Parker T. Williamson
editor-in-chief
Those of us who live to the east of the Mississippi River are
aware that, like the prevailing winds, many of our nation’s
ideological inventions find their genesis in California.
In the sixties, Berkeley made news as unwashed iconoclasts took over
Freedom Park and the cult of the imperial self started its eastward
trek. In the ensuing maelstrom, campus ministries increasingly shelved
the gospel, embracing instead a passion for liberation and movement
politics. Westminster Fellowships became staging areas for campus
demonstrations, as their bulletin boards promoted the most recent cause
celebre.
Lamentably, Presbyterian campus ministries across the country followed
that flow. Soon, this thin gruel left students hungry for more
substantial fare. They abandoned Westminster Fellowships and cascaded
into evangelical para-church ministries like InterVarsity Christian
Fellowship and Campus Crusade for Christ. Attracted by a gospel that
affirms Truth with a capital “T,” students and faculty members
began to entertain intelligent encounters between the small “t”
truths of academia and the revealed Truth that they found in God’s
Word. The engagement changed lives.
Dwindling denominational ministries sought campus survival, not in
reformation, but retrenchment. Alliances like United Ministries of
Higher Education consolidated their failures, but that only exacerbated
the downward trend. Meanwhile, the headquarters of the Presbyterian
Church (USA) launched the National Network of Presbyterian College
Women, with a Web site that included among its “recommended
resources” a link to lesbian dating services and a discredited “Human
Sexuality Report.” Some denominational leaders replaced Scripture
with “justice love” as its proffered standard for sexual
relationships.
But there is hope on the horizon. Ironically, Berkeley, the very place
that figured so prominently in the nationwide blight on Christian higher
education, is now coming to life with a vibrant, intelligent infusion of
the gospel. Under the entrepreneurial leadership of a visionary
Presbyterian minister and his talented staff – and bankrolled by
Baptist bonds –
Westminster
House is charting a new course for campus ministry. Passionately
committed to the gospel and having honed his skills through 17 years of
employment with InterVarsity, Randy Bare has forged an intersection
between campus and the Christ. Assisted in his mission by area
Presbyterian congregations that see mission on their doorstep, Bare and
his team envision Westminster House as a launching pad for the gospel at
one of this country’s most prestigious academic institutions.
If it can happen at Berkeley, a place that is fiercely secular (the
university will not list Westminster House as a recommended student
residence because it is explicitly Christian), it can happen anywhere.
And as the false gods of inclusiveness and diversity inevitably wane,
the Truth that these Berkeley Presbyterians proclaim may, in fact, send
a fresh breeze across American academia.
We welcome that wind!
A column by Parker T. Williamson, chief executive officer of the
Presbyterian Lay Committee and editor in chief of its publications.