Shh... no one's supposed to know!

Don't tell them that we made the new members clean it up, either...

"expanding Bible studies?" sure, that's fine, they're optional forums for sisters and brothers who are interested. "recruiting?" not okay. My faith is not the armed forces.

I agree that InterVarsity is an organization that definitely has the potential to be abused, as do all national faith-based organizations. One campus could have a policy of holding events for members and people who are interested and attracting people just based on their values and actions as a group while another can decide they need to do the "hard-sell" and manipulate or guilt-trip students. Sure, sharing your faith is part of the Gospel, but let Christianity speak for itself. The person who best shares their faith is the person who doesn't even need to tell you they're Christian. They are so radically compassionate and principled, and their actions so embody the Gospel, that you want to ask what makes them different.

I think Bible studies are okay in a chapter, though, although I go to a Christian university so perhaps I don't understand how this can be problematic on more diverse campuses. For my chapter, the Bible study is something that maybe 5-10 members who are interested do on our time, and the only sorority-related thing about it is that we're members. There's no compulsion to go; we mention the meeting times once a semester for any new members, and that's it. I'm sure if someone wanted to start a different faith-based group in our chapter, it would be similar.

InterVarsity depends on the people on the campus. There are InterVarsity chapters on some religiously and spiritually diverse campuses that will send out an email but not force the issue on those who don't want to attend the programs. That's how it should be.

This^. It was incredibly demeaning and obnoxious. This is the kind of stuff that turns people off. They're doing themselves a disservice by talking about "rubbing shoulders with the sinners".

I was an InterVarsity leader and I'm sorry that you had that experience, but it is the absolute opposite of my experience on my campus or any of the campuses I worked with. And you never have to be recruited to anything- if you're invited to an event you can simply decline as with anything else you're invited to.

I always find it odd when people tell others to "keep their faith out of xyz". It's essentially telling them to keep themselves out of it, like saying "Keep your culture out of the chapter" or "Keep your background out of the chapter". Why is faith any less legitimate a part of who someone is?

They didn't say it, though, the Times did. I definitely wouldn't read this as a direct quote.

No one is telling people not to believe in what they want. Your faith should be just that -- YOUR faith. It's not the chapter's.

It depends on the dynamics of the chapter. Chapters know when they are religiously diverse and can alienate members whose religions are being silenced. But, most chapters of most GLOs aren't religiously diverse (nor are most diverse based on race and ethnicity, culture, social class, and other ascribed and attained statuses).

Some colleges and universities have places of worship where people of all faiths can worship. The emphasis is on love and devotion for all faiths and silent worship/meditation. Chapters can do the same thing if they want to share religious experiences and faiths in a religiously diverse chapter.

Afterall, all Christians (for example) don't believe the same things and all denominations within Christianity don't believe the same thing. That's one reason why Interfaith and Interdenominational places of worship were created.

No, but we're not talking about giving sermons in chapter meetings here. If you're friends with someone you're going to end up mentioning things you think are important with them, and possibly inviting them to share those things with you.

There are chapters that share religious texts as "daily words" instead of doing more generic inspirational words at chapter meetings. That is fine if the chapter that operates that way also allows members of different religions to share their religious texts as "daily words."

That can be done on your own time. The article made it seem as if this group is on a crusade to convert all non-believers and recruit the "right type" of GLO member.

It is done on Greek IV members' own time. Nothing has been mentioned about chapter business time. And pretty much all churches and Christian groups want to convert non-believers, whether they make it obvious or not. I think it is often people's negative experiences with religion that cause them to be offended by someone's invitation rather than the inivitation itself. I've had people invite me to plenty of things I didn't believe in and simply declined. There was no need to think they were doing something awful to me.

The problem is that the way the article is written, these young men and women purposely joined GLOs in order to try to save the existing members. I have a hard time believing that they intended for it to sound that way and I think this is probably a good example of why we are always told not to speak to the media. You never know how your quotes will be used... or misused.

I'm glad I'm not the only one who thought that was a craptastic article by the NY Times.

There's a difference, though, between keeping your faith out of XYZ and pressuring (or seeming to pressure; remember part of communication is the recipient) someone else to share that faith.