Breeze Perspectives: Taking a stand for the truth — with grace
Campus Crusade for Christ sets the record straight on the ‘spiritual questionnaire’
Posted on September 7, 2006

In Tuesday’s issue of The Breeze, staff writer Sarah Delia roundly condemns our organization, Campus Crusade for Christ, primarily for a questionnaire we took with about 800 students on the commons. It is true that our organization is far from perfect — after all, we’re made up exclusively of very imperfect people. Nevertheless, it would be careless of me not to correct a few mistakes in her editorial.

Ms. Delia lists three questions in her column, which she says were asked in our questionnaire. They are as follows:

Question one, according to Ms. Delia:  “…rate on a scale of one to 10 my devotion to Christ.”  In fact, the first question reads, verbatim: “On a scale of 1 to 10, rate your desire to know God.” Let me say very plainly that we are not interested in assessing anyone’s “devotion to Christ.” However, we are interested in helping any student who sincerely wants to know God in a personal way. 

Question two, according to Ms. Delia:  “the next question asked me how many times I prayed during the day.” In fact, the second question asks, “At a later date, would you be interested in discussing your opinions on God with us?” Needless to say, Ms. Delia misquotes this question egregiously.

Question three, according to Ms. Delia: “the other question begged me to tell just how many times I attended church, and which one it was.” In fact, the third and final question on our questionnaire asks: “Are you interested in being in a small group Bible study?” Again, a pretty severe misquotation.

What am I to make of these mistakes?  On the one hand, I point them out to clarify our true message. Our desire is to help our campus, not to condemn it in any way. We do not — as Ms. Delia supposes — ask questions of students like, “how often do you pray?  or, “how many times do you attend church?” In fact, we would argue that no amount of prayer or church attendance is sufficient to please a loving and holy God. Prayer and church attendance, while wonderful things, are really the reaction or response of a grateful heart, not the means to “get in good” with God. I’m reminded of the old adage: “going to church doesn’t make you a Christian any more than going to McDonald’s makes you a Big Mac.”

On the other hand, Ms. Delia’s misquotations aren’t really a huge deal. I regularly make much bigger gaffes than these. And I am sure that Ms. Delia didn’t misquote our questionnaire deliberately. I just want her to know that the motives she attributes to us aren’t what we feel inside. At least, not me.

Are the Christians involved with Campus Crusade mistake-prone? Absolutely (who isn’t?)! Are we hypocritical? At times, “guilty-as-charged.” But most of the time, we’re just trying our best.

Finally, Ms. Delia is quite correct in her conclusion: “show me a person that hasn’t given into some sort of sin before, and I will either reveal one of two things to you: a robot, or Jesus Christ.” Excellent point. I know of no one who has been able to avoid the sin problem. I think that, perhaps, I may be the worst of the bunch. And though some Christians may actually seem “robotic,” most of them know their own problems. But she was right in her assessment about Jesus: He never sinned. Never did someone suffer like Him, who deserved no suffering at all. All true Christians recognize that He is the “star of the show.” There is no one like Him. We find Him unparalleled, and a delight to know and follow.  

Dan Flynn
director, Campus Crusade for Christ at JMU

The correction to Tuesday’s “Through the Looking Glass” column can be found on Page 2.
—Ed.