Christian College Students Learn to Defend Their Faith in Prep Course
One college prep course is giving Christian students the tools they need to defend their beliefs.
Kate Hardiman reports at the College Fix.
‘Fearless Faith’ college-prep class arms Christian college students for intellectual battle
Seminar teaches debate tactics, logic and science supporting Christianity
When young people raised in Christian homes head off to college, they enter a world in which most educators teach from the podium that there is no God, science can prove humans evolved from apes, and the Bible is just a book filled with inconsistencies and contradictions.
They’re taught truth is subjective, miracles are fairy tales, and Jesus was just a guy who made some interesting points. They’re told by professors and peers that their Christian beliefs are narrow-minded, bigoted and foolish – and are encouraged to become more “enlightened” and “tolerant.”
It’s all too much for many young people, and in fact some surveys find about 75 percent of Christian youths stop attending church while in college due to intellectual skepticism.
Inspired and saddened by this, Christian apologist, award-winning author and impassioned speaker Dr. Frank Turek started CrossExamined in 2006. The nonprofit, interdenominational ministry teaches young Christians how to respond to and defend their beliefs on college campuses in a logical, scientific way.
This summer, the group launched its new “Fearless Faith” series – one-day seminars that teach students how to respond to professors when their faith is challenged, scientific evidence that supports Christianity, the fallacies of atheism, and much more. The series is specifically geared toward high school students headed off to college.
“A lot of young people walk away from the Church when they get to college, and part of the reason is that we’ve never told them why Christianity is true,” Turek said in a recent interview with The College Fix. “We really started it for that reason, to go to colleges, high schools, and churches to present the evidence that Christianity is true.”
‘Fearless Faith’ college-prep class arms Christian college students for intellectual battle (The College Fix)
Comments
Learning to defend one’s faith is good. Learning how to counterattack to defend one’s faith is better. Teach counterattacking instead.
To mount an apologia also involves counterattacking against heresy, apostasy, blasphemy, heterodoxy, and atheism. Think of it in terms of Treasury agents: they don’t deal with counterfeit money; they are taught to recognize real money. That’s the orthodox line in the sand.
This is a wonderful thing teaching these youth to give a defense. Hopefully, they will learn good debating skills, learn enough to recognize the weaknesses of their opponents views, and be so persuasive that their opponents will come to faith.