3 minute read
Christ on Campus: What’s the Rush?
There’s also no shortage of communities on campus, both good and bad, out to recruit you. They include religious organizations, clubs and interest groups, and all manner of fraternities and sororities. They will be lined up for you at various orientation fairs, as well as the common meeting places in the quad and student union alike.
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As a full-time campus pastor for over a decade, I have a bit of very simple advice for you: don’t join anything for at least your first month or two on campus!
Why? First of all, you’ve got enough to do already. Get familiar with your newfound freedom, develop a good study routine, and take time to get to know the people you’ll be seeing a lot—those in your dorm, your classes, and, hopefully, those at your church.
Second, the workload may be much greater than you have previously experienced. There’s no sense overloading yourself with too many commitments that will take away from your primary vocation of being a student. Moreover, you need the time to faithfully receive Christ’s gifts of Word and Sacrament.
Showing up on a college campus as a freshman is both exciting and a bit scary. Having left behind parents, siblings, friends, and familiar faces at church, the first few weeks can be lonely when you know next to no one, if anyone at all.
Third, while there are a lot of good organizations on campus, you can’t be familiar with all of them the second you arrive. It’s better to wait until you’ve gotten settled.
Finally, we don’t want to see you get involved in organizations where you might find yourself unexpectedly having to compromise your faith. That’s obviously a concern with various campus ministry organizations, but it can also be the case with fraternities and sororities on campus.
When we think of Greek-letter fraternities and sororities, we perhaps first think of the Animal House-type parties and antics; but it’s not always so, and many chapters do participate in a lot of good social activities and community programs. No two are the same, and there are also many fine Greek-letter organizations (such as national academic honor societies) that are worth supporting.
However, many of these incorporate traditions and rituals of a religious or quasi-religious nature as part of their initiation ceremonies. These may include vows made in the name of a generic god. Often the specifics are not disclosed ahead of time and cannot be discussed outside the organization without the formal approval of the entire chapter.
Many incoming freshman are naïve to such things and the spiritual implications since they are often rushed into pledging. This becomes a serious Second Commandment issue.
God takes the use of His name and our vows with it seriously. Oaths are a serious matter whether they entail our confirmation or marriage vows or our swearing to tell the truth in a court of law. We’re told in Leviticus 5:4–5: “If a person swears, speaking thoughtlessly with his lips to do evil or to do good, whatever it is that a man may pronounce by an oath, and he is unaware of it when he realizes it, then he shall be guilty in any of these matters. And it shall be so, when he is guilty in any of these matters, that he shall confess that he has sinned in that thing.”
Regardless of other merits of an organization, you can’t honor the one true God if what you’re asked to vow is hidden from you ahead of time. That’s one of the main problems with any secret society. Unfortunately, there are so many college fraternities and sororities with a wide variety of membership requirements and rituals, that there is no simple list of which ones are considered fine to join and which are not. This will take time and discretion on your part.
If you’re interested in joining a fraternity or sorority (or any other group), ask about any initiation rite in advance. Most importantly, ask to see the actual words. If they won’t tell you, you can’t join in good conscience. If they will let you see the ritual book and know exactly what you will be asked to do and say, share the information with your parents or pastor so you can discuss the implications together. If you’re in doubt in any way, just don’t join.
Take some time at the start to just be, well, a student. The transition to college can be both exhilarating and overwhelming. Take time to get to know your new surroundings, get acclimated, and establish a routine, including hearing Christ’s Word. That is ultimately the community you need the most. You will get to know people in college soon enough and anything worth doing is worth waiting for. After all, what’s the rush?
Rev. Marcus Zill is the full-time campus pastor at St. Andrew’s Lutheran Church and Campus Center in Laramie, Wyoming, and serves as the Executive for Christ on Campus.
TheTen Commandments. Luther's Small Catechism. © 1986 Concordia Publishing House. www.cph.org. Used with permission.
