I have attended the same southern Baptist church for as long as I can remember. I accepted Christ as my personal lord and savior in the sixth grade. Ever since then, my faith as a Christian has been one of the biggest parts of my life. I had no idea how hard being a Christian at a liberal university would be. There were many instances where I felt like I was the only one in a group who had a relationship with Christ. There were many times where I felt like I couldn’t share my opinions because they were based on my faith, and I didn’t know how that would be received by the people I was talking to.
College presents many challenges throughout each year for everyone. Most difficulties, though, are very similar for everyone. Every person that I know had to adjust to living on his or her own and to figure out how to manage his or her time. Each student had to change how he or she learned and studied from high school to college. But for me, when it came to the struggles I was facing that related to my faith, I did not feel like they were common struggles. I often felt like I could not go to the people who were closest to me for support, because they did understand. I had to make a conscious effort to seek out people whom I knew had similar beliefs. I had to look for campus groups who could connect me to people who were dealing with similar struggles.
I also often felt like I couldn’t truly be open and honest about my faith. There were many times when the overwhelming majority of the group I was in voiced opinions that directly conflicted with my beliefs as a Christian. I lived with the fear that if I shared my faith in Christ with people, that they would immediately believe that I was judgmental and trying to beat the Bible into them. So instead of rocking the boat and possibly alienating most of my friends, I often kept silent when important issues where being discussed. I felt like my voice and opinion would be invalidated by others because they had negative opinions of Christians.
On such a liberal campus, where inclusion and diversity was the main focus, I felt like that applied to every group except Christians. I have heard many students make derogatory comments about Christians and the things that they believe. When did it become OK to respect the fact that everyone has different beliefs and views unless they’re Christian? I’m not saying every student on my campus acts this way, because that would be untrue. I knew other Christian students, and I knew students who aren't Christian and still respect us and our beliefs.
It was hard being on campus and feeling confident in my identity as a child of God. These challenges did eventually benefit me. I grew stronger in my faith, because every time that I did speak about my faith, I learned how to express what I believe. I was forced to look internally and truly examine why I choose to believe in Christ and the Bible. Though the year at school ultimately didn’t cause a change in what I believe, it did give me a chance to look at things from other people’s points of view. Overall, this past year spent around people with different faiths strengthened my own faith in Christ.
