Nov 20 2008
Greek fraternities finding religion
It’s 11 a.m. Saturday, and whiskey is flowing at the big houses on fraternity row at the University of Alabama. Guys in ties and baseball caps are laughing and dancing with sorority girls in bright dresses as a band blares away just around the corner.
Smack in the middle of that row is the Lambda Sigma Phi house, but things are a lot quieter inside. Parents are helping put out lunch before a Crimson Tide football game as a few members lounge in the den watching TV.
A Bible passage decorates a door. “My son, do not regard lightly the discipline of the Lord,” it begins.
Lambda Sigma Phi is part of a wave of Christian fraternities and sororities that has gained a foothold on U.S. college campuses—with at least 210 nationwide—sometimes despite the wishes of school administrators. Members get pumped up about prayer, Bible study and service projects, passions they say campus officials should and often do embrace as fresh amid a Greek culture typically seen as centered on hazing, keg parties and little else.
Founded in 2001, Lambda Sigma Phi hopes to show other groups at the university what Jesus is all about.
“We want to be a light on this campus,” said chapter president Daniel Weaver.
Alpha Delta Chi, a Christian sorority with 14 active chapters nationwide, is straightforward about its membership requirements: Churchgoing Christians only. No smoking or illegal drugs. No premarital sex. And please, no drinking to the point that it would reflect badly on Christianity.
“All the girls are in Bible studies. We also do sisterhood retreats and outreach,” said Kiran Thadhani, president of Alpha Delta Chi at Georgia Tech. “Many girls work at soup kitchens, go on summer mission trips, and work right here on homelessness and poverty issues in Atlanta.”
Many campuses welcome the combination of religion with Greek-letter social groups, but others haven’t.
Read more here.
[From me]
I was amazed to see this story occurring in my home town. When I lived in Tuscaloosa it was like living around the movie Animal House. The University of Alabama and Ole Miss weren’t even allowed to be in the Party School rankings because they were “Professionals.” That is why my parents encouraged me to go away for college.
At Samford I was involved in a Fraternity. I met some great, life long friends. I think it also limited friendships with guys in other fraternities and those who were independent. That is my only regret. For the most part being a “greek” was a good experience. It taught me a lot of valuable lessons. Samford is a “Christian” University but the fraternities still had their share of partying. So I learned to share my faith within a party atmosphere.
I can’t imagine why college administrators would be against “Greek” organizations that tried to live clean lives. That puzzles me. But I wonder if the members are sheltering themselves to the extent that they have no influence on those who need to hear about Jesus? Maybe not, just a thought.
What do you think?
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4 responses so far
“Lambda Sigma Phi is part of a wave of Christian fraternities . . . sometimes despite the wishes of school administrators.”
That seemed odd to me as well. Seems like they’d be glad to avoid the binge drinking, pregnancies, abortions, STDs, etc. of the “normal” college life.
Neil’s last blog post..Roundup
To be honest, if I had gone Greek in college, I probably wouldn’t be walking with God today. It was my intimidation of the Greek system, because of movies like Animal House, that kept me independent.
Because I was independent, I got invited to the BSU and was involved in a freshman dorm Bible study. I was already saved, but I wasn’t very strong and I had gone to college with the intent of shying away from church involvement.
My Junior year, several of us BSU guys got an invitation to join a brand new fraternity. We discussed it for a long time, thinking that we would influence the direction of the chapter and make it, essentially, a Christian frat. For reasons I don’t remember, we didn’t do that.
While the idea of a Christian frat/sorority is somewhat appealing, I have to agree with your last thought, that if we don’t be a part of the world, they’ll never see the light. I feel very strongly the same way about homeschooling in the US. I know that people don’t want their kids influenced by the world, but if all the Christian kids are being home schooled, who is witnessing to the kids and teachers in the public schools?
If we are called to be salt and light, why are we still in the salt containers and sitting in a closed up room? Let’s let our light shine!
Rick Boyne’s last blog post..Attention Please!
The idea of assembling people who want to lead Christian lives is definitely a good thing, but I don’t think it’s puzzling for school administrators to disapprove of the discriminatory admittance policy.
I would advise that they slightly amend their admittance policy to focus on morality and character, rather than whether they are church goers. It might be okay from a discrimination standpoint to say that Christians are preferred, but not a requirement.
This recommendation would not be a sneaky trick to avoid the discrimination problem, I truly think it would be a good idea for these greek organizations to sincerely be open to non-Christians who want to lead moral lives… it would give the organizations a chance to show those people what being a Christian is all about. Moreover, as long as the not-yet-Christians aren’t living lives of disruptive sin, it won’t be too huge of a distraction.
Don’t get me wrong, I feel that Christians should be able to gather with just Christians in some settings, such as at Church, but could you imagine trying to control a Greek system where people are allowed to discriminate? I mean, some people might feel okay with discriminating about non Christians, but where would it stop? I wouldn’t want to go to a college where ALL the frats had some reason to discriminate against people, I would be more afraid I could not get a spot in one (assuming I was going to college and wanted to join a frat).
I was in a frat with Kevin, and had a life changing spiritual experience there. I went to Samford a nominal, cultural Baptist but because there were a lot of great Christian guys in that frat, our blogger included, I joined their ranks and gave my heart to the Lord. I think Christian frats are a great idea, but I don’t think I would have joined one… there were already plenty of campus Christian groups and I was interested in something else. And I’m also glad there were some real Christians living out their faith in the frat house where I lived.
As far as the problem with Christian frats and sororities discriminating (mentioned above by Ben)… they all discriminate. Some only take the very rich, others only want jocks, some are for pot-heads, some sororities emphasize bleach blonde hair, others go for the GPA. But every single one discriminates, so why would that be a big deal?