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"None of those who have Hell before their eyes will fall into Hell. No one of those who despise Hell will escape Hell.... Nothing is so profitable as to converse concerning Hell. It renders our souls purer than any silver."  

~St. John Chrysostom~

BOOK

The Battle That Lies Ahead

Dear Aaron,

I would be honored to correspond with you during your first semester in college. After all, I am your favorite uncle. Oh, and no need to remind me that I am your only uncle! You are the first of the nieces and nephews to go to college, so I hope to learn a lot from your experience. As you know, your Dad and I did not become Christians until later in life, so I do not know what it is like to grow up in the Church and then go out into the world. I would also like to say that I understand your concern about your parents, but I am sure they will come around. They’ll eventually get serious about their Christianity. Maybe you can be an example to them.

I see from your e-mail that it hasn’t taken you long to realize that your Christianity will be sorely tested in your new environment. In my years of evangelizing at Penn State, I have seen many young freshmen lose their religion. I must admit though that most of them seemed pretty poorly trained when they arrived. I don’t know what churches are doing these days, but it seems as if most of them are not doing an adequate job training their young people. As a result, they are sending them off to college like sheep to the slaughter.

Don’t get me wrong, I certainly believe that the religious and moral agenda that dominates at colleges and universities these days can be defeated, but only if the churches wake up and realize that we are in a war for our kids’ souls, and stop sending them off to battle virtually defenseless. Of course, I am not letting parents off the hook. We oftentimes get so caught up in the daily activities of life, that we forget to do the one thing that is most important, and that is to make sure our kids are Christian in more than name only. As for your question as to why there seems to be an anti-Christian agenda at many universities today, I will certainly give you my opinion, but first a quick history lesson is in order.

Modern day liberalism, which is the disease you will be fighting over the next four years, had its beginnings in the European Enlightenment. This was a decidedly anti-Christian movement with atheistic leanings. It came to the U. S. with the founding fathers, but really gathered momentum in the late 1800s under the guise of humanism and burst onto the college and university scene in the late 1960s. Staying true to its Enlightenment origins, the liberalism of the ’60s seeks to draw America away from her Christian roots, to what amounts to an atheistic worldview. This is not to say that every liberal is an atheist, but generally liberals do not want us, as a society, to look to God for our understanding of the world.

On the other hand, I think most people would agree that America began as a Protestant nation. By this I do not mean we were a theocracy but that the vast majority of us believed in Protestant Christianity, and we ordered our society accordingly. As far as putting this religion into practice there were, of course, low times and high times, with the low times punctuated by periods of revival. One such revival took place during World War II, as many thought the signs of the times were pointing towards the end of the world. The war eventually ran its course with no end of the world in sight. So the men came home to do what men always do after being away for an extended period of time. That’s right; they made babies! The result of all this activity was what we call the baby boomer generation, which came of age in the ’60s and ’70s. Unfortunately the revival during the war didn’t last long, nor did it have much depth, and by the time the boomers reached college, the Christianity of their parents was more cultural than vital.

As parents, the World War II generation, following the advice of Dr. Benjamin Spock (amongst others), tended to pamper their kids, not wanting them to go through what they had faced during the Great Depression and the War. For reasons unknown to me, it didn’t occur to them that it was going through these experiences that gave them the strong character that we still admire today.

As a result of this pampered upbringing and the largely atheistic worldview they were learning at the universities, the philosophy of life for the boomers was to obtain as much pleasure as one could with as little responsibility as possible. All of this, combined with the possibility of being drafted into an unpopular war, compelled this new generation to begin challenging the way of life that was handed down to them. Of course, Christianity, with its asceticism and emphasis on self-control, was at the root of this way of life, and unfortunately the baby boomers’ elders were unprepared to defend it.

This is why I do not believe that what happened in the ’60s was merely a sexual revolution; rather, more so it was a religious one. Christianity was overthrown, and a sort of liberal secularism was put in its place. This form of liberalism is not necessarily devoid of spirituality, but it is dead set against traditional Christianity.

If we look at the movements that came out of the ’60s and at the ones that are still on campus today, we can see that the one thing they have in common is that they are anti-Christian. Whether it is through the pro-abortion movement, the homosexual agenda, radical feminism and environmentalism, the drug culture, sexual promiscuity, easy divorce, etc., it is all anti-Christian. This is what they have in common, this is what binds them together, and this is what you will be dealing with on campus over the next four to five years.

I hope this gives you a little background on what you will be facing in the years to come. I believe that when our faith is challenged it can become stronger, or it can die, depending on how we respond. So if I may give you some advice, don’t take what your professors say at face value. I realize they can be intimidating, but if they teach anything that goes against your faith, search out the Christian response. I guarantee you that after two thousand years we have heard it all, and we have a reasonable answer to every objection. Please continue to write. I may not have all the answers, but I’ll do what I can to help.

Love,

Uncle Greg