The Persecution of Christians on Campus

[Editor’s Note: “The point of peak persecution on American soil is the University” – John Ferrer. This article from Christian Apologetics professor and high school Bible teacher, Steve Lee has been his passion project spanning most of his teaching career at the high school and college level. Over the past 14 years, this list of anti-Christian incidents has steadily grown with the most recent example being perhaps the most significant religious and political assassination in this generation: Charlie Kirk’s shooting at the Utah Valley University.

Readers should note that this list is not exhaustive. There are many more examples beyond this list. Also, these persecution events on U.S. college campuses is not intended for petty games of comparison, as if our persecution is more important than someone else’s. No, this is just an attempt to be honest about the kind of environment that young people are going into when they go to college. If the last 5 years have taught us anything about Campus life, it’s that college can be a slaughterhouse for immature, half-hearted, and shallow ‘Christians.’ And even for mature, and motivated young Christians, or even professors and administrators, sometimes administration and oppressive policies can still do a lot of spiritual damage. A major motivation for teaching apologetics is to prevent that from happened by raising up smart, savvy, committed Christians who can stand against oppressive speech policies, restrictive event policies, or even over anti-Christian behavior.

There are still tons of solid Christian clubs, local churches, and even some Christian professors who can help students make it through the gauntlet of university life. But, the point is that persecution is real, and Christian students have a better chance of standing up straight if they can brace for impact]

Being a professional student and spending over fourteen years in undergraduate and graduate education and another seven years as a professor at the collegiate level, it is disappointing to see the anti-Christian bias that is found on the college campus today. Instances have ranged from prohibiting Christian clubs from requiring their leaders (not members), their leaders to be Christian, to being shouted down in class for endorsing Christian views (and of late, being shot for discussing one’s Christian convictions). The rise of anti-Christian bias on campus is evident. Granted, many of the instances listed here are in no way comparable to what Christians are facing around the world, but an indicator of the rise of this attitude was found in a 2007 study by the Institute for Jewish and Community Research concerning anti-Semitism on-campus. Rather than finding anti-Semitism, the Institute discovered that 53% of college professors admitted to “unfavorable” feelings about evangelical Christians. No other religious group (including Muslims) was even close to this number.

Below are some instances of these “unfavorable” feelings about Christians on college and university campuses today:

See the 96 Examples of Christian Persecution
on US Colleges and University Campuses
Page 1 – #87-96
Page 2 – #1-85

Recommended Resources:

If God, Why Evil? (DVD Set), (MP3 Set), and (mp4 Download Set) by Frank Turek

Why Doesn’t God Intervene More? (DVD Set), (MP3 Set), and (mp4 Download Set) by Frank Turek

Why does God allow Bad Things to Happen to Good People? (DVD) and (mp4 Download) by Frank Turek

Relief From the Worst Pain You’ll Ever Experience (DVD) (MP3) (Mp4 Download) by Gary Habermas

J. Steve Lee has taught Apologetics for over two and a half decades at Prestonwood Christian Academy. He also has taught World Religions and Philosophy at Mountain View College in Dallas and Collin College in Plano. With a degree in history and education from the University of North Texas, Steve continued his formal studies at Southwestern Baptist Theological Seminary with a M.A. in philosophy of religion and has pursued doctoral studies at the University of Texas at Dallas and is finishing his dissertation at South African Theological Seminary. He has published several articles for the Apologetics Study Bible for Students as well as articles and book reviews in various periodicals including Philosophia Christi, Hope’s Reason: A Journal of Apologetics, and the Areopagus Journal. Having an abiding love for fantasy fiction, Steve has contributed chapters to two books on literary criticism of Harry Potter: Harry Potter for Nerds and Teaching with Harry Potter. He even appeared as a guest on the podcast MuggleNet Academia (“Lesson 23: There and Back Again-Chiasmus, Alchemy, and Ring Composition in Harry Potter”). He is married to his lovely wife, Angela, and has two grown boys, Ethan and Josh.