I’ve been looking back over my last few posts, and I re-read the one titled ‘What is a chaplain for’. I think I’m asking the wrong question. Maybe the question is what is a professional Christian for? Indeed what is a Christian for?
Chaplaincy has had an odd position in the University in the last decade or so. The University likes having a chaplaincy but actually most students have rejected the Christian faith outright. Is our job about reversing that? Am I here to recruit as many students as possible into Jesus’ sunbeam business? Because if it is then I have a slight problem: I don’t like going round hassling people about religion all the time.
No one likes someone who is only having a conversation with you in order to turn it round into a sales pitch.
“How about that England game? I found that having a faith in Jesus really helped me to get through it…how about you??”
Nope!
The word gospel you know means good news, but among most people I meet the gospel has become really bad news.
The fascinating thing is that your average student is quite liberal. In fact very liberal. Most students are definitely ahead of the national average when it comes to being tolerant. However when you look at student religion it often the most conservative kind. This has a knock on effect on the rest of the churches in Southampton. There are several ‘liberal’ Churches within walking distance of the University, by rights they should be full of students but when it comes to students they are empty. Whereas the conservative one down the end of the road has literally hundreds. Of course those who represent conservative religion would say this is because they haven’t compromised on the truth, which is why God has blessed them with members but is it that simple?
Ironically enough once upon a time Chaplaincy was the ‘liberal’ CU and that was what it did. But now liberals don’t want anything to do with Christianity. So pop goes Chaplaincy. But it’s not all bad news, is it?
I suppose in my more insecure moments I see myself as someone who has something to say and it’s just a shame no one is listening. Then sometimes I worry that I haven’t even got something to say!
And blogging is a bit like that!
Fundamentalism Liberals Chaplaincy Church of England
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5 comments:
Why do you think that no one is listening Simon?
I think you've got a lot to say, much of it quite interesting. I'm really enjoying reading your blog, it's a thinker and that's often a rare thing round these parts.
Nick
Have you read my blog?
nickbailey.co.uk
i think your blog is great - its totally random but in a good way, and it makes people think. plus im sure youve had LOADS of hits on ure site, which shows that people are listening!
Lol. We're listening Simon. I just hadn't got round to responding. I agree that being a chaplain is certainly not about hassling people about religion.
In response to your comment about religion... You say that if you look at religious students are of the conservative kind. Who are you referring to? CU type Christians? With regard to Christian students, I doubt that conservative types are in the majority. It's just the more liberal ones aren't as obvious and probably don't hang around in large groups in quite the same way. I've always felt that liberal Christians are less scared of socialising with the heathens and thus merge in with the non-religious masses... but maybe it's because we are heathens... who knows.
When it comes to religion in general. i.e. not specifically Christianity. I'd say a lot of students are quite liberal, many people are quite tolerant of religion. But then equally I think you get a lot of close-minded atheists who like to think they are open-minded. Not quite sure what the point of my comment is. Just wanted to show that I was listening.
I miss chaplaincy.
Why is it I can never be bothered to comment on other blogs (unless there's some kind of fame involved - "ooh Look, he's important enough to post here *and* the site owner has acknowledged him!") yet this one provokes me to? Answers on the back of a (yellow) postcard...
I'd be curious to know which you call the 'liberal' churches. I generally use another categorisation system: 'boring' or 'less boring'. No surprise if students don't attend the former; for the latter there seem to be a lot across a wide spectrum.
"Whereas the conservative one down the end of the road has literally hundreds"
Not to mention the very Charismatic ones which have hundreds - but I guess they're also (mainly) conservative...
You hassling scenario is so accurate, but I'm not sure which is worse to deal with: those people or the students who ascribe everything to Jesus:-
"Hallelujah! My eggs haven't gone off in the fridge. Prraaaaaisssse the Lord! He takes care of everything for me - and he wants to for you".
You know, the kind who have had plastic surgery to get a permanent Holy grin. After 5 minutes with one of those hearing about hellfire and damnation is a welcome relief.
Anyhow, I digress.
Getting back to the lack of attendance at the 'liberal' churches and Roo's point about liberals eing less obvious... perhaps Liberal equates to "Jesus loves me so I don't need to bother getting out of bed and going to church"? Just a thought...
Knowing your skill, I challenge you to come up with a better word than 'liberal'. Like 'evangelical' it's too broad to be useful. For example, when you've used it do you mean:
1. Liberal and bible believing - i.e. not asserting Calvin to be 100% right.
2. Liberal and after an easy life - because Jesus couldn't really have meant what he said.
Hmm, I seem to have pinned my trousers to the mast... and in a direction many in my year of the CU wouldn't have expected!
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