Posted on April 5, 2007
From 1095 to 1291, Christianity launched itself into a series of bloody holy wars, contradicting the nonviolent and tolerant teachings of Jesus Christ, the Christian savior around whom much of Christianity is based. Christian warriors savagely murdered hundreds of thousands of people, and the pope himself declared that any Christians dying in battle would ascend to heaven despite the barbaric nature of the Crusades.
But what some people call genocide, jihad or holy war, others call a great name for a religious organization.
An organization that does not believe in the separation of church and state, Campus Crusade for Christ, or “CRU” as it’s called, has been peddling Christianity since the 1950s, and has long been known for attempting to infiltrate the political infrastructure of the nation and the world. The organization has a United Nations office, and even a Washington, D.C., office that caters to members of Congress and employees of the White House. The organization’s founder, Bill Bright, co-signed the Land Letter of 2002, a letter to President Bush that attempted to provide religious justification for the invasion of Iraq.
You may have seen CRU advertisements in the March 30 and April 2 editions of The Breeze. “Jesus Christ was a liar,” was loudly declared on the eighth page of the March 30 issue. You may have been shocked, or even offended, or maybe you or couldn’t have cared less. But chances are you read it anyway.
By heading a large section of the paper with the phrase “Jesus Christ was a liar,” CRU shamelessly attempted to draw as many people as possible into reading its advertisement, marketing its religion by using an outrageously controversial statement. Reading on, we find out that it technically wasn’t renouncing Jesus, despite its huge lettered blasphemy — CRU is actually giving us three choices. They attempt to logically prove that Jesus is either lying, insane or a human manifestation of God Himself. Clearly, CRU is hoping we will lean toward the third choice.
Inflammatory sentences follow: “Many people prefer to think he was a good moral teacher, but if you think it through, that’s not logically possible.” Once successfully drawn in, one’s mind is numbed by the dizzyingly vague “logic” conveyed in the advertisement.
Confused, one comes to the end wondering what the final sentences will say, and we are thankfully presented with the final and only “logical” option; yes, Jesus is in fact, God. If a Puritan conversion narrative could be warped into advertisement form, this would undoubtedly be the outcome.
A group who is willing to use its own brand of twisted “logic” to toy with its own sacred beliefs and the minds of others in order to convert followers should raise some alarms in one’s mind. Religion is, and always will be, a matter of faith, not a matter of proof. So why are so many new promoters of Christianity trying to dress it up with the guise of logic?
Harmful ideologies have torn our culture apart since the very beginning. But through common sense, reasoning, science and yes, even faith, humanity has transformed itself. Man has finally begun shedding the notion that one set of ideas, and one set alone, is correct. The idea that the world isn’t “black and white,” has ushered in an age of tolerance and brotherhood, the likes of which have rarely been seen in human history.
But CRU’s idea that we must either accept Jesus fully as God, or be heathens who refuse to believe that Jesus was a good moral teacher, hearkens back to the darkness and savagery of times past. The inquisitions, witch burnings and countless other crimes committed throughout history in the name of God have used this supposedly “Christian” logic. Furthermore, the fact that Campus Crusade actually advises politicians, and even influences President Bush, is cause for alarm. The idea that a radical religious organization might sway our national politics is astounding.
By insisting that the only options for Jesus are that he is either a liar, insane or God, CRU attempts to foist its set of ideas upon the entire world. This is lamentable. In addition, the idea of associating Christ — the ultimate man of peace — with a crusade is distastefully ironic.
Campus Crusade may mean well, but attempting to proselytize your own religion by fooling those in need of spiritual truth is immoral. Using marketing tactics to promote God cheapens and devalues spirituality and religion. The next time you open up a newspaper, keep one thing in mind: Jesus doesn’t advertise.
Steve Borowsky is a sophomore biology major.
