In a Newsweek cover story, a Stanford University professor remarks on the large numbers who attend campus prayer meetings today. But, he says, “it was very rare 20 years ago to find a vital, vibrant religion on the college campus.”
Whoa! cries CT senior writer Tim Stafford, who graduated from Stanford just 20 years ago this year. “That was in the midst of the whole Jesus movement revival on our campus.”
When Tim entered Stanford in ‘68 to study English and creative writing, Christians felt like an oppressed minority. But by the time he collected his sheepskin in ‘72, there had come “a flowering of faith. It was an exciting period to be there!”
Tim agrees, however, with Newsweek’s Stanford source on the situation today. Newsweek reports prayer meetings of up to 500 students. And that is what Tim found on a recent visit to his alma mater. “A number of vital Christian groups have continued there through the years,” he says.
Tim was impressed with the Christian students he met: “The kids who are in these groups are more intensely involved than kids at Christian campuses. It’s only natural when you have several hundred Christians meeting by choice.”
The purpose of Tim’s homecoming was to see how Christian students are faring in an atmosphere of multiculturalism and political correctness. Stanford sparked tempers several years ago when it pioneered multicultural curricula. Of course, that meant some cherished Dead White European Males were no longer required reading; and so the controversy flared.
Tim’s report begins on page 14.
DAVID NEFF, Managing Editor
Cover photograph by Neil Hanshaw.
