Posted on 11/15/2013 6:19:18 AM PST by Gamecock
ORLANDO — In an effort to broaden their international appeal, Campus Crusade for Christ, the venerable evangelism organization founded by Bill and Vonette Bright 52 years ago, has changed its name to Campus Jihad for Christ.
“When the ministry started in 1951, ‘crusade’ was a bold, evocative word,” says Campus Jihad spokesman Tony Ulkes. “Now it has negative overtones and kind of a fifteenth-century ring to it, particularly in Europe and the Middle East, where we’re expanding. But ‘jihad’ is considered by young people to be new and fresh, and it means virtually the same thing as ‘crusade’. So we’re changing with the times.”
But some observers call the change a sure way to alienate their core constituency.
“This is a grave miscalculation,” says church history professor Timothy Wilds of the University of Florida, Miami. “I’m not sure they’ll win any more converts, and it’s quite possible they’ll anger a lot of long-time supporters.”
The impetus for the change came as the ministry found it increasingly difficult to set up debates with Muslim groups on university campuses because of the ‘crusade’ moniker. And students recently introduced to the ministry often assumed it was started after September 11, 2001, in response to terrorism.
The name changes will flow down the employee chart. Campus ministers will now be called campus mujahideen, or holy warriors. Regional directors will be known as fedayeen Christ. Fedayeen means “one who sacrifices himself for a cause” in Arabic.
“With no disrespect meant to Mohammed, we’d like students to join the true jihad — the jihad of Christ,” says Ulkes.
The change will also solve a small but consistent problem: the inevitable handful of students who joined the group thinking it was the Society for Creative Anachronism, a medievalist group which holds fairs and festivals in the spirit of Olde England.
“We’re all happy to be rid of the ‘crusade’ label,” says Ulkes. “This is a new day for us.” •
Works for me! Very relevant.
You know, I may have to incorporate that site’s feed on my RSS reader.
Forgot the “sarcasm” tag....
Lark is doing a smear against Christians and it is not funny.
FWIW I have really enjoyed your "Eye of the Tiber" threads. They're hilarious - please resume posting them!
Agreed.
Win them for who, exactly? You'll find that truth is sometimes stranger than fiction. These are real news stories from 2011:
Campus Crusade for Christ to remove offensive word from organization’s name
Campus Ministry Drops 'Christ' From Name
I think what they are doing is throwing political correctness back into the faces of those who demand it. The quotes from the organization were, to me anyways, dripping with sarcasm. They are using the absurd to demonstrate the absurd.
Win them to Christ, that's who. I don't care what an organization calls itself, that is what Christians are supposed to do.
Smearing Christians with Jihad is a preparation for persecuting Christians - plain and simple.
The muzzies don't like to have their faces rubbed in the fact that the crusades kicked their butts out of all the European territories they had "jihaded" their way into.
I see, so you are smearing Christians by using the website. Very clever.
Actually, it’s hilariously funny.
If you want to defend that behavior, go right ahead.
bad move.
It's about as funny as telling a Muslem that Mohammed was not a prophet.
It's about as funny as telling a Muslim that Mohammed was not a prophet.
Now I see the satire keyword.
I’m sorry; I wasn’t aware that American satire was subject to Muslim censorship.
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