Editorial: No gold stars here

I recently had the privilege of representing Redeemer and The Crown at the 73rd annual Canadian University Press conference (affectionately called NASH73), in Montreal, Quebec. While there, I discovered one important aspect about myself: I have forgotten what it is like to live as a Christian in the secular world.

Growing up in a secular institution, I thought I had ‘be a light unto the world’ entirely figured out. After all, I didn’t swear, drink, smoke, or sleep around. I volunteered at a soup kitchen, went on short-term mission trips every year, brought friends to youth group. I worked in a very morally challenging job at the local Burger King and discussed my faith often and openly with co-workers. So, I looked upon my four years at Redeemer as a break from the secular community I had grown up in. I viewed it as a chance to learn theology, be a part of a Christian community, and really develop my relationship with God. I grew up as the kid in Sunday School and Catechism who didn’t know all the answers or the words to the Apostles’ Creed or the melodies to the hymns (because I didn’t have Bible classes or Chapel in my school). Since I thought I already had the gold star for serving my neighbours, coming to Redeemer seemed like a good chance to distance myself from secular culture in an effort to know my God more fully.

In Montreal, I met hundreds of other students from university newspapers all across Canada. While the speakers and sessions were interesting, and creating a network of contacts may turn out to be occupationally rewarding, I was most struck by the culture shock I experienced stepping back into a secular-based institution. Our welcome packages included condoms, and opening orientation included a list of places within the hotel where engaging in sexual promiscuity was discouraged. Each evening there was a social event at a bar, pub, or club, that CUP had booked for the conference members. Consequently, attendance to sessions and keynote speakers were not mandatory and many members stumbled into breakfast hungover or did not come at all. I was surprised to see that the predominant reason for many of the young journalists to attend NASH73 was to get themselves drunk and then to hook up with another member of the conference. It was all the better if they could charm their way into a job. I found myself struggling to re-enter a world I had once lived in, but had become incognizant of and indifferent towards.

I am going to be entirely honest with you. We, the members of this blessed community, take Redeemer for granted. We live in a campus which is largely isolated from the rest of the greater Ancaster and Hamilton communities. Unless we have the CBC News as our internet homepage, or read the Hamilton Spectator, Globe and Mail, or Toronto Star as “religiously” as we read our Bibles, we have little to no knowledge of the outside world beyond our daily ‘Time Out.’ Be honest with me: were you aware that another earthquake rocked through Pakistan early this week, or that the former Haitian president is facing Corruption (among other) charges? If you did, I give you props. You can see beyond our campus welcome sign. If you did not, you are like me - unaware and regrettably indifferent towards that fact.

Do not misinterpret what I am saying. I am not saying that the infamous bubble of Redeemer is a terrible thing. Much of the time, our ignorance is our own folly. The life of the University student is demanding and, frankly, attending classes, writing papers, and hanging out with friends supersedes our interest in the rest of the world. In fact, I commend our ability to engage ourselves in activities that do not need to involve getting hammered and laid. We are blessed with friends and professors who hold us accountable to keeping the commands Jesus gives when he calls us to abstain from the practices of the secular world. But do we?

Do we give up our own selfish ambitions to do what God has called us to do? Do we love Him - with all our hearts, souls, minds, and strengths - collectively as His church? Do we love our neighbours as we love ourselves? Do we look past Redeemer’s culture and see the faces of the many people finding relief in their ‘worldliness’? I can’t answer for you, but this trip to Montreal proved to me that I certainly do not. I may have sufficiently represented Redeemer and The Crown at NASH, but I’m sure I did not do a very good job representing Christ. It’s a good thing that God’s grace isn’t based off of gold stars.

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