BY SETH DONOUGHE

In print | November 8, 2007

I would like to thank Julian Chender for addressing questions of faith in his columns. It is an area of discussion that remains far too taboo at Swarthmore. Unfortunately, in his most recent column “Fundamentalism can leave little room for discussion” he exemplifies the misconceptions that many Swatties have about Christianity in general and the Swarthmore Christian Fellowship in particular.

Julian characterizes SCF as fundamentalist. While the original goal of the fundamentalist church movement (getting to understand and live out the fundamentals of Christian belief) is quite fitting, today’s connotations of the word are not at all an accurate description of SCF. In the United States today, “fundamentalist Christians” are the people that many Swatties despise. The term evokes an image of indoctrinated Republicans that do not care about the environment, do not care about the poor, and are terrified of the “gay agenda.” Julian connects this image to SCF by describing the club as Swarthmore’s “religious right”, but he is badly mistaken.

SCF is composed of students who come from an extremely diverse array of backgrounds, spanning many different denominations and including people with no Christian upbringing at all. How faith informs our political ideals is different for everyone, so as a result we land all over the spectrum from quite liberal to conservative and from those disinterested in politics to the politically active.

Furthermore, there is a wide diversity of belief among people who attend SCF events. Many of us have come to believe in the truth of the Bible and God’s plan to make things right through Jesus Christ. Others may attend to see if their churched past has meaning anymore, while still others come entirely as skeptics – bringing with them questions like those that Julian brought up in his column. Everyone knows that we don’t have it all sorted out. We enjoy having a place, together with other students, to seek God more deeply, to understand the Bible, and to see how it applies to our lives.

Julian may find Christianity to be as ridiculous as belief in “The Flying Spaghetti Monster”, but perhaps that is because he thinks it is “accepted unquestioningly” and “has no experiential basis.” I believe that my faith is both rational and profoundly reinforced by my experience. Yet as Julian rightly points out, it is worthy of being questioned.

Like any other, the Christian worldview should be thoughtfully examined. Is it true? How could I know? If it were true, what would it mean for me? For our world? Everyone believes in things unseen and un-provable. I hope that we as a community would continue this trajectory of respectfully discussing such deep questions of faith, instead of hiding our personal beliefs and outwardly surrendering to the politically correct and contradictory position that all things are true.

Editor’s Note: Seth Donoughe is the president of SCF.

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