Herald forum: life at school

Question: What challenges your faith in your educational setting and how do you meet that challenge; and/or, what nurtures your faith?

Two sides of the same coin

Joe Wiebe

In any retrospective account of a faith experience it is hard, I think, to isolate what events were challenging as opposed to nurturing. Really, they simply name two sides of the same coin. Striving to be a faithful student in any educational institution is too complex a journey to boil down to a sentimental story of hardships overcome by pious reassurance. My four-year grind at the Canadian Mennonite University showed me that, if nothing else, there is no basic distinction between that which unsettles theological assumptions and that which edifies discipleship. Perhaps an example is needed.

I have never been interested in what is popular, be it music, fashion or movies. I have never wanted to be what society expected of me – productive, clean-cut, patriotic, wealthy, etc. I am a non-conformist à la Romans 12:2.

Or so I thought. I took a class called Postmodern Philosophy in my final year – when I thought I had it all together. But Michel Foucault’s (a non-Christian no less!) analysis of cultural internalization devastated me by showing I was unaware of my own conformity to our divisive and dominating culture. I was struck by how much the church participated in domination over others simply by accepting the norms of our social structures. As long as we support prisons, hospitals, asylums and schools we are literally buying into capitalism which divides people and forces them into the system, which maintains our current economic supremacy both locally and globally.

I was also being taught that Jesus broke down social barriers to create a new humanity that is a vulnerably open community and should not meld with one social structure. In Ephesians, Paul instructs the church to reject the ruling powers and instead be a witness by, following Foucault’s analysis, revealing that the meaning of history is not prosperity or the spread of democracy but rather to make one new humanity. The difference is between basing society on the domination of Western culture and the vulnerability of Jesus on the cross.

My devastation was coupled with a new picture of the mission of the church in our world that excited me. Even though the class I took destroyed my assumptions of my identity and faith, it showed me a new picture of what faithfulness should look like in our culture.

Joe Wiebe recently graduated with a Bachelor of Theology degree from Canadian Mennonite University. He attends Westwood Community Church, Winnipeg.

Pushed to strengthen faith

Hank Janzen

As an immigrant Mennonite child, born in Steinfeld, southern Ukraine, and arriving in Canada with my parents only in 1948, I would not have dreamed of the work I would eventually choose to do. I was raised on a farm in Chilliwack, B.C. and educated at the Mennonite Educational Institute and University of B.C. I recall how concerned my parents were when my brother John and I went to UBC. They worried that we would lose our faith at institutes of higher learning, where we would be forced to listen to professors opposed to the Christian faith.

Looking back, I see that my faith was challenged over and over again, not just at the universities I attended, but by interactions with people on a daily basis. The university life encouraged all of us to read, study and think. If these processes had any effect at all on me, it was to make me spend more time thinking, interacting and studying so as to strengthen my faith, not weaken it.

I learned that true knowledge, as 2 Peter 1:3–11 says, grows only if we “make every effort to supplement our faith.” Peter says we are to add to our faith such things as virtue, self-control, steadfastness, godliness and love. He lists “knowledge” as the second process to add to our faith. Given such a biblical directive, university life is in consort with growth in Christian faith.

Teaching and interacting with bright, young graduate students has challenged me to think and study God’s Word. Contrary to what some may think, we can be very open to talking about our faith in university settings. Some might worry that in psychology we would be misled by ideas espoused by humanistic writers or postmodernist theories. Indeed, these do challenge us to review the rational side to faith-growth. I am thankful for my family, the Lendrum church family, and Christian friends with whom I had many discussions and debates.

University careers likely offer more intellectual challenges than other settings. We need a loving environment, including in the church, that encourages questions and tolerates occasional disagreements. I have had the privilege of living in those accepting, caring and loving environments where challenges to my faith could be discussed. At the same time, the university setting allows me to spread and model my Christian faith without fear of reprisal. Such is the intellectual and social climate at the university today.

Hank Janzen has worked in the University of Alberta in Edmonton for over 30 years. He is Professor of Counselling and School Psychology in the Department of Educational Psychology and is currently director of the Faculty of Education Clinic, a clinic that provides counselling, testing and interventions services through graduate student clinicians. He attends Lendrum MB Church, Edmonton.

Acknowledging doubts

Shelley Barnes

While my formal studies (Honours Health) have not greatly stretched my faith, I was significantly challenged during one of my busiest school terms. I was serving as president of the Intervarsity Christian Fellowship chapter at the University of Waterloo, had interviews for a summer job, was busy with classes I didn’t always understand, and was adjusting to the absence of close friends who had gone away for co-op placements. I was emotionally and physically swamped, and my focus shifted away from God.

During that term, when I dropped time with God from my “schedule,” doubts started invading my mind. Why was I dedicating time to Waterloo Christian Fellowship? Who was I really talking to when I prayed? How could I be sure my lifelong beliefs were true?

Like a “good Christian,” I kept my struggles private, lest people think poorly of me. After all, I was a leader and people were looking up to me. I was unwilling to disappoint them by acknowledging my doubts.

The more I kept them in, though, the worse I felt. My bluff ended when I had to decide if I wanted to serve as president again. I wanted to say yes, but I refused to be a fraud. I felt that my faith was being fundamentally shaken and I didn’t understand why I was struggling with God so much.

Yet through all of this, I knew my prayers were being heard. I never doubted God’s existence. I finally broke down before Him and before my family and pleaded for their help. I read through the Gospels again and was given a beautiful picture of who Jesus is. I was reminded of the many “accidents” in my life that brought me where I was. It was impossible that God was not involved, or that He did not love me. I was struck with the image of Jesus in Gethsemane, and how much more He suffered compared to the hardest decisions I have had to make. His sacrifice was so much greater.

My faith has been steadily restored and refined as I continue to investigate Him, talk to Him, and share my ugly secrets with friends. God is faithful and patient. I know that well!

Shelley Barnes is a 5th year Health Studies student at the University of Waterloo, in the co-op program. She is taking a minor in biology with the hope of continuing on in genetics technology after graduation. She has been very involved with the Waterloo Christian Fellowship on campus.

The best case for faith

Jonathan Poh

I am convinced that so-called “higher education,” contrary to the opinions of many, has or can have in itself little negative effect on my faith and the faith of my peers.

This is not as deviant or radical as it sounds. The one concept that has been constantly perpetuated by the professors, mentors and older students I have encountered has been this: the post-secondary academic world is simply a system of arguments.

Arguments whiz through the air like gunfire; every paper, presentation, newspaper article, even an election notice posted by a student union, has the sole intent of transcending our possessed notions and influencing our thought processes for the future like water seeping into fractures and freezing into ice. Students should understand that when an instructor champions such things as evolutionary theory, he/she is simply presenting argument and not gospel. University is much like the legal world, where the best lawyers, the most vehement and persistent articulators of their cases, often dance upon Justice’s head and convince juries to release notorious criminals, contrary to the truth. I believe that students should seek the truth and not the most erudite argument.

This is not to say that Christianity is not held up by strong arguments or evidence. On the contrary, it is tragic that the world of apologetics, led by such noteworthy backers of the faith as Lee Strobel, has not been explored by students as much as the works of people like Darwin.

That being said, perhaps the greatest challenges to our faith do not lie in sterilized intellectual worlds. Non-believers are most affected by what they can see and what they usually see in Christianity is this: hypocrisy, legalism, petty feuding between brothers and sisters. Those of us with faith have a responsibility to reverse these things, to show that nothing any so-called “believer” does can have any effect on the truth of the perfect Christ; that the church is the body of God on earth; that it is a place to worship, fellowship and learn, not a place to be judged or condemned; that Christianity is not a list of rules but is about salvation and reaching out to the Creator for a fulfilling relationship with Him. That’s how the best case for faith will be made.

Jonathan Poh attends Simon Fraser University. He attends Port Moody Pacific Grace MB Church, where he serves on the committee of the college and career fellowship group.

Preparing for ambassadorship

Troy Janzen

As a professor of psychology at a private Christian liberal arts university I find myself facing the challenge of exploring how faith and psychology can co-exist.

The root of the word psychology is the Greek word psuche, which literally means “soul.” Yet many within the faith have wondered if psychology has lost its soul. Certainly, one would be hard pressed to find many within psychology who have given serious consideration to how a Christian worldview can be meaningfully integrated into the profession. Psychology has been shaped by some very outspoken anti-religious theorists like Freud, Jung and Maslow. At the same time, some religious leaders have actively denounced psychology.

Given what may appear to be such animosity between faith and psychology, I have often been asked, “How do you integrate your faith into how you teach psychology?” One Scripture I have found helpful in answering this question is 2 Corinthians 5:14–21, where Paul describes how we are literally new creations and ambassadors of Christ.

It is this idea that helps strengthen me and helps me see that my task in preparing future Christian psychologists is to prepare them for their new ambassadorship. In order to be an ambassador you have to give up your rights. You never have a day off. You represent your country in all you say and do. Every action reflects on your king and country. You forfeit certain freedoms and take on extra responsibilities. An ambassador is watched at every turn and is never to be absorbed by the country where the embassy is located.

Now the challenge of my students is to know their citizenship well, to let the culture of God infuse their very being until they think, act and breathe the very nature of their citizenship. In my setting we strive for the integration of our new worldview in Christ with our learning. We need not exclude what the secular world would teach, but teach it from the perspective of a new creation.

Troy Janzen is Professor of Psychology at Taylor University College in Edmonton. He attends Lendrum MB Church, Edmonton.