The Religious Nerd

In the third and final post of my series on how to stay Christian in college I am going to cover the last part of the verse we have been looking at:

¹⁰For Ezra had set his heart to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel. Ezra 7:10b

There was a point in time in my community college education where I took a public speaking class.  One of the assignments given was to create a 5-7 minute speech on any topic, no limitations. Part of the assignment required that the students turn in a rough draft of their speech to the teacher prior to the date the speech was to be given.  My speech came back with a note “you cannot give this speech in this class as its content is about the exclusiveness of Christianity and that is a lie”.

I inquired with the teacher as to why my speech was singled out and how the assignment parameters indicated that students had no limitations in content.  I couldn’t get a straight answer.  All I could get was a “I am the teacher and you have to do whatever I say and you have to do your speech on a topic other than Christianity”.

One girl in class chose to do a speech on her experiences being gay. Another person spoke on their personal sexual encounters. One girl spoke on how her family came from Cambodia and that she is a practicing Buddhist.  Needless to say it upset me that I was silenced on the topic of Christianity when every other topic was allowed in, with little or no discretion to the possibility of offending people in class with graphic content.

How did I respond? My speech partner and I went on strike.  We literally walked out during the middle of a class, and stood outside the classroom in the freezing cold picketing with homemade signs in hand.  We were out there for over an hour.  Finally the teacher came roaring out of the classroom towards the end of the class yelling at us that she had grounds to have us expelled and that our behavior was unacceptable.

Eventually she calmed down and said “I was wrong, you can give your speech”. As we walked back to the classroom she said “if you ever pull a stunt like this again you are finished here”.  Surprisingly, my friend and I received an A- on our speech and the teacher, though displeased with the content, mentioned that we did a good job.

2 years later at the same college, a girl who I did not recognize was sitting next to me in a class.  She said, “did you take a public speaking class where you went on strike so that you could do a speech on Jesus?”  I said, yes, that was me.  She said “that motivated me to be unashamed giving my personal testimony of Christianity in college”.  She also mentioned that she along with some others started a “Christian students club” and invited me to come check it out.

In retrospect, what I did was dumb.  It was immature, rebellious, and arrogant.  I do not recommend that you do something like that at your school.

What I have learned since this event is that a person can give a witness about Jesus in a loving, compassionate, and intelligent way.  This type of witness often bears more fruit and is not motivated and fueled by sin (for me rebelliousness, anger, pride).

Here are 4 ideas for how you can have fruitful witnessing in a hostile environment:

1. Be an ambassador for Christ.  “Therefore, we are ambasadors for Christ, God making his appeal through us. We implore you on behalf of Christ, be reconciled to God.” 2 Corinthians 5:20.   An ambassador is a representative of a greater authority.  Our ultimate authority is Jesus Christ.  He advocates for us to God the Father, we are to advocate for Him to our neighbor, regardless if they like us or not.  Share the gospel with people who are in your life right now.  Teach them the word of God much like Ezra taught people during his day.
2. Live like today is your last day . Philipians 1:21 comes to mind: “²¹For to me to live is Christ, and to die is gain.”  Don’t go around school hiding the fact that you are a Christian.  As the Apostle Paul writes to the Romans “¹⁶For I am not ashamed of the gospel, for it is the power of God for salvation to everyone who believes, to the Jew first and also to the Greek.” Romans 1:16.  Don’t be like so many people in college who do whatever they want while simultaneously identifying themselves as Christians.
3. Be passionate – it is contagious.  Being passionate for Jesus in a way that is not judgmental or too aggressive will have a contagious effect on those around you and will give glory to Jesus in the process. Christianity is extremely contagious when it is presented by those who are passionate for it.  As the scriptures say “For zeal for your house has consumed me” Psalm 69:9a.  
4. Prayer, prayer, prayer.  Don’t ever stop praying.  It can be tough being the only Christian at school or at work.  Instead of holding all your thoughts and feelings inside of you, take them to God.  “¹⁷ pray without ceasing” 1 Thessalonians 5:17.  He will listen to you.

I hope this series has been beneficial to you.  May God bless you in your studies and may you set your heart to “to study the Law of the LORD, and to do it and to teach his statutes and rules in Israel.”