WILLIAMSBURG, Va. — During last spring’s semester, students in the Baptist collegiate ministries at the College of William & Mary decided to creatively take the spiritual pulse of the campus.
They led several campus ministries in an outreach emphasis known as “Love/Hate.” Attempted at several campuses in the United States in recent years, it gets its inspiration from the confession booth in Donald Miller’s Blue Like Jazz. Basically, participants attempt to draw the campus into honest dialogue about various topics, mostly religious — what do you love or hate about friends, Jesus, Christians, God, W&M, dating, church, etc?
Rachel Asbury, a Baptist collegiate ministry student at the College of William & Mary, speaks at the concert which concluded the the BCM’s “Love/Hate” project on campus.
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Parents and others often thank Virgina Baptist representatives on campuses like William & Mary. Often such comments are said with a sense of anxiety about the overwhelming marketplace of ideas that exists on campuses today. Do the teachings of Christ thrive in this environment, or do they get discredited as historically untrue or irrelevant?
The “Love/Hate” project helped to answer that question.
The words “Love/Hate” were advertised for a week using hundreds of fliers in classrooms, dorms and kiosks. Then easels were placed on campus for two days with the questions, leaving space for opinions. Blogs and Facebook were also used to ask these questions. Finally, after gathering to read the opinions, participants prayerfully wrote out responses to many of the opinions, confessing sin and agreement where necessary.
Baptist students assumed they would get opinions about the hypocritical places the church and Christians have found themselves during the last two millennia. Here are some of the opinions they heard:
• “I hate how Christians impose their beliefs on others.”
• “Churches are more interested in accumulating members.”
• “I hate Jesus because people use him to justify discrimination and unequal rights.”
• “I hate religion because it causes war.”
• “I hate that they think I need to be saved.”
After gathering to pray and write responses, participants wore t-shirts with “Love/Hate” on them for three days. The Baptist students were stunned to find the t-shirt phase did not elicit as many conversations as we hoped.
A final response concert was held March 30 near the sunken gardens on campus. Easels again display confessional responses. What was really interesting was the reaction of students present at this incredibly disarming concert. In between songs, Love/Hate participants would approach the microphone and read confessional responses. Christian students confessing things like judgmental attitudes, the Crusades and slavery while still proclaiming the good news of Christ’s crucifixion was powerful.
At first, this just did not seem to make sense to the many students milling around reading easels, listening to the bands for a few minutes, and then contemplating these grippingly honest responses. But soon students were lingering a little longer than planned. The honesty — and hopefully the gospel — was alluring.
It is hard to gauge the effectiveness of the campaign. There is a greater desire for unity among campus ministries. There are many students on campus that believe the “Love/Haters” are sensitive yet passionate about their beliefs. Subsequently, having 40 Baptist collegiate ministry students leading the campaign and willing to wear a t-shirt demonstrating such passion should cause Virginia Baptists to rejoice and be proud.
Jeffrey Buffkin has been Baptist campus minister at the College of William & Mary since 2007.