To Think Christianly by Charles E. Cotherman

Author:Charles E. Cotherman
Language: eng
Format: epub
Tags: History;evangelicalism;Christian history;Francis Schaeffer;James Houston;Christian university;L'Abri;American religious history;Christian study center;R. C. Sproul;RC Sproul;Regent College;life of the mind;Christian baby boomers;Christian college;university;learning community;theological education;evangelical theological education;north American christianity
Publisher: InterVarsity Press
Published: 2020-03-18T08:31:01+00:00

Figure 6.1. Daryl Richman speaking to a group of students at an Action Ministries meeting in spring 1974.

Evangelical Parachurch Ministry Moves onto University Grounds

As evangelical Christianity gained momentum in Charlottesville, some of Action Ministry’s student leaders began to envision a more public outreach at Thomas Jefferson’s university. In spring 1972 Beat Steiner and other evangelical students tapped into the anti-institutional ethos of the Jesus movement to plan a three-day Jesus Christ Versus Christianity conference at the university. Organizers scheduled both teaching seminars and outreach events during the weekend-long event and lined up local Christian leaders as well as professors such as William Lane and Richard Lovelace from Boston’s Gordon-Conwell Theological Seminary to teach. The Charlottesville event also featured prominent campus evangelist Leighton Ford (b. 1930), brother-in-law of Billy Graham, and Tom Skinner (1942–1994), an African American evangelist who had once been the leader of a notorious gang in New York City. Both men had played significant roles in InterVarsity’s Urbana 1970, an event that had challenged evangelicals to rise against the racial and class status quo.10

As far as Steiner knew, the University of Virginia had never hosted a large-scale evangelistic effort like this before. Furthermore, there were some—even some Christians—in the Charlottesville community who were not enthusiastic about changing the pattern. On the Wednesday before the weekend event, seven prominent Charlottesville pastors penned a short letter to the Cavalier Daily, the university’s student newspaper, explaining their “reservations about the style” of the planned evangelistic event. While they admitted that “an evangelistic crusade” might be one way to help people grow in the faith, they were quick to add, “it would be dishonest if we were to pretend that it reflected our understanding of what it means to preach the Gospel or build Christian community.”11

For Steiner, the letter called to mind the seven churches reprimanded by Christ in the first chapters of Revelation.12 For administrators at the university, the letter was all the impetus they needed to forestall the event. They immediately called into effect a somewhat selective no-use policy for religious events that developed in the 1960s, likely in the wake of monumental Abington v. Schempp Supreme Court decision of 1963, which outlawed Bible reading in public schools and stressed the divide between church and state institutions.13 Just days before the event was set to be held, they informed Steiner that evangelistic meetings could not be held on university grounds, even though Steiner had successfully reserved the auditorium in Old Cabell Hall through the standard procedure. Through the help of Elzinga—who reminded university officials that decisions regarding the support of student groups held political implications during a budget year—the event was saved at the last moment, but university officials on the facilities committee insisted that future events of this kind would not be tolerated at the university.14

As noted above, the university’s policies were not opposed to religion per se. At times various individuals at the university made religious options at local churches known to students by publishing pamphlets such as “Religious Affairs in the University of Virginia Community, 1970–1971.

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