Michigan School Boots Christian Student Group for Leaders Affirming Their Faith - TALIA WISE/CBN NEWS

Wayne State University campus in Detroit, Michigan (Wikimedia Commons )

Michigan School Boots Christian Student Group for Leaders Affirming Their Faith

 3/9/2018 TALIA WISE/CBN NEWS

A Christian student group is suing a Michigan university after the school revoked the group's campus privileges.

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship is a student-led campus ministry that has served students at Wayne State University (WSU) for the last 75 years. Now, school officials have stripped the group of official recognition because they require its leaders to affirm their Christian faith.

Lori Windham, senior legal counsel at Becket, represents InterVarsity. She told CBN News Wayne State de-recognized the group because InterVarsity requires its Bible study leaders to be Christians.

"We think that Wayne State is engaging in religious discrimination by de-recognizing InterVarsity. Wayne State allows college Democrats to have democratic leaders," she said. "It allows Muslims, Jewish and Hindu student groups to say that they are there to serve their communities. It allows fraternities to have only men and sororities to allow only women. I think it's just the same to allow InterVarsity to have Christians as its Bible study leaders." 

InterVarsity Christian Fellowship at Wayne State is one of the oldest InterVarsity chapters in the country and has held weekly Bible studies, meetings and organized service opportunities on campus for a number of years. It is open to students of all backgrounds but stipulates that leaders must adhere to its tenets of faith.

In October, the WSU dean of students declined to renew the organization's status for the 2017-2018 school year. They claim the group's constitution violates the school's discrimination policy.

"It means that they are not allowed to be at a student organization fair to recruit new students," Winham explained. "They are not able to advertise to new students on the school's website. They are not able to reserve free rooms anytime they are ready to rent a room and have a Bible study. They have to pay a fee just like an outside vendor in order to do that."

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InterVarsity is now suing the Wayne State University Board of Governors, President Roy Wilson, state officials and others, claiming its Constitutional rights have been violated, according to the lawsuit.

"InterVarsity just wants to continue to serve Wayne State students as we have for 75 years," said Greg Jao, InterVarsity director of external relations. "Students should be able to find a campus community which reflects their faith tradition with authenticity and integrity." 

Becket is working with InterVarsity to get the organization reinstated on campus.

"They've been on this campus for 75 years, and they hope to be there 75 more," Windham said.

CBN News reached out to Wayne State University for comment. The school has not yet responded to our inquiries.

Reprinted with permission from CBN.com. Copyright The Christian Broadcasting Network, all rights reserved. 

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Millennials May Be Skeptical About Bible, But They Still Do This

10/23/2014 CHRISTINE CAPE   CHARISMA MAGAZINE

Historical. Symbolic. Story. Sacred. Testimony. These are the top five words millennials use to describe the Bible. The new study Millennials and the Bible , co-commissioned by American Bible Society and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship, dives deeper into the perceptions millennials have about the Bible and their engagement with the best-selling book of all time.

The study, conducted by Barna Group, found most millennials (ages 18-30) believe the Bible to be the actual (21 percent) or inspired word of God (44 percent), while only 18 percent state the Bible is another book of teachings written by men. And while the split of opinions on the Bible between Christian millennials and non-Christian millennials is not surprising (45 percent of non-Christians believe the Bible is just another book of teachings written by men), it may surprise many to learn that non-Christian millennials may still turn to the Bible for comfort. For example, when non-Christian millennials do read the Bible, many do so to feel closer to God (21 percent).

"The good news is that, while more millennials are turning skeptical toward the Bible, we still see them reaching out to God during times of difficulty and to feel closer to God. For Christian ministries like American Bible Society, this means there is still an opportunity to encourage more millennials to engage with the Bible and experience its life-changing message," said Drew Hood, managing director of communications at American Bible Society.

Earlier this year, American Bible Society's annual State of the Bible research found that, among all American adults, the percentage of Bible skeptics equaled the percentage of Bible engaged for the first time. Millennials continue to drive the shift toward Bible indifference or skepticism. Of all millennials surveyed, 10 percent are considered Bible engaged, while 25 percent are considered Bible skeptics. While approximately a third of all millennials have positive feelings when they see someone reading the Bible in public (29 percent are happy, 29 percent feel encouraged, 27 percent feel joyful and 26 percent are grateful to see the Bible is still important to people), the division between Christians and non-Christians is clear. Many non-Christians have a negative view those who engage with the Bible.  

When non-Christians see someone reading the Bible in public they:

• Assume that person is politically conservative (22 percent)
• Figure they don't have anything in common with the person (21 percent)
• Think the person is old-fashioned (17 percent)
• Think that person is trying to make a statement or be provocative (15 percent)
• Think the person is naïve and feel uncomfortable (both answers at 14 percent)
• Yet for all the negative perceptions of the Bible and Christians, non-Christian millennials believe that the Bible teaches forgiveness (70 percent), patience (62 percent), generosity (64 percent) and social justice (41 percent).
  "There is a tremendous opportunity to engage non-Christian millennials with the Bible. Despite their misgivings about it, they still believe that the Bible promotes things they care about such as forgiveness, patience, generosity and social justice. We need to figure out what will motivate and enable them to read the Bible for themselves," said Lindsay Olesberg, Scripture engagement director at InterVarsity.
  But the reality remains that more millennials are leaving the Bible on bookshelves, with 32 percent never reading the Bible, compared to 26 percent of all U.S. adults. And only 26 percent of all millennials are reading the Bible at least once a week, compared to 38 percent of all U.S. adults. Still more millennials, 26 percent, said they have increased their personal use of the Bible in the past year than did the average U.S. adult (18 percent). The reason for the increase is in part due to seeing how the Bible changed someone they knew for the better. Even non-Christian millennials recognized this change in someone they knew (27 percent of non-Christians who increased their Bible reading in the past year said it was as a result of seeing how the Bible changed someone they knew, while 31 percent of all millennials said this and only 15 percent of all U.S. adults).
  At the same time, more millennials have also decreased their personal use of the Bible in the past year compared with all U.S. adults—15 percent decreasing Bible use compared to 9 percent of all U.S. adults. And 46 percent of non-Christian millennials said the reason they decreased their Bible use in the past year is because they became agnostic or atheist, while 21 percent of all millennials surveyed said this is why they decreased their Bible use, compared to just 15 percent of all U.S. adults.
  The survey also found:
• The average amount of time millennials spend reading the Bible is 30 minutes, keeping pace with all U.S. adults.
• 27 percent of non-Christian millennials hold very negative views of the Bible, stating that they believe the Bible is a dangerous book of religious dogma used for centuries to oppress people.
• Only 32 percent of all millennials agree strongly that the Bible contains everything a person needs to know to live a meaningful life, compared to 50 percent of all U.S. adults.

Survey Methodology

The Millennials and the Bible report contains the findings from a nationwide study commissioned by American Bible Society and InterVarsity Christian Fellowship and conducted by Barna Research (a division of Barna Group). The research methodology included 1,000 online surveys conducted among a representative sample of young adults ages 18 to 30 in the continental U.S. The survey was conducted from Aug. 18-22, 2014.

For full survey information, please contact Christine Cape or Katie Rouse.