Campus Crusade for Christ shares beliefs

Friday is the last day of Campus Crusade for Christ's blitz week, but unlike last year, this week was not marked by students in the group wearing the same T-shirt for five days in a row.

"Every year we come up with a theme to encourage people, and last year we all got the same shirt for the theme 'What does God mean to you?'" said Chelsea Bushong, junior in ACES and student leader of Campus Crusade for Christ, or Cru. "This year, we didn't want a T-shirt."

This year the group chose 'engage' as its theme, and printed it on wristbands instead of shirts.

Even without the visual presence of matching shirts, blitz week is still meant to be a time for Cru members to focus on evangelism among their friends and classmates, Bushong said.

"Blitz week is a week dedicated to sharing our faith and what we believe with others," Bushong said. "We want to be able to encourage one another to step out and share our faith because not everyone has done that before."

Bushong said she believes most Cru members are actively participating in blitz week, but they are experiencing mixed results.

"There have been a variety of responses," Bushong said. "Some people have different beliefs, and they will tell you about other things. It all depends on how open they are."

Some people may not be as open to discussing religious views, especially if they feel they are being spoken down to.

"People don't like being preached at or accosted in public and told that their worldviews are wrong," said Chris Calvey, senior in Engineering and president of the Atheists, Agnostics and Freethinkers club, or AAF.

Calvey said unsolicited evangelizing is the type of religious discussion that often makes people uncomfortable.

"There's a difference between trying to spread your message and convert people and win them over, versus having a discussion and bringing your beliefs to the marketplace of ideas without intruding," Calvey said. "In my experience, both Cru and AAF are more interested in having a dialogue than in proselytizing."

Blitz week is not meant to make people feel awkward or uncomfortable, Bushong said. Cru members often approach people and ask them questions from a "Worldview Survey" to help begin conversations, she added.

The survey is a list of questions about values and opinions relating to religion that has been in use for a few years. It can be used to start conversations, but Cru members do not necessarily follow it rigidly.

There is a distinction between evangelism and proselytizing, said the Rev. Greg Ketcham, chaplain and director at St. John's Catholic Newman Center.

Evangelizing, or sharing beliefs when people ask about them, is seen as a Catholic's duty, Ketcham said. However, he added that the late Pope John Paul II condemned proselytizing, or inducing someone to convert, as a sin.

"You don't want to take someone who's comfortable in how they relate with God and pull the carpet out from under them," Ketcham said.

Recognizing that people have different comfort levels when it comes to discussing religion is important to starting productive discussions, Bushong said.

Calvey also believes productive conversations about religion can take place as long as people respect each other and try to understand diverse viewpoints.

"Although I think their time might be better spent in other ways, I can understand the motivation," Calvey said. "If I was a Christian, I imagine I would be doing the same thing."