Opinion: Too many religious groups

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By Rachel Kimbrough

Ask an average non-Christian the difference between a Wesleyan and a Baptist.

Most people won’t know the difference, but the college currently has seven active Christian student clubs and organizations, and a couple more in the works.

This works against every group’s goal. Every Christian group—not just here on campus, but anywhere—thinks that its own method of witnessing and its own message is the only true one, the one true way to salvation.

But to the people those groups are attempting to reach—those folks entirely disinterested in religion, the ones whose souls are hell-bound—it’s all roughly the same thing. Accept God or you’ll go to hell, basically. Those differences in theologies are really only very apparent to involved members of each religious group.

Having so many groups all preaching what appears to the average person to be the same message is actually off-putting and unproductive. The appearance of rivalry among those numerous groups drives prospective lost souls away from the idea joining the mess and ultimately adding another voice to the white noise.

Besides which, all those of those groups’ chance at securing funding for trips or events is now slim to none. If every Christian club wanted to take a group on a mission’s trip, for example, Student Senate would have to do something like divide any available funds between all seven (maybe soon to be nine) groups. Congratulations, each Christian group, you were just awarded $10 to travel to Madagascar. Good luck.

For any of these groups to have any shot at all at actually making a difference, there needs to be some unity between all of them. All of those groups should set aside their minor differences in theology and focus on the one unifying factor: the benefit of joining the religion.

Even if every group continues to exist independently of the others, they could join forces for events or trips or fundraisers or whatever else. That would be less confusing for passersby, and a more effective witnessing strategy, in terms of sheer manpower.

Until there is some semblance of unity among the too many Christian groups, the message each group means to send will be lost in the static, like a radio dial stuck between stations, rather than heard like a clear symphony of voices in unison.

Contact Rachel Kimbrough, editor-in-chief, at rkimbrou@jccc.edu.

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