative religious tradition. To hazard a guess, I'd say that people of other faiths or no faith at all are far more likely to feel like alienated outsiders than Christians are.

But I want to respond to Ms. Felder's reflections on faith in the classroom. Ms. Felder states that Christian students consistently hear their faith "drag[ged] through the mud" and "questioned and belittled" in the classroom, and in the process, are "silenced and threatened." These are serious claims, and we must carefully consider them.

Of course, I speak only from my own experience. But in this experience, in classes ranging from "Earth Systems" to "Introduction to Philosophy" to "New Testament and Early Christianity," the professors' intent is never to destroy students' faith. Instead, professors expose students to a variety of positions and explain scientific and historical realities so the students may explore their own belief systems more intentionally. After we have listened carefully and thought more deeply, we are better equipped to evaluate our existing beliefs. Maybe then, in light of what we have learned about the world, we'll decide that our old beliefs work just fine. Or perhaps we'll decide that they should be modified. In any case, if we listen to our friends like Plato, we are closest to the Truth - ultimate Truth, with a capital "T" - not when we cling to dogma, but when we are in constant search.

Of course, the search is uncomfortable. But when we stop, turn back for a moment and reflect, I think we'll find that the challenges that felt like stretching or even tearing were really stitching and weaving - stitching and weaving together a faith big enough for science, big enough for history, big enough to give other belief systems a chance and big enough to honor a God who transcends and defies all belief systems we can possibly devise, including Christianity.

I am in full agreement with Ms. Felder that Christianity is a controversial and possibly offensive religion. But if we consider Jesus' own life, much of the controversy comes not from his belief system (he shared the Jewish faith common in his community) but from his radically transformative way of living in the world. Although I personally don't believe that the Bible is infallible, and I believe that Christianity points to truth instead of defining it per se, I think orthodox Christian theology seems fairly standard to many Americans.

So if we Christians really plan to shock the world, the way is not to insist that we have the absolute truth and to shut our ears to other beliefs. Instead, in a spirit of openness and humility, we have to try to live as Jesus did. This is the invitation of Christianity: to be a friend to the despised of society; to change systems that hurt people; to reject our own privileges; and to satisfy the material needs of all who are in need. We are invited to live a life transformed by the promise that God loves everybody.

I guarantee that if any one person dares to start living like that, he or she will indeed be "hated for Christ.