Campus Crusade for Chaos

By   |  June 22, 2009

Campus Crusade for Christ has flourished into an ignorant, overbearing religious group with vague goals and offensive methods that all Christians of the world should condemn as an inaccurate representation of Jesus Christ.

According to its own literature, Campus Crusade envisions a commitment to ‘take the gospel of Jesus Christ to all nations.’ Under such a pledge, it claims to ‘cooperate with millions of Christians from churches of many denominations and hundreds of other Christian organizations around the world.’ These goals, according to Campus Crusade, are achieved by ‘working with local governments and schools’ as they demonstrate ‘the love of God through word and deed to hurting and needy people.’ By combining short-term disaster relief with long-term developmental goals that are built upon evangelical Christian ideals, Campus Crusade has established itself as the farthest-reaching religious non-governmental organization in the world.

crusade pamphlet

An example of the weirdass s**t that Campus Crusade distributes. They are now, disturbingly, the largest Christian non-profit in the world.

Although historically a privately-funded organization, Campus Crusade recently lined up to receive money under George W. Bush’s international AIDS plan and faith-based initiative, which seems to have further propelled the notion that the United States seeks to aggressively Christianize other nations using government resources. It is surprising, therefore, that such a well-funded organization wouldn’t do more to distance itself from the politics-ridden game of federal funding and far-right alignment.

Campus Crusade has increasingly portrayed itself in an ecumenical light, often including so many religious denominations in its organizational structure that its doctrine of beliefs has become suspect. Indeed, a Web site formerly sponsored by Campus Crusade, PrayToEndAIDS.com, makes you wonder why it desires federal AIDS-prevention funding if it believes AIDS can be brought to an end through prayer alone.

The recent testimony of two Crusade recruits from Pulwama, India in the Indian Express is quite eye-opening: ‘We have to organize cricket matches and seminars in college where we are required to preach the Gospel. We are paid a monthly salary of RS 12,000 a month and all other expenses. The hike in perks depends on how we progress in our mission. The first good thing about Christianity is we don’t need to change our names. If we are in trouble, we could always claim we never converted. Here [with Campus Crusade], at least I get my salary and other perks and they have promised to send me abroad for higher education.’

It would appear that Campus Crusade is undergoing a blind pursuit of numbers as the people they are reaching display confusion and confliction regarding their involvement. Or, maybe the 84,859 American students it claims to have converted thus far do in fact clearly understand those Crusade pamphlets with circles and triangles and crucifixes all over them.

In the 1980s it was reported that missionaries with World Vision were promising American visas to any Cambodians who converted to Christianity – and whether true or not, a similar approach seems to continue with powerhouse religious groups like Campus Crusade.

An article in the Los Angeles Times recalls a girl at the University of Southern California who was part of the local Campus Crusade chapter. The girl told writer Diane Winston that, ‘If Jesus came back, he would be just as liberal for today as he was for his time,’ as she justified wearing a shirt that stated: ‘Gay? Fine by me.’ Winston notices that many evangelicals, especially those who are a part of international organizations like Campus Crusade for Christ, are increasingly contradictory in their core religious beliefs which drastically affects the impact they have while ‘serving’ other nations in times of need.

Perhaps the best indication of Campus Crusade’s progression as an international Christian NGO can be observed in Turkey, a nation constantly torn by the strife between Orthodox Christians, Muslim fundamentalists and Protestant evangelicals. Duman (name changed for safety reasons), a Turkish Presbyterian, who receives funding from an American Baptist church for his work in Internet ministry, explains the impression best:

“The Kurdistan maps displaying some Turkish cities on Campus Crusade Web sites make the Muslims and secularists think that such missionaries are not just Christians, but rather are part of a strategic political game [advanced by] the United States of America. For example, Dr. Ahmet Aras is publicly listed (on Bayzan.net, a Turkish Muslim community) as the head of tactical Internet missions, and he coordinates Web site hacks on Turkish Christian Web sites with support from numerous policemen and citizens. I showed two [such reactionary Muslim Web sites] to Campus Crusade leaders who now think bad of me. Many Muslims now think that [we Turkish Protestants] are agents of George W. Bush who want to divide Turkey against the Muslims. I explained these problems to Campus Crusade but my words were ignored.”

With a name like ‘Crusade’ it is no surprise that many Islamic groups are declaring counter-jihad on the magnificent West. Watch Unto Prayer, a watchdog group for Christian NGOs and international evangelism makes a distinction between the professed evangelical aid of groups like Campus Crusade and the actual ‘evangelization’ that often takes place:

‘Evangelism’ is the work of the Church to spread the Gospel of Jesus Christ in order to bring souls into the Kingdom of God, vital to sustaining a viable relationship between individual believers and the Lord Jesus Christ. ‘Evangelization’ is the term used by the global, ecumenical ‘World Christian Movement’ to gain the support of churches throughout the world. It denotes the ‘Christianizing’ of all a world’s ‘people groups’ by means of work that combines social and political action as equal elements with the Gospel of Jesus Christ.’

It is not that Campus Crusade’s goal of sharing love and aid with places like Kurdistan is a bad desire, but rather that it is too often ignorant of local culture and indifferent to criticism, which allows groups to more easily label it as an American political agent. This attitude only further inflames hatred of America as the world’s ‘policeman’ – even among many Christians.

İlker Çınar, a former Turkish pastor who had been working with foreign missionaries, recently converted to Islam in a flurry of disgust and frustration, and published a book that lists the names of all Christian missionaries in Turkey as a bold condemnation of the Turkish evangelical movement.

In the words of Duman, ‘I know that corporate mission groups are not commanded in the Bible. Jesus only said for us to ‘go.’ The Muslims have a saying here: ‘If speaking is silver, then listening is gold.”

Campus Crusade, I hope you’re listening.

This article was originally published in October 2007 under the title “Campus Crusade Cripples”

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11 Comments on “Campus Crusade for Chaos”  (RSS)

  1. I find this group most interesting….

  2. It’s brain wash. They tell you exactly what to do making their own religion in a sense. My girlfriend went on a summer long trip and broke up with me because they showed a couple that had a perfect relationship and pretty much said, if your man isn’t like him break up… It’s hard to bring back to your campus when you don’t relate to people because every other sentence is a bible quote. Secretly they are creating their own religion, because they convinced my girlfriend that religion is bad but really she’s listening to those people there as if they were the priest or pastor and are interpreting the bible as they want to. If you do end up doing it, I strongly suggest you focus on don’t lose your sense of self. My girlfriend started sounding like robot and I couldn’t even relate to her.

  3. Campus Crusade for Christ, or CRU, fuels hatred for that that are not “Christian” and encourages Discrimination and Oppression.

    https://www.change.org/petitions/get-campus-crusade-for-christ-banned-from-schools-as-a-hate-group

  4. @Chera, I don’t know what kind of group you were with and I don’t know the situation, but I am a student who is very involved with Campus Crusade and I’m very surprised to hear about something like that happening. I give my guy friends hugs at CRU all the time and it’s no problem!
    Also, in reference to the part about evangelicals contradicting their core beliefs – just one example of one girl acting on that does not mean that everyone else is too. Nearly everyone I know in the movement sticks to their beliefs and does not act nearly as hypocritical about controversial moral issues as this girl does.

  5. I recently went on a retreat with the women. I was scared out of my mind because of the doctrines that were imposed. Simply hugging someone of the opposite sex was looked down upon. I grew up in a church where hugging everyone is acceptable. Children and adults alike. I felt imprisoned with the doctrines that the staff was trying to push upon me. The group is fine but I will not attend another meeting.

  6. @Richard L, feel free to provide “facts” then, that disprove the documented facts presented in this article, instead of brainwashed hearsay. Oh wait…

  7. My experience with this organization over the past 40 years originally as a student, later a staff member and now as a financial supporter has been much different than what you describe and only very positive. The spin you put in the article is just not accurate in terms of the total body of facts.

  8. Campus Crusades… for vacations in Jamaica! ahh how they spend money on themselves.

    another conference… Jamaica this time, last time.. even better…. crooks

  9. @Mo, way to read the article completely and make an intellectual conclusion.

  10. Are you seriously saying that Campus Crusade is “confused” because one member isn’t a homophobe?

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