College student

How it Feels to Exist as a Conservative at a Christian College

on September 19, 2017

The liberal heart of California is a tough place to undergo your first year of college, especially for this small-town Texan. Even attending a Christian college doesn’t shield young Christians from the pressure to conform my beliefs and values to secular expectations. But thankfully, love conquers all. God’s divine love for us, that is.

It’s funny to think a public high school experience cannot prepare you for the social pressures within some private Christian colleges. To be clear, it’s not my university or faculty, but many of my fellow Christian students that are increasingly accommodating secular culture.

Over the past year at Pepperdine University, it became apparent to me just how many young Christians are so terrified of offending someone or having the “wrong” opinion. So terrified of offending that they resort to completely avoiding, perhaps even rejecting, some of the most obvious and fundamental beliefs written in the Scriptures.

While on campus, I was surrounded by peers who undoubtedly love God and desired to serve Him. But there is a line many young Christians don’t dare cross. It’s the line that refuses to celebrate society’s evolving morality. I understand this because I was one of those people who didn’t want to even look at the line, much less cross it. I gushed about God’s love with my peers and held my tongue whenever anything controversial was brought up. And by controversial, I mean namely issues like human sexuality and gender.

I get it. I truly do. Being a rather conservative or orthodox student in college, even at a Christian one, is not what I would call comfortable.

At college, I subconsciously seemed to convince myself that some of the people I was surrounded by had the right idea. If you focused all your energy on the love of God and the love you can show to other people, not much else in the Bible really mattered. I let this mindset seep in. I allowed my fear of losing friends due to my opinions and beliefs to suppress my convictions. The absence of serious doctrinal investigation gave way to a “whatever makes you happy” attitude among my Christian peers or an anxious silence on hot button topics. Often I clammed up as well.

A moment of enlightenment came at the close of my first year. I read the words of Christian author John Crowder that unequivocally changed my heart. In his latest book, Crowder pushes his readers to understand how the ethical guidelines and commandments found in Scripture are set in place in order for Christians to live abundantly, not restrictively. Crowder explains:

Knowing moral guidelines are not formulas for “getting it right” with God takes performance out of the equation. I can now see God already loves and accepts me regardless. So why does He tell me to live a certain way? Because only in walking in this God-given design am I going to experience all of the deep joys and divine happiness He has intended. I can live a life of true charity and be a blessing to others in my family, community and society. And thanks to Jesus I am free from the sinful propensities that once ruled me. My old nature died with Him.

It might sound simple that I’ve recognized it’s perfectly okay for me to firmly believe in what the Bible says as a 19-year-old Christian college freshman. However, not all young Evangelicals would agree. In the age we exist, there is not much of a push to affirm what Christ has made evident in the Scriptures and has been agreed upon by the Church for centuries. The realization comes by knowing love conquers all. What I mean by that is, moral absolutes don’t trump love. They accentuate it.

Rest assured, it is entirely possible to uphold the moral ethics which God has called us to live accordingly while still deeply loving, caring for, and serving others. However, in doing that, we must remain authentic in our faith.  We, as people who are quite literally one with God, have the opportunity to unashamedly speak and live His truth without lack of confidence, fear of condemnation, or uncertainty of the future. Let us courageously embrace that opportunity daily. Even as a conservative young student at a Christian college.

  1. Comment by Penny on September 25, 2017 at 12:49 am

    Morgan, I pray for God to continue to give you strength and courage each day. His Word must be your guide. “The decrees of the Lord are firm, and all of them are righteous. They are more precious than gold, than much pure gold.” Psalm 19:9-10 NIV

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