Dustin
Curry
Contributing
writer
“You hypocrite, first take the log out of your own eye, and then you will see clearly to take the speck out of your brother’s eye.” Matthew 7:5 (NASB)
For years, the Baptist Collegiate Ministry at Southeastern has been one of the largest student organizations on campus. Thursday night Crossroads Ministries boast numbers of attendees in the triple digits. BCM mission trips have ventured across the globe.
Despite being one of the most influential organizations around, recently there has been an exodus of students from the organization because of what some are calling “exclusive” behavior.
In order to bring in new members, religious groups should be inclusive of outsiders; however, many would argue that the BCM is excluding potential attendees by avoiding certain campus events, by preaching ideology that is controversial and by proselytizing in a manner that pushes others away.
Many members have “lost touch with people outside of the BCM,” said Nick Growall, a BCM regular from 2008 to 2011. “The few times I’ve tried to come back, there was not a sense of welcome. There was this sense of alienation.”
Some students currently involved in the BCM agree. “They make the place seem cultish at times,” said Cory Williams, bassist in the BCM’s praise band since 2010. “It can become so tight-knit that it is very hard for (an outsider) to get involved and to feel welcome.”
Director of Student Life Liz Howard told me about a meeting between herself and Colby Corsaut, director of the BCM. During the meeting, Corsaut asserted that the BCM would not be participating in certain Student Life activities such as the annual Welcome Week and last year’s Foam Party (a new event where students danced to music while covered in several feet of suds and bubbles) because he viewed such activities as “sinful” and “ungodly.”
Corsaut declined to comment on the issue.
Williams explained that “they’re very picky and choosy about the events they get involved in…You don’t want to create an environment where students can’t go and interact with students outside their group, because that’s counterproductive to the great commission of Jesus Christ.”
Another critique involves some of the messages the BCM is conveying to students. Growall described many instances of feeling insecure as an active member of the BCM.
“There was a video shown to raise awareness of the Women’s Ministry,” Growall recalled. The video in question featured two white students playing caricatures of stereotypical Asian women as nail salon owners. “It was in very bad taste,” said Growall.
The BCM is not the only religious organization on campus to receive scrutiny based on how they convey their message to people outside its group. One such instance involves the fliers printed by Vincent De Paul Ngako, an active member of the BCM and leader of the International Student Bible Foundation.
The most recent flier published by the ISBF states that people who are gossips, disobedient to parents and faithless “deserve to die.” Gossip and being disobedient are unscrupulous, but do those who practice such offenses really deserve death in the eyes of the ISBF?
Ngako, a singer-songwriter originally from Yaoundé, Cameroon, recently posted on the BCM’s group Facebook page that he believes “the problem with Christianity today (is that) we have become…so tolerant.” Since when is tolerance a bad thing? Tolerant Christians of the past are the people who helped open our country up to more than just our Puritan forefathers. They opened the doors for a variety of people to come here, including international students from Cameroon.
When religious people and organizations shout their beliefs on a street corner or on a patronizing flier, they aren’t bringing people closer to their faith. As Williams put it, “No one has brought a flier to the BCM and said ‘I’m here because this spoke to me.’”
The purpose of a religious student organization is to promote its message by involving the student body. When these organizations exert a “holier than thou” attitude, they aren’t gaining new members. Arrogance, hypocrisy and exclusiveness should not be words associated with a group of people hoping to spread the word of God.
In Matthew 23, Jesus condemns the Pharisees, saying “everything they do is done for people to see” (NIV). When a member of a religious organization excludes others, forces faith down people’s throats and doesn’t attempt to build a strong relationship with the people he or she is interested in “saving,” that person needs to ask whether or not he or she is being a disciple or a Pharisee.
Despite the trouble the BCM is having, it is apparent that it also produces a large helping of good. “There are a lot of people there that are incredibly loving,” said Williams. The BCM, like other student groups, offers friendship and unity. It offers hope and cultivates spiritual health. Growall notes that at the BCM, “there’s a sense of community and they do charitable work like Families Feeding Families.”
Sheridan Hill, who is a current member of the BCM, agrees. “I think that many students who regularly attend find many of their friendships there and are excited to attend.”
Regardless of the number of good things happening at the BCM, former members and outsiders are still using the word “cult” to describe its activities. This description should open the eyes of the members and leaders of the BCM. “Cult” stirs up images of Jonestown, the Manson Family and the Westboro Baptist Church, but should not be the image of the BCM.
Some may say that other groups, such as sports teams and Greek organizations, are just as cliquish. However, the main difference here is that this is a religious organization we’re talking about. As a religious organization, your members should never make others feel unwelcome.
There is still hope for groups like the Baptist Collegiate Ministry and the International Student Bible Foundation. If their members can find ways to be more open and inclusive, then they will prosper and spread their message.
Until then, they are just making a louder and more resolute atheist out of me.