I too was troubled, when the Campus Crusade for Christ changed their name. What was the point? Why minimize what your mission is? The old name described perfectly their goals, namely, going to college campuses and urging students to accept Christ.
There ae exceptions. I stand--- I hope --- with the exceptions.
The new name for the organization is ‘CRU’. I have been to their website and Wikipedia and I still don’t know what CRU stands for. If it is an acronym, what are the words? If it is a cool short slang for ‘crusade’, that is beyond horrid.
This is so sad. While I was at the Pentagon, I attended a weekly Bible study run by CCC. Heaven only knows what they study now, if ‘CRU’ is even still onsite.
I used to be a supporter (money) of Campus Crusade for Christ. Then I kept hearing how they were becoming more and more liberal. And changed their name. Waste of my money.
So their new name is just “Campus for”?
Let’s face it. There are a lot of Christians out there who vote Democrat that would rather not be reminded that they are on the wrong side (not God’s side) of any number of political issues according to the bible.
That's when I realized that I was being fooled. There was no religion course and no survey. This was just a ploy to get me talking and to enable them to make their pitch. And they were very good, very friendly and likable. I suspect they were well-trained and carefully selected. And they knew that a student union catering mostly to freshmen was a good place try to recruit, being filled with people away from home for the first time and feeling lonely and friendless. My reaction was to get very angry. At myself, of course, for falling for it for so long. But also at them, for using a lie, the phony survey, to try to bring me to what they considered to be the Truth. A few weeks later another pair, this time a man and a woman, approached me at the same spot to take their survey. I rather rudely told them to get lost.
“”It’s become a flash word for a lot of people. It harkens back to other periods of time and has a negative connotation for lots of people across the world, especially in the Middle East,” said Steve Sellers, the CCCI vice president and U.S. national director who is leading the name change project. “In the ‘50s, crusade was the evangelistic term in the United States. Over time, different words take on different meanings to different groups.”...
... Founder Bill Bright always assumed it would become broader than its “campus” ministries at colleges and universities...
...In 2002, evangelist Billy Graham began using the word “mission” to describe what he always called “crusades.”...CCCI leaders have discussed changing the name over the years simply because the word campus was limiting, said John Turner, author of Bill Bright and Campus Crusade for Christ.”
http://www.christianitytoday.com/ct/2011/julyweb-only/campus-crusade-name-change.html?start=2
As for the speech - I wasn’t there. Without a transcript or recording, I have no way of knowing HOW things were presented. It could have been firmly with love, or aggressively with vitriol. Since I have no way of knowing, I don’t plan on getting upset.
I LOVE Mike Adams’ columns and I HATE what the abortion mills are doing to our culture. But I’ve gotta interject and say that I disagree with him on this column.
Mike expresses a number of complaints about Cru:
1) He’s upset that they changed their name from Campus Crusade for Christ.
2) He’s frustrated that Cru doesn’t publish a position on specifically abortion.
3) He’s angry that friend speaking on abortion was interrupted in a message he was delivering.
I suspect item #3 prompted him to vent on #1 & #2.
I’m a big believer that we Christ followers are under attack in a spiritual war against Satan. Unfortunately I think that Mike’s well intended attack on this truly outstanding organization is doing damage that favors the wrong side. There’s evidence from comments on this Freeper forum that this column has damaged their reputation. Mike needs to reread 1 Peter 3:15 (look it up or see below).
Cru, formally known as Campus Crusade for Christ is an outstanding “parachurch” organization meaning that they are “Christian faith-based organizations that work outside of and across denominations to engage in social welfare and evangelism, usually independent of church oversight.” (from Bablyon dictionary). Their mission: “Cru is a caring community passionate about connecting people to Jesus Christ.” Their doctrine is rock solid (check it out at http://www.cru.org/about/statement-of-faith.html )
I don’t know why Cru doesn’t put out public statements directly dealing with abortion. Perhaps they feel that doing so gives the enemy an easy way to create attacks (via blogs, advertisements, leaflets on campus, etc) that will put up barriers to reaching the very souls that Cru is targeting. But creating the strategy on how Cru should “connect people to Jesus Christ” is up to them. If Cru thinks that coming out strong against abortion on their website and in their all campus meetings loses more souls than it saves then that’s their issue, not Mike’s. But this doesn’t mean that they’re not dealing with the issue. I have personally been asked by Cru members to pray for those in the trenches on campus dealing with specific cases for college girls considering abortion.
As for my first hand experience with Cru — my son went to UIUC. Despite a Christian upbringing he was not an authentic Christ follower. Long story short, our family went some very dark times but God chose to use Cru as His tool to reach him. During his senior year he became a small group leader for Cru & is totally on fire for Christ. My daughter is at the same school now and Cru is essential to her keeping her walking with Christ. You can watch both of their testimonials along with those of well over 100 other students here:
http://www.youtube.com/user/my2words
Obviously I can’t speak for Cru at other campuses but I know first-hand that they are doing God’s work and they’re doing it extremely well.
BTW - I’m VERY anti-PC. Political Correctness is a tool of Satan. I graduated from Illinois in Champaign and I grieve the loss of Chief Illinwek. I’d much prefer the name Campus Crusade for Christ over Cru especially given the Islam attack on western civilization. But, oh well, what’s the best approach for God’s war? To focus on hearts & souls for Christ and to not be distracted by petty arguments.
“But in your hearts set apart Christ as Lord. Always be prepared to give an answer to everyone who asks you to give the reason for the hope that you have. But do this with gentleness and respect,” 1 Peter 3:15
Its stupid to soft-pedal the abortion issue. Granted that your target audience of unsaved people probably favor it, and your unsaved target audience isn’t going to agree with you politically. So, no, you don’t want to get into the political weeds.
But everyone understands that abortion is a moral issue. Even people who want it legal on more-or-less libertarian grounds will understand that it is still, at a personal level, a moral and spiritual issue. So you can’t back away from it.
People who have had abortions already know what they’ve done is a morally heavy thing, and they need the healing that only Christ can bring. You can’t help them if you won’t address it.
New Christians may not immediately abandon the pro-abortion Democratic Party, but thats not your problem. Your problem is to preach Christ and let the chips fall. Over time their renewed spirits will work through the politics of it and that may or may not lead them to a morally-compromised Republican Party, but we weren’t called as Christians to turn them into Republicans. But we also weren’t called to be silent on the moral issues that are wrecking peoples’ lives.
As an aside, the modern GOP is almost as morally compromised and spiritually lost as their DNC rivals. It is also very much a mission field.
Sadly Campus crusade was part of the movement to the “New” version of churches and Christianity. They placed most emphasis on quick (Unreal) conversions and Churning numbers. They had little time for teaching the basic everyday love for one another as taught in the bible. A truly higher command.
They have simply taken the next step now. To even deny Christ.
They have done a lot of damage.