'Trauma and ostracization': Students 'call in' Christian groups for discrimination

[mahatmakanejeeves]

8/16/2020, 8:47PM
'Trauma and ostracization': Students 'call in' Christian groups for discrimination
“We believe that our faith spaces can hold all of us: our doubts, our identities, our questions,” Zach Ripberger said.

BY KYLE INGRAM

When Zach Ripberger started college, he hoped to find fellowship through his faith. Instead, he ended up leaving campus ministry after encountering an environment that ignited an intense internal struggle between his faith and his sexuality.

Now, inspired by Ripberger’s story, students are sharing their experiences of discrimination in campus ministry groups across campus. The new Instagram page “Call in Campus Ministry” has shared anonymous stories from students calling out both casual and explicit discrimination in UNC chapters of organizations such as Young Life and Cru.

‘My whole identity was not accepted or even affirmed in that space’

An active member of his high school’s Young Life, Ripberger decided to join the Durham-Chapel Hill chapter when he came to college. Though the organization was not officially affiliated with UNC, Ripberger found many fellow students in the organization and started to build a strong friend group.

The organization asked a lot of him, though. After being pressured to become a leader, Ripberger was expected to travel to a local high school 30 minutes away, five times a week, to hold discussions with the students.

{snip}

[e-mail]

[hunter]

1. How is this still happening?

I hold these campus ministries responsible for some of the most terrible experiences of my life.

This was in the later 'seventies.

One of my friends killed himself.

My girlfriend's girlfriend, who I didn't really know then (but my overtly Christian roommate did), tried to kill herself in our bathtub.

[Mickju]

2. It seems that many (most) right wingers will never give up their prejudices.

And of course Trump is making it much worse.